The Real McDonald s: the San Bernardino Origins of a Fast Food Empire

The first McDonalds in San Bernardino, CA || Thomas Hawk/Flickr/Creative Commons License

Over the years, I have received letters and phone calls from television stations, radio stations, authors, reporters, et cetera, and they all told me the same story. It seems that if they contact your company in Oak Brook regarding my present address, they have been told that the company has no idea where I live or if I am even alive. On several occasions they have been told that there really was never a McDonald. They were told McDonald's was only a fictitious name that was chosen because it was easy to remember. - Richard Dick McDonald

Look it is ridiculous to call this an industry. This is not. This is rat eat rat, dog eat dog. I'll kill em and I'm going to kill em before they kill me. You're talking about the American way of the survival of the fittest. - Ray Kroc

McDonalds burger, fries and a drink || James/Flickr/Creative Commons License

On a summer day in 1954, a brash, charming Multimixer salesman from Chicago named Ray Kroc stood in the parking lot of a small, oddly shaped fast food joint in dusty, suburban San Bernardino. He watched in awe as a noonday crowd of over 100 patrons ordered hamburgers, fries, and most importantly, milkshakes for insanely low prices. The food was served with lightning speed, and the customers, many of them working class families, gushed about the quality of their meals. Thoroughly excited, he rushed up to the owners-brothers Richard Dick and Maurice Mac McDonald. My God, I've been standing out there looking at it but I can't believe it. When will this die down? he asked. Sometime late tonight, Dick responded. I've got to become involved in this, Kroc replied, thus changing the course of food service around the globe.

Dick and Mac, who Kroc would dismiss in later years as a queer pair, were born in New Hampshire. Their father was a foreman in a shoe factory. The brothers were undoubtedly products of New England-taciturn, hard-working, reserved and humble. Around 1930, they made their way to California in search of a better life. They worked as crew on Hollywood one-reelers, owned a movie theater in Glendale for four years, and then decided to get into the burgeoning drive-in restaurant business. In 1937, they opened their first food stand near the Monrovia airport, where they sold primarily hot dogs.

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In 1940, the brothers moved their establishment to Fourteenth and E Streets in San Bernardino. They named the restaurant McDonald's Barbeque (it was later shortened to McDonald's). The drive-in featured an exposed kitchen outdoor seating only, and a menu of twenty-five items including pulled pork and hamburgers. Customers ate at an outdoor counter or in their cars, where they were served by carhops. The brothers had an almost symbiotic partnership and moral code that helped make the restaurant a success. We always did things together, Dick remembered. If I was around and had to make a decision, I never said, Ive got to wait for my brother to get back and discuss it with him. He did the same. You make a bad decision, no big deal-you just try to make the next one right.

Their close partnership paid off. McDonald's was soon the most popular teen hangout in town. The brothers bought a mansion in the San Bernardino hills, where they lived with Dick's wife and stepson. They also splurged on new Cadillacs every year. But mostly, they worked. And as the years went by, they began to see how their business could be improved, and most importantly, streamlined. They were excited to take on the new challenge. We just became bored, Dick recalled. The money was coming in and there wasn't much for us to do.

McDonalds as a 1950s teen hangout || George/Flickr/Creative Commons License

In 1948, with the money from McDonald's still rolling in, the brothers surprised everyone when they decided to shut down for three months to revamp their entire operation. They slashed their menu down to nine items, switched to paper wrappers and plastic cups, and cut their prices in half. They had their kitchen redesigned to ensure maximum efficiency, and standardized every order. For example, a hamburger would be served with mustard, ketchup, onions and two pickles. No more, no less. If we gave people choice, there would be chaos, Dick explained. Each job was specialized-there was a man who grilled the burgers, a man who added condiments, and a man who made the shakes. Most importantly, they fired their carhops and added two service windows where patrons could place orders for themselves. According to Dick:

Our whole concept was based on speed, lower prices and volume. We were going after big, big volumes by lowering prices and having the customer serve himself. My god, the carhops were slow. We'd say to ourselves that there had to be a faster way. The cars were jamming up the lot. Customers weren't demanding it, but our intuition told us that they would like speed. Everything was moving faster. The supermarkets and dime stores had already converted to self-service, and it was obvious the future of drive-ins was self-service.

McDonalds Speedee Service Menu || Thomas Hawk/Flickr/Creative Commons License

The brothers called this new system the speedee service system. When they reopened, their profits initially tanked, and it looked like they had made a losing bet. The carhops we fired would come in and heckle us about getting their uniforms ready, Dick recalled. Even the old customers would ask when we were going back to the old system. But soon, the revamped McDonald's began to attract a new, highly desirable crowd. Working and middle class families began flooding the restaurant, lured by the low prices, quick service and friendly atmosphere. The kids loved coming to the counter, employee

LINK:	https://www.kcet.org/food-living/the-real-mcdonalds-the-san-bernardino...
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