To the extent that people think of any name when they think of the history of McDonald’s, it is usually entrepreneur Ray Kroc. He is the business magnate who transformed McDonald’s into the world’s most successful fast food chain. However, before Kroc, there were the McDonald Brothers, who founded the enterprise and gave it their name. Below is their story.
Golden Arches Around the Globe
McDonald’s is the world’s largest fast food chain. It had more than 40,000 outlets in about 120 countries in 2021. Of those, 2770 of were company-owned, and the rest franchises. Not only is it the world’s biggest restaurant chain, it is also one of the world’s biggest real estate holders. McDonald’s owns the land on which all its restaurants are located, and leases it to its franchisees. Rent rivals food as the corporation’s biggest revenue source. McDonald’s is named after brothers Maurice (1902 – 1971) and Richard (1909 – 1998) McDonald.
Born in New Hampshire to Irish immigrants, the McDonald brothers left the East Coast for California in the 1920s. Their father opened a food stand in Monrovia in 1937. Three years later, the brothers opened the first McDonald’s in San Bernardino, CA. At first, it operated as a drive-in carhop, focused on barbeque, and went by the name “McDonald’s Famous Barbeque”. It remained a BBQ joint until 1948, when the McDonald Brothers realized that most of their money came not from barbeque items, but from hamburgers.
The siblings, determined to make their first million bucks before they were fifty, made some changes. They closed their BBQ joint for a redesign and rebuild. When it reopened, the barbeque was gone, replaced by a simplified menu focused on hamburgers. There were only nine items: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, milk shakes, French fries, Coke, root beer, coffee, orange drink, and milk. The simple menu was accompanied by a simple format the brothers named the “Speedee Service System”.
The McDonald brothers’ service system became the template for all fast food restaurants. The system’s core was a self-service counter that did away with the need for waiters and waitresses. Customers got their food quickly because their burgers were cooked ahead of time, wrapped, and warmed under heat lamps. As a result, the McDonald Brothers could charge only 15 cents for a hamburger – half of what competitors charged. Thus they pioneered the fast food format that spread around the world.
McDonald’s Without the McDonald Brothers
To the extent that most people know of an entrepreneur associated with McDonald’s, it is not the McDonald Brothers, but businessman Ray Kroc (1902 – 1984). So, whatever happened to Maurice and Richard McDonald? In 1952, the McDonald Brothers designed a more efficient and eye-catching restaurant. It featured stainless steel, red and white ceramic tiles, bright colors, and 25-foot yellow arches trimmed in neon – the original Golden Arches.
To encourage customers to eat quickly and not linger in the restaurant, seats were distanced to reduce socialization, and fixed and angled to place customers directly over the food. Heat was also reduced in the dining area. With their new design in hand, the brothers began to franchise their system, starting in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1953. Ray Kroc, a milkshake mixer salesman, entered the picture in 1954.
After Kroc sold the McDonald Brothers eight mixers, they hired him as their franchise agent. He dreamt bigger than his bosses. The McDonald Brothers wanted to focus on just a few restaurants, and resisted Kroc’s attempts to improve their blueprint. Frustrated, he bought them out in 1961 for $2,700,000 – an amount that left each with a million dollars after taxes. At closing, Kroc discovered that he wouldn’t get the original McDonald’s at San Bernardino: the brothers gave it to the founding employees.
It was renamed “The Big M”, because the McDonald Brothers had not secured the rights to the McDonald’s name. An irate Kroc, who had gotten rid of the brothers but kept their name, opened a McDonald’s near the Big M, and put it out of business within a few years. Now free to do what he wanted, Kroc went on a massive expansion spree. By the time he died in 1984, there were more than 7500 McDonald’s restaurants in the US and around the world.
Sources and Further Reading
Encyclopedia Britannica – McDonald’s, American Corporation
History Halls – The Men Who Made Ancient Athens: Solon
Kroc, Ray – Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonald’s (1977)
Nordstjernan – King-Sized Meal: A Cautionary Tale
Spoon University – The 9 Items on McDonald’s Very First Menu
