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McDonald's- How It Came to Be
Hey parents! Here's something great to share with your kids on a rainy day. Do you or they know how the McDonalds chain came to be? I'll confess, I didn't either and someday my little girl will be asking, so I did a little research.
What I found was very interesting.
In the year 1920, two brothers Maurice and Richard McDonald moved from New Hampshire to California to open their new business in Arcadia, calling it the Airdome. Here they served hot dogs, orange juice, tea and coffee.
In 1940, they grew this fast food restaurant to its capacity, which forced them to move the building to San Bernadino at 14th and E. Street. Here "McDonald's Barbeque" restaurant came to be, beneath the staff of 20 carhops and only 25 food items to their menu, serving up mouth watering beef and pork sandwiches and tasty Barbeque ribs.
"McDonalds Barbeque" quickly became the #1 teen hangout and the business started by two ambitious brothers, became very profitable.
In spite of their growing profits, the business became a headache. They grew very weary relying on the extensive menus, keeping up the endless fast paced service, keeping up with the excessive teenage crowds that frequently gathered and hiring enough carhops.
The two realized that there was the possibility of a giant appeal to the booming young family market, but they also recognized the reality that the future of their business relied on mass production and the speed of service. While going over their menu, Richard McDonald realized a startling discovery. Eighty percent of their sales had been generated by hamburgers alone!
With this in mind they closed the barbeque business in October of 1948 to reopen on December 12, 1948. Hence began the original McDonald's Restaurant which they fondly dubbed, the "Speedee Service System" They began this small, new innovative business in Los Angeles, California. Their rates were very affordable at 15 cents a hamburger and 10 cent fries.
The second McDonald's restaurant opened its doors in Phoenix, Arizona. The first of the two McDonald's to sport double golden arches on its building.
A third McDonald's opened on August 1, 1953 in North Hollywood, California.
Seventeen days later, a fourth building was opened in Downey, California; becoming one of the oldest surviving McDonald's in the world, open even yet today.
In October of 1954, fifty-two year old, Ray Kroc heard of a new contraption in California called a Multimixer, a five-spindled milk shake maker used by the McDonald brothers, who were running eight of these at one time.
Ray then did a most incredible, courageous, but quite possibly foolish thing. He mortgaged his home and invested his entire life savings to become the exclusive distributor for these machines. He then packed up his car and headed west to visit the McDonald brothers.
Here, Ray was dumbfounded! He had never seen so many people being served so quickly. An idea was born.
Pulling the brothers aside he pitched his great idea. Why not start a franchise, selling eight of the Multimixers to each one?
They were convinced that this could work and in April of 1955, the new fast food store was born, in Des Plains, Chicago. Kroc called it "McDonald's #1" - the ninth McDonald's to be built.
Today this building no longer functions as a restaurant, but has become the official McDonald's Corporation Museum, containing McDonald's memorabilia and artifacts, including the famous Multimixer!
Between the year 1956 and year 1958 a total of 170 million hamburgers had been sold.
In 1961, Ray Kroc bought out the McDonald brothers with 2.7 million dollars, in cash!
Ronald McDonald was introduced to the television audience in 1963. The happy go-lucky clown was portrayed by Mr. Willard Scott. As everyone knows, "Ronald McDonald, In Any Language Means "Fun!"
In 1965, McDonald's went public offering, for the first time, others to share in the stock of their company.
A hundred shares of stock costing $2,250 dollars that day would have multiplied into 74,360 shares today, worth over $1.8 million on December 31, 2003. That is staggering!
In 1971 Maurice "Mac" McDonald dies.
On the 15th of January, year 1973, the CEO of McDonald's received a glowing letter of praise from President Richard Nixon.
Here is a portion of the letter:
One of the highlights of my sixty-first birthday celebration was when Tricia suggested we needed a "break" on our drive to Palm Springs, and we turned in at McDonald's. I had heard for years from our girls that the "Big Mac" was really something special, and while I've often credited Mrs. Nixon with making the best hamburgers in the world, we are both convinced that McDonald's runs a close second... The next time the cook has a night off we will know where to go for fast service, cheerful hospitality -- and probably one of the best food buys in America.
(end of letter)
By the year 1976, there was a chain of 4,177 restaurants opened in the United States alone and 21 in distant countries.
In 1979, the "Happy Meal" was introduced, the favored foods of young children.
At the age of 81 in 1984, Ray Kroc died.
In 1992, a non-profit organization, San Bernardino Light Opera purchased the McDonald property, beginning to update the building and landscaping.
The McDonald's Corporation gave approval for the first self-service, drive thru restaurant in San Bernadino.
On the day of this dedication, a brass plaque was set in concrete and the re-appearing of original owner, Richard McDonald added to the joyous celebration.
Richard passed on in 1998.
On December 12, 1998, McDonald's celebrated their 50th Anniversary, At the end of year 1998, there were stated to be 23,000 McDonald restaurants worldwide.
And to think that it all began when two brothers pursued their dream of owning their own business....
Article by- Jorene Haight
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