Ray Kroc and MacDonald

McDonald’s was founded by Ray Kroc, one of the pioneers of the modern franchise organization format, in 1955. Raymond Albert Kroc was born in Oak Park, Illinois on October 5, 1902. He grew up with a younger brother and sister.

Ray was good at selling things. He ran a lemonade stand in front of his house. Later, Ray worked in a grocery store and at a soda fountain. After a variety of odd jobs, he had settled on selling Lily paper cups.

In 1939, Kroc made a big decision and started Malt-A-Mixer Company. He began selling Multi-mixers to ice-cream stands and other restaurants. He also sold Multi-mixers to many fast food franchisees, including Dairy Queen and Tastee Freez.

In the early 1950s, increased competition had reduced the sales of Multi-mixers and Kroc needed new outlets. Kroc seen advertisements promoting McDonald’s franchises and was surprised to find that the McDonald brothers had purchased eight of his company’s Multi-mixers. The restaurant, McDonald Brothers Burger Bar Drive-In, operated by Maurice and Richard McDonald, had developed the concept of the assembly-line hamburger with French fries.

There was also a large sign in front of the restaurant displaying two golden arches.

It was entrepreneurial love at first sight - and Kroc immediately foresaw a glowing future for the chain. He persuaded the brothers to sell him the right to license the restaurant and recognized early that site election would be key in spreading the chain across the nation.

In 1955, Kroc created McDonalds’ System, Inc and on April 15, 1955, Kroc opened his first McDonald’s in Des Plaines, Illinois.

By the end of 1957, there were thirty-seven McDonalds. Two years later, the total had reached over one hundred.

Kroc was extremely successful in establishing the chain, but despite this success, Kroc went through numerous legal and personal disagreements with the McDonald brothers along the way.

Kroc finally solved the impasse with the McDonalds by buying them out, for $2.7 million and astronomical sum in 1961. He immediately began an effort to modernize and publicize the establishment, launching what has been described as the most expensive and aggressive ad campaign in American corporate history.
Ray Kroc and MacDonald

Richard James "Dick" McDonald and Maurice James "Mac" McDonald

In 1937, two brothers, Richard (Dick) and Maurice (Mac) McDonald, began their carhop drive –in business in San Bernardino, California. They did not serve hamburgers, only hot dogs. This modest effort was succeeded by a larger place worth windows that exposed the entire kitchen to public view.

The fast-food restaurant was born in December 1948 at San Bernardino, Fourteen and E streets. This new restaurant named the Dimer, where every item on the menu cost10 cents - drinks, fries and hamburgers.

The menu was trimmed to 11 items, served in paper wrappings with disposable flatware.

For maximum efficiency, their organized their kitchen like an assembly line and changed their ‘concept’ for car-hop to self-service windows where customers placed their orders and had them filled.

Dick McDonald came up with the idea of the golden arch in 1953, not long before the brothers opened their first franchise store in Phoenix, Arizona.

By the 1950s, Dick and Mac McDonald were profiting $100,000 a year. They had opened eight more shops in Arizona and California but spurned offers to expand nationally.

Ray Kroc, their multi-mixer salesman later became the franchising agent with license to take the company national. He opened his first restaurant which he named ‘MacDonald’s in April 15, 1955.

Ray Kroc also established the McDonald Corporation.

In 1961, Dick and Mac sold their rights in the business to Ray Kroc for $2.7 million. Dick retired to live in New York, New Hampshire and his brother Mac died in 1971.
Richard James "Dick" McDonald and Maurice James "Mac" McDonald

Colonel Harland Sanders of KFC

Colonel Harland David Sanders (September 9, 1890 – December 16, 1980) was born in Henryville, Indiana, in a thin walled, four-room shack beside a country road, the oldest of three children born to Margaret Ann and Wilbert D Sanders.

When he was ten, Harland Sanders got his job, working for farmer Charlie Norris, clearing land for two dollars per month.

He enlisted in the army at 16; then worked on the railroad; and after taking correspondence courses in law, began representing clients in court.

What by some accounts was a promising legal career ended with a courtroom incident in which Sanders was charged with assault and battery by his own client.

In 1930, Sanders got a job in Corbin, Kentucky as operator of a restaurant and service station on a busy US Route 25.

Soon he became as famous for his home cooking as for the service at his filling station.

He then expanded his operation from Sanders café to Sanders Court, a motel with seven rooms across the street and began experimenting with pressure cookers and a fried chicken recipe given to him by a neighbor. The growing fame of his chicken eventually attracted the acclaim of the celebrity food critic Duncan Hines.

As a result of this national exposure, in 1935 Kentucky governor Ruby Laffoon made Sanders a Kentucky Colonels.

In 1950 Colonel Sanders had settled on the cooking method and the 11 herbs and spices that would make his chicken world famous.

In 1960 Colonel Sanders established his new company headquarters in Shelbyville, Kentucky.

By 1960 there were more than 200 franchisees in the United States. The success of Sander’s brand increased the overall popularity of chicken as a mainstream American food, causing a surge in domestic chicken production and consumption.

He and his wife, Claudia built the business to six hundreds outlet by the time he sold Kentucky Fried Chicken for $2 million to Kentucky businessman, John Y. Brown Jr and Nashville entrepreneur Jack Massey in 1964.
Colonel Harland Sanders of KFC