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Established | April 15, 1955 |
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Dissolved | 2018 |
Location | 400 N. Lee Street, Des Plaines, Illinois |
Coordinates | 42°02′46″N87°53′10″W / 42.04609°N 87.88613°W |
The McDonald's #1 Store Museum [1] was housed in a replica of the former McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, US, opened by Ray Kroc in April 1955. The company usually refers to this as The Original McDonald's, although it was actually the ninth McDonald's restaurant.
The first McDonald's location was opened by Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California in 1940 and demolished in 1972, although part of the sign remains. The oldest McDonald's still in operation is the third one built, in Downey, California, which opened in 1953.
However, the Des Plaines restaurant marked the beginning of future CEO Kroc's involvement with the firm. It opened under the aegis of his franchising company McDonald's Systems, Inc., which became McDonald's Corporation after Kroc purchased the McDonald brothers' stake in the firm.
The actual restaurant was demolished in 1984, but McDonald's realized that it had a history to preserve, so it built a replica. With gold arches placed over a glass and metal, red-and-white tiled exterior, the building largely followed the McDonald brothers' original blueprints, which they had introduced when they began franchising in 1953. A Phoenix, Arizona, restaurant was the first built in this manner. Kroc's restaurant was the first McDonald's built in a colder climate, and some adaptations were made to the design, including a basement with a furnace.
McDonald's announced in 2017 that the building would be torn down due to repeated flooding of the site. [2] [3] Despite attempts to save the building, demolition was completed in 2018. [4] McDonald's then decided to donate the land to the city for a grassy park area. [5]
The entrance sign was original, with early cartoon mascot "Speedee," representing the innovative Speedee Service System, inspired by assembly-line production which the McDonald brothers had introduced in 1948. It was, however, moved from its original location at the south end of the property. The sign boasted "We have sold over 1 million." The replica museum offered irregular summer hours and was often closed; tours were by appointment. The ground floor exhibited original fry vats, milkshake Multimixers (which Kroc had been selling when he first encountered the San Bernardino McDonald's restaurant), soda barrels, and grills, all attended to by a crew of male mannequins in 1950s uniforms. Visitors could walk in through the kitchen or look through the order windows in front (there was no sit-down restaurant section in the 1955 design). In the basement was a collection of vintage ads, photos, and a video about McDonald's history. Upon demolition, various equipment was relocated to McDonald's corporate headquarters in downtown Chicago as well as its R&D facility in the southwest Chicago suburbs.
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In the 1980s, a new, modern McDonald's was built across the street and to the south, replacing a Howard Johnson's restaurant (then Ground Round). At this McDonald's, there are a half dozen glass-enclosed exhibits featuring McDonald's historical artifacts arrayed around the eating tables. Included are red and white tiles from the original restaurant and string ties worn by employees from the 1950s to the early 1970s. [6] [7] A blueprint for the original "Speedee" electrical sign appears on one wall.
The Big Mac Museum Restaurant, another McDonald's museum, opened on August 23, 2007, in Irwin, Pennsylvania, on Route 30 Lincoln Hwy.
A museum also exists at the Original McDonald's site in San Bernardino on U.S. Route 66 in California. It is a reconstruction operated by the owner of the Juan Pollo chain and is not affiliated with McDonald's Corporation. [8]
A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically part of a "meat-sweet diet", offered from a limited menu, cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot, finished and packaged to order, and usually available for take away, though seating may be provided. Fast-food restaurants are typically part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation that provides standardized ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels. The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951.
Raymond Albert Kroc was an American businessman. He purchased the fast food company McDonald's in 1961 from the McDonald brothers and was its CEO from 1967 to 1973. Kroc is credited with the global expansion of McDonald's, turning it into the most successful fast food corporation in the world by revenue.
Joan Beverly Kroc, also known as Joni, was an American philanthropist and third wife of McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc.
The Golden Arches are the symbol of McDonald's, the global fast food restaurant chain. Originally, real arches were part of the restaurant design. They were incorporated into the chain's logo in 1962, which resembled a stylized restaurant, and in the current Golden Arches logo, introduced 1968, resembling an "M" for "McDonald's". They are widely regarded to be one of the most recognizable logos in the world.
Frederick Leo Turner was an American restaurant industry executive, chair and CEO of McDonald's. He is credited with helping to massively expand McDonald's, introducing new meals and setting service standards for the company and its employees.
Richard James McDonald and Maurice James McDonald, collectively known as the McDonald Brothers, were American entrepreneurs who founded the fast food company McDonald's. They opened the original McDonald's restaurant in 1940 in San Bernardino, California, where they created the Speedee Service System to produce their meals, a method that became the standard for fast food. After hiring Ray Kroc as their franchise agent in 1954, they continued to run the company until they were bought out by Kroc in 1961.
McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hamburger stand, and later turned the company into a franchise, with the Golden Arches logo being introduced in 1953 at a location in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1955, Ray Kroc, a businessman, joined the company as a franchise agent and in 1961 bought out the McDonald brothers. Previously headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, it moved to nearby Chicago in June 2018. McDonald's is also a real estate company through its ownership of around 70% of restaurant buildings and 45% of the underlying land.
The American fast-food restaurant chain McDonald's was founded in 1940 and has since grown to the world's largest restaurant chain by revenue.
Sandy's was a chain of American fast-food restaurants begun in 1956 by four entrepreneurs from Kewanee, Illinois: Gus "Brick" Lundberg, Robert C. Wenger, Paul White and W. K. Davidson. Sandy's was the ancestor of the midwestern franchises of the Hardee's restaurant chain.
San Bernardino, California, was named in 1810.
The McDonald's Chicago Flagship is a flagship McDonald's restaurant located in Chicago.
Geri's Hamburgers was a fast food restaurant chain in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, United States. Geri's started sometime in 1962 and was modeled largely after the early McDonald's style restaurants at the time. One of the original owners of Geri's was a former vice president for McDonald's. Geri's restaurants, at least in the early days, had little or no inside seating, and were geared towards fast take-out service. In fact the cartoon icon used by Geri's on its marquee was very similar to the "Mr. Speedee" used by McDonald's, and even closer to the later McDonald's characters such as Mayor McCheese, being in the form of a hamburger with eyes, and arms and legs coming from the sides and bottom of the bun. There were at least 13 Geri's restaurants by 1980. Red, blue and white were the main exterior colors, often in the form of tiles.
Juan Pollo is a Mexican-style rotisserie chicken restaurant chain headquartered in San Bernardino, California founded in 1984 by Albert Okura. Its restaurants are located mostly in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, with other locations in Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties.
June Martino was an American businesswoman who became Ray Kroc’s bookkeeper in 1948 and ultimately rose to Corporate Secretary, Treasurer, Director and part-owner of McDonald’s Corporation.
The McDonald's Sign, also known as McDonald's Store #433 Sign, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States, is one of only a few surviving examples of a single-arch McDonald's sign. The sign was erected in 1962 and remained at its original location until 2007. That year, McDonald's Store #433 moved and the sign was renovated and moved to the new location. The McDonald's sign was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2006, but is no longer standing at 2819 S. Olive St.
Randhurst Village is a shopping center located at the corner of Rand Road and Elmhurst Road in Mount Prospect, Illinois. The shopping center took its name from combining the names of these two roads.
The oldest McDonald's restaurant is a drive-up hamburger stand at 10207 Lakewood Boulevard at Florence Avenue in Downey, California, United States. It was the third McDonald's restaurant and opened on August 18, 1953. It was also the second restaurant franchised by Richard and Maurice McDonald, before the involvement of Ray Kroc in the company. The restaurant is the oldest one in the chain still in existence and is one of Downey's main tourist attractions. Along with its sign, it was deemed eligible for addition to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, although it was not added at the time because the owner objected.
Albert Okura was an American businessman who was the founder and CEO of the Juan Pollo restaurant chain in Southern California. He was also a philanthropist and was active in the revitalization of Historic Route 66. In 2005, Okura purchased the town of Amboy, California, which is located along Route 66. The corporate headquarters for the Juan Pollo chain now sits on the original location of the first McDonald's restaurant where Okura created and hosted a museum, preserving artifacts and memorabilia about the landmark.
The Founder is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed by John Lee Hancock and written by Robert Siegel. Starring Michael Keaton as businessman Ray Kroc, the film depicts the story of his creation of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain, which eventually involved forcing out the company's original founders to take control with conniving ruthlessness. Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch co-star as McDonald's founders Richard and Maurice McDonald, alongside Linda Cardellini as Ray Kroc's third wife Joan Smith, and B. J. Novak as McDonald's president and chief executive Harry J. Sonneborn.