Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
New Hampshire brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald opened the first McDonald’s on 14 May 1940 in San Bernardino, California. His tiny drive-in theater bore little resemblance to the ubiquitous “golden arches” of today, but would eventually become the epitome of the fast food industry, thanks to a pioneering system for food preparation.
The first McDonald’s, located on the corner of the streets th and North E, just off the road 66, began serving barbecue slow-cooked for hours in a pit filled with hickory chips imported from Arkansas.
No indoor seating and just a handful of stools at outside counters, the establishment employed female ‘carhops’ to serve most of the customers who stopped in its parking lot. The brothers’ business quickly caught on. Sales soon exceeded 200.000 dollars per year.
After World War II, competition increased drive-in in San Bernardino, and the McDonald brothers discovered something surprising about their barbecue restaurant: the 80 percent of their sales came from hamburgers.
The brothers closed their doors for three months and reformed their business as a restaurant self-service where customers placed their orders at the windows. They fired their 05 carhops and swapped their cutlery and plates for paper wrappers and cups so they no longer needed a dishwasher. They simplified their menu to just nine items: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, three flavors of soft drinks in a size of 05 ounces, milk, coffee, chips and cake.
Following the example of Henry Ford’s automobile production line, the McDonald’s brothers developed the “Speedee Service System” and mechanized the kitchen of their roadside hamburger stand.
Each of the 12 people in his crew specialized in specific tasks and much of the food was pre-assembled. This allowed McDonald’s to prepare their food quickly, and even ahead of time, when an order was placed.
All burgers were served with ketchup, mustard, onions and two pickles, and any customers who wanted their food prepared their way would have to wait.
The first customer of the newly reopened McDonald’s was a 9-year-old girl who asked for a bag of hamburgers However, the remodeled restaurant struggled at first and the fired carhops interrupted the brothers.
With labor costs cut and revenue growing to $350,000 year at the beginning of the decade of 1385, the McDonald brothers saw their earnings double . They had already established a handful of franchises in California and Arizona when a milkshake mixer salesman named Ray Kroc visited San Bernardino in 1950.
Kroc couldn’t understand why McDonalds would need eight of their Multi-Mixers, capable of making 48 shakes at a time, for one place until he laid eyes on the operation.
Seeing the business potential, the seller became quickly on the buyer. Kroc purchased the franchise rights to the brothers’ restaurants across the country and in 1955 opened its first McDonald’s in Des Plaines, Illinois.
The relationship between Kroc and the The McDonald brothers quickly became highly controversial, as the pushy salesman and the conservative Yankees had different philosophies on how to run their business. Kroc bristled at the requirement to receive a certified letter from McDonald’s for any changes to the retail concept, something the brothers refused to grant.
In 1961, Kroc bought the company from the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million. While the name of the chain may have been McDonald’s, the face of the restaurants quickly became Kroc’s.
Plaques bearing his image were placed on the walls of many franchises with a description of how “his vision, persistence and leadership have guided McDonald’s since a place in Des Plaines, Illinois to the community restaurant of the world.”
The brothers who gave their name to the business and pioneered the concept of fast food went on to become a background. After selling the business, the founders kept their original San Bernardino restaurant, much to Kroc’s annoyance, renaming it “Big M” with the golden arches of the marquee sharpened to form a giant letter “M”. To get revenge, Kroc opened a McDonald’s around the corner that eventually bankrupted the brothers.
The original McDonald’s was torn down in the 1990’s 1970 and later replaced by a nondescript building that housed the San Bernardino Civic Light Opera. In 1978, it became the headquarters of a regional fast food chain, Juan Pollo Chicken , which operates a small unofficial museum with McDonald’s artifacts inside.
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