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| McDonald's logo 1940 |
Name: "McDonald's"
Category: Food - Drink
Subcategory: Restaurants
FIRST OPENING
--- Original name: "McDonald's Bar-B-Q"
--- Founders: Richard and Maurice McDonald
--- Founded / Opened: May 15, 1940 - San Bernardino, California, USA
CORPORATION
--- Original name: "McDonald's System, Inc."
--- Founder: Ray Kroc
--- Founded: March 2, 1955
--- Opened: April 15, 1955 - Des Plaines, Illinois, USA
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| Raymond "Ray" Kroc (Oak Park, Oct. 5, 1902 - San Diego, Jan. 14, 1984) the American businessman who founded the McDonald's Corporation |
Interesting facts: In 1937 Patrick McDonald opens a food and drinks stand called "The Airdrome" on historic Route 66 (now Huntington Drive) near the Monrovia Airport in Monrovia, California, with Hot dogs being the first item sold. In 1940 his sons Richard and Maurice move the building 40 miles (64 km) east to San Bernardino, California, where they open the first McDonald's restaurant, near U.S. Route 66, at West 14th St. and 1398 North E St., on May 15. Its menu consisted of 25 items, mostly barbecue. As was common at the time, they employed around 20 carhops. It became a popular and highly profitable teen hangout. In 1948, after noticing that almost all of their profits came from hamburgers, the brothers closed the restaurant for several months to remodel it and implement their innovative "Speedee Service System", a streamlined assembly line for hamburgers. The carhops are fired, and when the restaurant reopens it sells only hamburgers, milkshakes, and french fries. At 15 cents, the burgers are about half as expensive as at standard diners, and they are served immediately. The restaurant is extremely successful, and its fame spreads by word of mouth. In 1954, entrepreneur and milkshake-mixer salesman Ray Kroc becomes fascinated by the McDonald's restaurant during a sales visit, when he learns of its extraordinary capacity and popularity. Kroc approaches the McDonald brothers, who have already begun franchising, with a proposition to let him franchise McDonald's restaurants outside the company's home base of California and Arizona, with himself as the first franchisee. On March 2, 1955, Ray Kroc founds "McDonald's Systems, Inc." as a legal structure for his planned franchises. On April 15, Kroc opens the ninth McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois. In the following years, Kroc sought franchisees for his McDonald's chain: by 1958, there were 34 restaurants; in 1959, Kroc opened 68 new restaurants, bringing the total to 102 locations; in 2012 McDonald's operates over 35,000 restaurants worldwide.
Slogan (1960): «Let's eat out!»
Property: McDonald's
Official website: http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com
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| The first McDonald's opened by Richard and Maurice McDonald on May 15, 1940, at West 14th St. and 1398 North E St. in San Bernardino, California. Female carhops in majorette boots and short skirts served customers. |
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| McDonald's menu in 1943 |
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The McDonald brothers in 1948 closed their restaurant for alterations |
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McDonald's reopened in December 1948 as a self-service drive-in restaurant |
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McDonald's announcing a new opening in Des Plaines in 1955 (Des Plaines Journal, Apr. 14) |
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| The ninth McDonald's was the first franchised restaurant opened by Ray Kroc on April 15, 1955, at 400 North Lee Avenue in Des Plaines, Illinois. Kroc incorporated his company as McDonald's Systems a month before, on March 2. |
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| The McDonald brothers: Richard James "Dick" McDonald (Manchester, Feb. 16, 1909 - Bedford, July 14, 1998) and Maurice James "Mac" McDonald (Manchester, Nov. 26, 1902 - Riverside, Dec. 11, 1971), the American fast food pioneers who established the first McDonald's restaurant at West 14th St. and 1398 North E St. in San Bernardino, California in 1940. |
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| McDonald's Corporation celebrates 60th Anniversary (April 15, 2015) |
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| LEGO (see here) set dedicated to McDonald's 80th anniversary (1940-2020) |
