Into the 21st Century
2001
So much has happened since we last wrote, where the heck do we start? Maybe where we left off? So far, the movie hasn’t been made yet (Hollywood was a little too slick and tricky for us Hooters yokels. You know the old saying, “folks are dumb where we come from?” Well, we actually believed what they told us! Duh!) and the radio show is still a bust (so to speak) but still kicking butt in its time slot, and many other positive things have happened along the way.
Probably because the food is good.
2002
It’s 2002, and do you know where your Hooters are now? Well, not all with the Hooters Six anymore, who, in a gesture to further global harmony, sold their trademark to Bob Brooks, who promised the boys that he would treat the ‘mark well and take Hooters to the moon. So far, HOA has treated the mark well and we hope to see the first Hooters on the moon in the next few years. Or, not.
And they serve really good food.
Under the heading of “famous alumni,” (where is that heading, by the way?) one-time Hooters oyster shucker, Jon Gruden, became head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, prompting Hooters to publicly guarantee him that he could get his old job back if “the football thing doesn’t work out.” Droste, a good friend of Gruden’s, schmoozed hard to be able to use Jon’s photo in future advertising, to no avail.
2003
HOA took Hooters to the sky when Hooters Air marked its inaugural flight on March 6, 2003. Its wings were recently clipped in the face of rising gas and insurance costs, but, who knows, maybe
someday we might have a Hooters rocket in space! Hooters Girl Astronauts?!?!? Why not? They’ve been called Rocket Scientists for years.
To Iraq, I ran. In May of 2003, Hooters hit the road with the Operation: Let Freedom Wing Tour, hosted by Armed Forces Entertainment, to entertain the troops in the ‘stans; Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Qatar. Hey, what’s that Qatar doing in here? Hooters Calendar Girls and UC3, a popular Hooters-sponsored singing girls’ group from the Tampa Bay area of Florida, flew with several HOA top guns and endured temperatures exceeding 112 degrees during their 16 day stay. The tour featured a 90 minute variety show packed with music and humor. UC3 performed selections from their debut CD as well as classic patriotic and "torch" songs such as the National Anthem, the 4 Service Anthems, and Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.
The show ended with a bang when UC3 sang "Anywhere USA" accompanied by 6 flag waving Hooters Calendar Girls sporting Hooters latest Military appreciation uniform, featuring camouflage patterned shorts and a tank top with the line "Weapons of Mass Distraction" on the back. The show, which was designed to resemble the classic Bob Hope USO tours, was described by many troops as the most fun and best attended morale show in years. Hooters of America Vice President of Marketing, Mike McNeil, who acted as the show's MC, said, "It is an honor for the Hooters concept to be able to support the men and women in the service of our country. I was absolutely blown away at the positive reaction we received. I can't imagine playing to a more appreciative audience."
During the tour, the Hooters Group distributed 2,000 Calendars; 20,000 Let Freedom Wing Lapel Pins; 10,000 posters and 10,000 decks of special Hooters Calendar playing cards featuring 2 special
"Jokers" Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. The 7 shows were attended by over 15,000 troops and UC3 and the 6 Calendar Girls figure they signed over 100,000 autographs on the special tour merchandise.
Plans are already underway for a follow up tour. "We will definitely be ready to go again soon. There are a lot of troops we did not get a chance to see this time. Based on the considerable requests we received, we will have to figure out a way to take Hooters chicken wings, as well as the girls next time," stated Mike McNeil.
