"Coming To America" was on Comedy Central twice this weekend...

...and it reminded me that I have a personal connection, indirectly, to the movie. I worked in the mid-80s for Wendy's, in Glen Cove (on Long Island) New York. After I had been there for some time, the franchise owner had me occasionally go to new stores to help train the employees.

This:

is McDowell's, where Eddie Murphy's character works after moving from Zamunda. McDowell's was a thinly-disguised McDonald's in the movie - but in reality, it was a soon-to-be-opened Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers. If I understand correctly, the movie producers needed a restaurant to be the fictional McDowell's. They found a store that was going to be a Wendy's when finished - they filmed, and when filming was done, construction was completed and it opened as a Wendy's.

A few weeks later, I had the opportunity to train some of the new employees of the Wendy's.

My brush with greatness.