47 Fun Facts About McDonald's

In which California city did the McDonald brothers open the original McDonald's restaurant in 1940?

The brothers opened McDonald's Bar-B-Q in San Bernardino in 1940, on Route 66, after running an earlier hot-dog stand, the Airdrome, in Monrovia with their father.

What was Ray Kroc selling when he first visited the McDonald brothers in 1954?

The brothers had bought eight of his Prince Castle Multimixers, and Kroc went to see why one stand needed so many.

Ray Kroc's first franchised restaurant opened in 1955 in which Illinois town?

Kroc's Des Plaines restaurant opened on April 15, 1955, the date the corporation counts as its founding, though it was in fact about the ninth McDonald's overall.

For what sum did Ray Kroc buy out the McDonald brothers in 1961?

Kroc paid $2.7 million in 1961, a figure set so each brother cleared $1 million after taxes; they lost the rights to their own name and renamed their original stand The Big M.

What was the brothers' streamlined kitchen method, the fast food industry's template, called?

The Speedee Service System, launched in 1948, turned the kitchen into an assembly line: the brothers fired their 20 carhops, swapped plates for paper and bags, and slashed the menu to a handful of items.

What did McDonald's original mascot, a winking chef from 1948, have for a head?

The 1948 mascot was a winking chef with a hamburger for a head, used on signs and ads; the Golden Arches replaced him as the logo in 1962, a year before Ronald McDonald.

Who first sketched the two yellow arches that became McDonald's Golden Arches?

Richard McDonald drew the rough sketch; several architects wanted to drop the arches before Stanley Meston agreed to build two 25-foot neon-trimmed arches, first seen on the 1953 Phoenix franchise.

The Big Mac was invented by franchisee Jim Delligatti and first sold in 1967 in which Pennsylvania town?

Delligatti's Uniontown restaurant sold the first of the double-decker burgers in 1967; he admitted he had simply copied the Big Boy, and the sandwich went national in 1968.

Which of these was a rejected early name for the Big Mac?

The Aristocrat and the Blue Ribbon Burger were both tried and dropped; the winning name came from Esther Glickstein Rose, a 21-year-old advertising secretary at headquarters.

In the 1974 jingle, a Big Mac's patties, sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions sit on what?

The 1974 jingle lists 'two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame-seed bun'; the special sauce resembles Thousand Island dressing.

The Economist uses the price of which McDonald's item to compare the buying power of world currencies?

The Big Mac Index, introduced in 1986 by The Economist's Pam Woodall, compares Big Mac prices as a light-hearted gauge of purchasing-power parity and coined the term 'burgernomics'.

Ray Kroc's meat-free rival to the Filet-O-Fish was a grilled slice of what?

The Hula Burger put pineapple and cheese on a cold bun; the fish sandwich 'won hands down' and was nationwide by 1965.

The Egg McMuffin, invented in 1972 by Herb Peterson, was designed to resemble which breakfast dish?

Herb Peterson modelled the Egg McMuffin on Eggs Benedict, swapping hollandaise for a slice of cheese and cooking the egg in a ring mould to make it perfectly round; Ray Kroc liked it enough to put it on menus chain-wide.

According to McDonald's, Chicken McNuggets come in four shapes: the ball, the bell, the boot and what?

The bow tie, also called the bone, completes the set of four; René Arend, the company's first executive chef and a native of Luxembourg, created the McNugget recipe that went national in 1983.

The McRib, introduced in 1981, is made from what meat?

The McRib patty is restructured boneless pork shoulder pressed into the shape of a tiny rack of ribs; unlike the US, where it appears only in limited runs, Germany has kept it on the menu year-round.

Since the 1980s, what flavour has McDonald's March-only Shamrock Shake been?

The Shamrock Shake has been mint-flavoured since 1983; the 1970 original used lemon-lime sherbet, and by 1973 it was just a vanilla shake dyed green.

Proceeds from Shamrock Shakes helped fund the first Ronald McDonald House in 1974, in which city?

Eagles player Fred Hill's daughter Kim was being treated for leukaemia; the team, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and local McDonald's operators, who donated Shamrock Shake proceeds, funded the house in 1974.

Until 1990, McDonald's fries in the US were cooked mainly in what?

Until 1990 the fries were cooked mostly in beef tallow; the switch to vegetable oil followed ads by heart-attack survivor Phil Sokolof, and in 2002 the chain paid $10 million to settle suits over undisclosed beef flavouring.

The Happy Meal went national in the US in which year?

The Happy Meal rolled out nationally in June 1979 with a circus-wagon theme; its first film tie-in, that December, was a Star Trek Meal promoting Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

The Happy Meal grew out of a 1970s 'Ronald Menu' created by a franchisee's wife in which country?

Yolanda Fernández de Cofiño, whose family ran McDonald's in Guatemala, bundled a burger, small fries and a sundae as the 'Menú Ronald'; ad man Bob Bernstein later developed the idea into the boxed meal.

The Quarter Pounder was created in 1971 by franchisee Al Bernardin in which city?

His slogan was 'Today Fremont, tomorrow the world', and it went national in 1973.

The McFlurry was invented in 1995 by a franchisee in which country?

Franchisee Ron McLellan's store in Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada, sold the first McFlurry in 1995; its hollow-handled spoon attaches to a blender spindle so the toppings are mixed in the cup.

The McCafé coffee-shop concept was created by McDonald's in which country in 1993?

It began in Melbourne, and locals there call the chain Macca's, a nickname it has used in official Australian branding.

Which television weatherman played the very first Ronald McDonald in 1963 Washington, D.C. commercials?

Willard Scott, later the Today show's weatherman, had just finished playing Bozo the Clown on Washington's WRC-TV when he created the first Ronald McDonald for local commercials in 1963.

When Grimace first appeared in 1971, what was he?

'Evil Grimace' tested badly, so McDonald's removed his extra arms and made him a lovable lump; the company has confirmed he represents a giant taste bud.

In 1973 the creators of which children's TV show sued McDonald's, claiming McDonaldland copied it?

Sid and Marty Krofft, creators of H.R. Pufnstuf, argued Mayor McCheese copied their Mayor Pufnstuf; they won in 1977, and McDonald's dropped several McDonaldland characters.

What colour is Ronald McDonald's hair?

Ronald McDonald has a shock of bright red hair, a yellow jumpsuit and red-and-white striped sleeves, a look that has stayed essentially unchanged since the mid-1960s.

McDonald's management training school awards its graduates a degree in what?

Graduates receive a Bachelor of Hamburgerology; the school opened in 1961 in the basement of an Elk Grove Village, Illinois, restaurant with a class of about 15 and has since trained hundreds of thousands of managers.

In the 1994 hot coffee lawsuit, how old was plaintiff Stella Liebeck when she was burned?

Liebeck was 79 when coffee served at 180 to 190 degrees Fahrenheit gave her third-degree burns in 1992; at the 1994 trial the jury found McDonald's 80 per cent responsible.

After the judge cut the punitive damages, what total did the hot coffee verdict come to?

The judge cut the jury's punitive award to $480,000, three times the $160,000 compensatory award, for a total of $640,000; the parties then settled privately for an undisclosed sum.

The McDonald's Monopoly promotion was halted in 2001 after what was discovered?

Jerome 'Uncle Jerry' Jacobson of Simon Marketing skimmed the winning pieces for years, a scheme later dramatised in the HBO series McMillions.

In the US Monopoly promotion, collecting which two properties traditionally wins the top cash prize?

Boardwalk and Park Place, the dark-blue pair, win the top cash prize; Park Place is common but Boardwalk is printed in tiny numbers, so the set almost never gets completed by chance.

In 1992, who became the first celebrity to have a McDonald's value meal named after him?

The McJordan was sold only in Chicago, and a gallon of its barbecue sauce later sold for $10,000.

Who played Ray Kroc in the 2016 film The Founder?

Michael Keaton plays Kroc as a hustling salesman; Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch play Dick and Mac McDonald, and Laura Dern plays Kroc's first wife, Ethel.

Which executive convinced Kroc that McDonald's real business was owning land under its restaurants?

Harry Sonneborn, Kroc's finance chief, set up Franchise Realty Corporation in 1956 to buy or lease the land under restaurants and charge franchisees rent, turning McDonald's into a landlord as much as a burger chain.

Roughly how much weight did Morgan Spurlock gain in 30 days in Super Size Me?

Spurlock gained about 24 pounds (24.5 lb, or 11 kg) over the 30 days; within weeks of the film's premiere McDonald's dropped its Super Size option, though it called the decision unrelated.

The McDonald's in Sedona, Arizona, has arches of what unusual colour?

Sedona's arches are turquoise blue: in 1993 city officials ruled that yellow would clash with the surrounding sandstone scenery, and the company's first alternative shade was accepted.

The Big Mac in India is sold under what name, since it contains no beef?

The Maharaja Mac swaps beef for chicken (originally lamb) because most Hindus do not eat beef; McDonald's India serves no beef at all and has opened vegetarian-only outlets near pilgrimage sites.

After leaving Russia in 2022, McDonald's sold its 850 restaurants to a buyer who reopened them under what name?

Vkusno i tochka, roughly 'Tasty, and that's it', is the name licensee Alexander Govor chose when he reopened the former McDonald's restaurants in June 2022; the sale barred any use of McDonald's branding.

What did the McDonald brothers cut their menu down to when they relaunched their original stand in 1948?

The 1948 menu had just nine items: a 15-cent hamburger, a cheeseburger, three soft drinks, milk, coffee, potato chips and pie; french fries replaced the chips the following year.

The third McDonald's ever built, opened in 1953, stands in which Los Angeles-area city?

Downey's restaurant, opened in August 1953 by franchisees Roger Williams and Burdette Landon, was the third McDonald's built and the second with the Golden Arches, and it outlived every earlier McDonald's.

Which Major League Baseball team did Ray Kroc own from 1974 until his death?

Kroc bought the San Diego Padres in 1974, a year after stepping back from running McDonald's, and owned them until his death in 1984; his widow Joan became one of America's biggest philanthropists.

The first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opened in 1990 on which Moscow square?

The Pushkin Square restaurant opened on January 31, 1990, the chain's first in the Soviet Union; about 30,000 people queued on its first day, a company record at the time.

Which pizza chain did McDonald's own from 1999 until 2003?

McDonald's bought Donatos Pizza in 1999 and sold it back to founder Jim Grote in December 2003; it also owned Boston Market until 2007 and held a majority stake in Chipotle until October 2006.

Fred Turner, who became McDonald's CEO in 1973, started at the company in 1956 doing what job?

He was Operations Vice President by 1958, when the chain had just 34 restaurants, and he later succeeded Kroc as chairman.

The Economist says its light-hearted fast-food currency index makes exchange-rate theory more what?

The Economist describes its index as 'a lighthearted guide' that makes exchange-rate theory more digestible: one standardised burger is sold in most countries, so its local price hints at whether a currency is over- or undervalued.

Which circus performer designed the Ronald McDonald costume and make-up in 1966?

Michael Polakovs, the circus clown known as Coco and son of Britain's famous Coco the Clown, was hired in 1966 to redesign Ronald's costume and make-up, creating the wig, yellow jumpsuit and striped sleeves.