A curator of McDonald's history and savior and owner of a Route 66 ghost town, the late Albert Okura leaves a shining roadside legacy

The founder of the Juan Pollo chicken chain was a passionate roadside Americana preservationist.

Albert Okura was a passionate advocate for Route 66 and its history. (Photo courtesy: Julie K.C. Kim)

One of the good guys along the great American road has died. Good guy doesn't quite cut it. Hero is more like it.

I never had the honor of meeting Albert Okura, but people who love roadside Americana, who are preservationists at heart, who are sweet on fast-food lore, owe Mr. Okura a debt of gratitude. If you’re reading this, that probably includes you.

Ever been to the ghost town of Amboy, California, a Route 66 icon along with its recently restored sign for Roy's Motel and Cafe? Mr. Okura BOUGHT this little desert town in 2005 for $425,000. He wasn't trying to exploit the land, or build a profitable development there. He was simply trying to preserve a special place along the American road, a place for which he saw a bright future as interest in the Mother Road grew. He had the means to do it, and so he did it.

Okura had the means because of his great entrepreneurial knack in the restaurant business.

The legacy of Albert Okura includes his work preserving the Route 66 town of Amboy, which he purchased in 2005. (Photos: Rolando Pujol/2018)

His own hero was Ray Kroc, the longtime CEO of McDonald's who turned an innovative and successful San Bernardino hamburger stand built by the brothers Dick and Maurice McDonald into the global behemoth it is today.

That first McDonald's was where Kroc, hawking Multimix milkshake machines, met the brothers and immediately bought into their business in the early 1950s. Okura took a page from Kroc's manual of entrepreneurship and built up his own restaurant success story -- the Juan Pollo rotisserie chicken chain, after working in the fast-food business for years. The first Juan Pollo opened in 1984 — there are now 26 in Southern California. Okura envisioned a chain that would spread far beyond its Inland Empire base, detailed in his autobiography, “Albert Okura The Chicken Man: With a 50 Year Plan.”

He funneled some of his wealth into buying the site of that original McDonald's in 1998 and turned it into an unofficial museum for the Golden Arches, which I had the pleasure of visiting in 2013, just off Okura’s beloved Route 66. His collection of McDonald's memorabilia is astonishing, and it’s one of the great gifts with which Mr. Okura leaves us. Much of the collection comes from former McDonald’s employees who were smitten with Okura’s enthusiasm for their employer. Perhaps they saw a little of Kroc — or the brilliant brothers who created the Speedee Service System — in Okura.

Albert Okura's unofficial McDonald's museum is a bucket lister for the roadside enthusiasts. (Photos: Rolando Pujol/2013)

It should come as no surprise that Juan Pollo’s headquarters are located on this property, in the same building once used by the McDonald’s brothers. (The original restaurant, though, is long gone.)

Back in 2016, I tried to connect Mr. Okura (through Juan Pollo’s Instagam account) to a 1962-era single arch McDonald’s sign that was coming down in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I'm disappointed that this didn’t work out, because I can't think of a better place for it than his McDonald's museum. The sign is said to have entered a private collection in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The McDonald’s single-arch sign, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that I wish had ended up in Albert Okura’s collection in San Bernardino, California. (Rolando Pujol/2013)

Through these photos, you get a sense of Mr. Okura's contributions to preserving American roadside traditions, from the early days of fast food in the cradle of its birth in California, to a neon-bathed ghost town along Route 66. 

Mr. Okura died last week. He told Salon back in 2017:

“If it’s something you want, it’s true. Believe it.”

Okura may have been inspired by Kroc, but it’s hard not to be inspired by Okura.

Never miss an update. Please subscribe to my newsletter! You can also show your support for my efforts by becoming a paid subscriber, and help keep The Retrologist on the road. Thank you!