Driving through Louisiana in 1953, Troy Smith happened upon a cozy hamburger stand that had installed an intercom system to speed up ordering. Troy adapted the idea for his small chain of burger joints and hired nimble servers to quickly bring food out to customers. The concept was a smash, with revenues for the chain doubling during the first week. Sonic was cashing in on the growing popularity of the automobile. Hungry patrons parked their cars in a stall, rolled down the window, and ordered from a two-way speaker box. The food was quickly brought out to the car on a tray by a roller-skating carhop with excellent balance.