McDonald's: The Origins of a Fast Food Empire

The McDonald family moved from Manchester, New Hampshire to Hollywood in the late 1930s, where brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald worked at Motion-Picture studios. In 1937, their father Patrick McDonald opened "The Airdrome", a food stand on Huntington Drive (Route 66) near the Monrovia Airport in Monrovia, California with hot dogs being one of the first item sold. Hamburgers was a juice at five cents with all-you-can drink orange juice. In 1940, Maurice and Richard ("Mac" and "Dick") moved the entire building 40 miles (64 km) east, to West 14th and 1398 North Streets in San Bernardino, California. The restaurant was renamed "McDonald's Bar-B-Que" and had twenty-five menu items, mostly barbecue.

In October 1948, after the McDonald brothers realized that most of their profits came from selling hamburgers, they closed down their successful carhop drive-in to establish a hamburgers, cheeseburgers, potato chips, Soft drinks, and apple pie. After the first year, potato chips and pie were swapped out for french fries and milkshakes. The carhops were eliminated, making the new restaurant a self-service operation. Richard and Maurice took great care in setting up their kitchen. McDonald's, "and reopened on December 12, 1948.

In April 1952, the brothers decided to achieve two goals: further improvements, and a more eye-catching appearance. Stanley Clark Meston, an architect practicing in nearby Fontana. The brothers and Meston worked closely in the design of their new building. McDonald House (with Meston's assistant Charles Fish). The new restaurant has a high level of noticeability thanks to gleaming surfaces of red and white ceramic tile, stainless steel, brightly colored sheet metal, and glass; Pulsing red, white, yellow, and green neon; And two 25-foot yellow sheet-metal arches trimmed in neon, called "golden arches" even at the design stage. A third, smaller arch sign at the roadside hosted a pudgy character in a chef's hat, known as Speedee, striding across the top, trimmed in animated neon. Further marketing techniques were implemented to change McDonald's from a fast food chain, they used such things as turning off the heat to prevent people wanting to stay so long, fixed and angled seating so the customer would sit over their food To give them a chance to be a part of their family, and to give them the opportunity to make a difference. Burger King, White Castle and Subway.

In late 1953, with only a rendering of Meston's design in hand, the brothers began seeking franchises. Their first franchisee was Neil Fox, a distributor for General Petroleum Corporation. Fox's stand, the first with Meston's golden arches design, opened in May 1953 at 4050 North Central Avenue at Indian School Road in Phoenix, Arizona. Their second franchise was the team of Fox's brother-in-law Roger Williams and Burdette "Bud" Landon, both of whom also worked for General Petroleum. Williams and Landon opened their stand on August 18, 1953 at 10207 Lakewood Boulevard in Downey, California. Today the Downey stand has the distinction of being the oldest surviving McDonald's restaurant. The McDonald's Corporation, a McDonald's corporation, reminded that the McDonald's corporation was not a member of the McDonald's Corporation.

In 1954, Ray Kroc, a seller of Prince Castle brand Multimixer milkshake machines, learned that the McDonald brothers were using their machines in their San Bernardino restaurant. His curiosity was piqued, and he went to look at the restaurant. He was joined by good friend Charles Lewis who had suggested to Kroc several improvements to the McDonald's burger recipe.

Believing the McDonald's, Kroc suggested they franchise their restaurants throughout the country. The brothers were skeptical, however, that the self-service approach could succeed in colder, rainier climates; Furthermore, their thriving business in San Bernardino, and franchises

The Government of the United States of America, Kroc offered to take the major responsibility for setting up the new franchises elsewhere. McDonald's restaurants throughout the country, except in a handful of territories in California and Arizona already licensed by the McDonald Brothers. The brothers were to receive one-half of one percent of gross sales. Kroc's first McDonald's restaurant opened on April 15, 1955, at 400 North Lee Street in Des Plaines, Illinois, near Chicago. Eugene Wright, who owned Wright's Decorating Service. Eugene was a colorful yellow and white with red and brown color. McDonald's franchises. (Recognizing its historic and nostalgic value, in 1990 the McDonald's Corporation acquired the stand and rehabilitated it, and then built an adjacent museum and gift shop to commemorate the site.) , Kroc sought franchises for his McDonald's chain. The first snag came quickly. In 1956 he discovered that the McDonald brothers had licensed the franchise rights for Cook County, Illinois to the Frejlach Ice Cream Company. Kroc was incensed that the McDonalds had not informed him of this arrangement. He had the rights back for $ 25,000, five times what the Frejlacks had originally paid, and pressed forward. McDonald's grew slowly for its first three years. By 1958, there were 34 restaurants. In 1959, however, Kroc opened 68 new restaurants, bringing the total to 102 rentals.