After 50 Years in Produce, Kenton Kidd Calling It a Career

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After 50 years in produce, Kenton Kidd calling it a career

March 29, 2005

FRESNO, CA " The term Renaissance man is frequently used to describe someone who has diverse talents and broad interests, and that is certainly an appropriate characterization of Kenton Kidd, who will retire April 1 from the California Apple Commission over which he has presided since its founding.

As everyone who knows him will attest, he?s a great storyteller with a seemingly inexhaustible repertoire. His story-telling ability is enhanced by his resonant baritone voice and by his ability to switch effortlessly from a flawless Jimmy Stewart impression to a cartoon character impression and then, turning to the piano, a Little Richard-style vocal-and-keyboard performance.

Born Nov. 6, 1939, in Shawnee, OK, Mr. Kidd got his first job in the grocery and produce business at age 15, working part time as a bag boy at Red Bud store in Oklahoma City. That was half a century ago, and since then his produce career has taken him from warehouse worker to wholesaler to retail buyer to packinghouse manager to commodity board executive. However, his career path nearly took a very different route.

If one lived in or around Oklahoma in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he or she probably knew who the Continentals were. Mr. Kidd and three other vocalists, plus a guitarist, were the core of the group, and they performed what today would be called classic rock. Back then it was just plain old rock "n roll, a musical genre that was just coming into its own, and the Continentals were good enough to be offered record contracts by Decca and Dot, two of the big labels of the era.

With a stroke of the pen, and one of the top managers in the business pushing them, they could have been on their way to national fame. It was tempting, but completing college was also important to them, and the five of them were attending three different schools. They decided they did not want to commit themselves to the required five-year contract.

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Mr. Kidd had been involved in music from a young age. He played the trombone in band and ensembles and sang in various choruses, choirs and quartets. He started his first rock "n roll group with some friends when he was 15.

?We?d sing at all the school functions and dances," he said. He was also involved in "all kinds of clubs and organizations." One year, he was class president. Another year, he said, he was president of seven different clubs at the same time.

Upon graduation from high school, he attended the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond where he again was involved in many organizations, musical and otherwise, served as class vice-president his sophomore year, and was recognized in the yearbook for excelling in the arts.

When Mr. Kidd and his friends formed the Continentals, "it was absolutely incredible, because we got a manager [Venita Cravens] who brought all of the big shows to Oklahoma City? and who promised them they would be on all the major shows.

The group?s first outfit consisted of white ruffled shirts with imitation diamond studs, red vests with rhinestones, red cummerbunds and black tuxedo pants. "For then, that was pretty cool," he said.

For several years, the Continentals were the star attraction at the convention center in Oklahoma City on New Year?s Eve. "We made a lot of money," he said, because the group would book four or five other parties earlier in the evening "and go from party to party? before winding up at "the big show at the convention center." For those shows, "we would bring in extra players " piano, bass, drums."

The Continentals warmed up the audience for many big-name stars such as the Four Preps, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, the Platters and Ricky Nelson.

?We did a road tour with Sonny James when "Young Love? was popular," he said.

?I never did a show with Elvis," said Mr. Kidd, who was an extra in the movie, "It Happened at the World?s Fair." Mr. Kidd also got a chance to sing with the Four Preps on one show. Afterwards, "they came out to the house, and we got to be friends."

At one Chuck Berry concert, just as the Continentals were about to go on stage, their guitar broke. "Chuck Berry said, "Here, take mine," " Mr. Kidd said. "Our guitarist was thrilled." While the Continentals performed, Mr. Berry "took out his tool kit, took [the guitar] apart and fixed it," he said.

Perhaps the pinnacle for the Continentals came at a performance for the Future Homemakers of America annual convention at which Roger Williams was headlining. Mr. Williams? "Autumn Leaves? was topping the charts at the time. The Continentals had second billing but were scheduled to start the show.

When the group finished its warm-up numbers, 12,000 11th-grade girls were "screaming and yelling," Mr. Kidd recalled.

Roger Williams then went on stage, sat down to his Steinway, and performed "Autumn Leaves? and "two or three other songs," and received polite applause. Backstage he told the Continentals, "They don?t want to hear me. They want you guys."

The Continentals went back on stage, performed a few more songs, Roger Williams did three more,

2 / 5 and then the Continentals finished the show.

Although celebrity beckoned, Mr. Kidd and his friends chose not to make rock "n roll their life.

While attending Central Oklahoma, Mr. Kidd had taken part-time work with Nash Finch Co., working in the office part of the time and typing phone-in contracts in the office for several hours each day. When he started the job, his typing speed was around 60 words a minute. Before he left that job it had doubled.

Working for Nash Finch, he said, "I got very interested in the produce business."

As graduation approached, Mr. Kidd got a call from the Nash Finch headquarters in Minneapolis inviting him to participate in the company?s management training program. He worked for the company for two years in Waterloo, IA, and was then transferred to California to work on the shipping side of the business with a subsidiary, Nash-de Camp in Visalia. That job gave him a variety of experience as he worked the fruit deal in the Central Valley, the potato deal in Bakersfield, the cantaloupe business in El Centro, the grape deal in the Coachella Valley and the wholesale market in Los Angeles.

Then he was made manager of the Loomis pear and plum packing facility, which involved "about 105 hours a week for the packing season," he said.

?After that, they said, "We?d like you to learn the apple business," and they transferred me to Yakima."

Next, he was made assistant manager of a division of Nash Finch in Rapid City, SD. Two years later, he transferred to St. Cloud, MN, as head of produce operations. "I was there four years. I worked with one of the vice presidents there," helping with the planning and opening of the company?s first box stores.

Nash Finch then sent Mr. Kidd to Lincoln, NE, where the company had just acquired H.P. Lou Co. Lou was a wholesale grocer but had never been in produce, and Mr. Kidd?s job was to open a produce operation.

?It was hard to bring [customers] over, because they had been dealing with [other produce suppliers] for years," Mr. Kidd said. "I didn?t have anything to give them other than darn good produce and a smile. I was in Lincoln about seven-and-a-half years, and it was a challenge. But we got them converted over. We got most of the produce business that [Nash Finch] felt like we should have. But it took a long time. We had to prove ourselves."

While in Lincoln, Mr. Kidd received a job offer that he described as "one of those kinds you couldn?t refuse." Associated Grocers of Colorado offered to hire him to go out to Denver and head produce operations for three divisions servicing 973 stores in a seven-state area. He had been there seven years or so when he got a call from A&P, which offered him a job with a special challenge. A&P had several procurement offices and consolidation docks in the West, and things were not going well. "We?ve got to either close that whole division out there or send you out there and you can try to save it," they told him.

So Mr. Kidd headed back to California as vice president of A&P?s Western region in charge of 23 employees and offices in Salinas, Los Angeles, Nogales, AZ, Burley, ID, and Yakima, WA.

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Over the few years, Mr. Kidd improved the consolidation dock in Salinas, opened a new head office in Fresno, and closed some of the other offices, consolidating operations into the Fresno office. It was a successful turnaround. Not only did A&P not close the division, but today, some 20 years later, the Fresno office of A&P is still in business.

During his seven-plus years at A&P, Mr. Kidd also spent four years on the board of directors of PMA. Also during that time, while inspecting apples in Brewster, AZ, he was hit in the face with a box of apples that had fallen from the top of a racked pallet, "right up against the ceiling." Ten eye operations followed, but he never regained sight in his right eye."

In December 1995, some California growers approached Mr. Kidd with the idea of starting a voluntary California Granny Smith Apple Association. Less than six months later, that dream became a reality, with Mr. Kidd as its first president. Eight years later, the association was transformed into the California Apple Commission and other apple varieties, such as Fujis and Galas, were brought into the group.

Under Mr. Kidd?s leadership, the organization has had many successes, including establishing "a really great business in Taiwan and also in Canada. And this year, we were able, for the first time, to get into Mexico."

The commission became a charter member of the U.S. Apple Export Council, and Mr. Kidd has twice served as head of that organization.

The commission kept its assessments low, starting at a nickel a box and never going over 15 cents. That meant many things had to be done low budget, and that meant being creative. Mr. Kidd was always hands-on in the creative process.

One of the more successful promotions was done with Disney. It involved a photo shoot at Disneyland with the Fantasyland Castle in the background. The photo featured Snow White and the seven dwarfs, a cart, and 100,000 California apples spilling out of the cart and covering the foreground like a carpet. The apples were donated by a grower on condition that his label show in the photo " the first time Disney had ever agreed to a visible non-Disney trademark in such a shoot, Mr. Kidd said.

The commission had the right to use the photo in any of its promotions, and it did so to good effect. On Disney?s part, it was used as the cover of the company?s employee magazine, giving California apples worldwide exposure " and all without costing the commission a dime.

As a bonus, the spectacular shoot got the attention of the local news media. TV station helicopters hovered overhead shooting footage as the apples spilled down the huge ramp that had been built for the shoot.

In spite of his busy produce career, Mr. Kidd has continued to pursue other interests as well. From his childhood, he has had a great interest in the early period of American history. The colonial era. The Civil War. The frontier. The cowboy era. He has become an avid collector and trader of various antiques from those periods. As he has traveled the world, he has expanded his interest in antiques to the formative periods of various other civilizations.

Mr. Kidd told The Produce News that one thing he is looking forward to in retirement is the

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opportunity to go to some of the major antique shows around the country that his schedule has precluded him from attending in the past.

He also plans to do some things in the vocal arena " not singing so much as speaking " for commercials, voice-overs and the like, something that he has been doing on a moonlighting basis for many years. In fact, his is a familiar voice on Central Valley radio.

And don?t be surprised if in the future, you see his name on the credits of a movie as the voice of an animated character.