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America's Love Affair With Pizza

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Whether or not Americans ever agree on what variety of pizza crust is best, thick or thin, round or square, hand-thrown or rolled, one thing is sure: America’s long-term love affair with pizza remains as saucy as ever with no breakup in sight. In fact, the National Restaurant Association estimates a whopping 3 billion pizzas are sold in the U.S. each year representing $32+ billion annually in revenue. Now thatsa-lotta-pizza!

Determining what ignited America’s love affair with pizza is not an exact science, but it’s likely the love affair commenced much like any love affair – with the courtship. Beginning in the 1940s, America’s taste for pizza was ushered in as World War II servicemen stationed in Italy were returning home with …show more content…

Americans admired the reverence and respect shop owners showered on their Mamas and Papas as heads of the household and family business. Likewise, Americans embraced the culture and the tomato pies produced by it, and their love affair with pizza began.

By the 1950s, America’s full-fledged love affair with pizza traversed into the business arena and major players in commercialized pizzerias appeared on the scene. By the 1950s and 1960s, pizza parlors, bowling alleys, and drive-in movie theaters offered relatively inexpensive entertainment and became popular hangouts for courting teenagers. Naturally, pizza proved lucrative to local businesses and was added to menus at local teenage hangouts. As America’s youth were dating and falling in love, they further solidified their love affair with pizza and fast food. Pizza had become so popular by the mid-1960s that a major pizza chain opened and began offering home delivery while another major player began selling pizza franchises across America.

Early in the 1970s, more and more American women were joining the workforce to help with tight family budgets. As a consequence, American families had less time to prepare meals and the pizza industry once again wooed American families, this time with two-for-one pizza deals and enticing television commercials inviting families to local pizza parlors for a free soft drink or

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