McDonald's: From Drive-In to Global Giant

The brothers' kitchen revolution

Richard and Maurice McDonald opened a barbecue drive-in in San Bernardino, California, in 1940. In 1948 they closed it for a few months and reopened with a radical idea: a short menu built around 15-cent hamburgers, fries and shakes, made on an assembly line they called the Speedee Service System.

Each worker had one job, from grilling to dressing buns, and customers walked up to a window instead of waiting for carhops. Food came out in seconds, prices dropped and families flocked in.

Ray Kroc and franchising

Ray Kroc was selling Multimixer milkshake machines when he noticed the brothers had bought eight of them. He visited in 1954, saw the system in action and became their franchising agent. He opened his own first McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois, on April 15, 1955, and in 1961 bought out the brothers for 2.7 million dollars.

Kroc's key insight was consistency: a hamburger should taste the same in every town. Real estate also became central to the business, with the company owning or leasing the land under many restaurants.

Menu milestones

Many famous items came from franchisees, not headquarters. The Big Mac was created by Pittsburgh-area franchisee Jim Delligatti in 1967 and went national in 1968. The Filet-O-Fish started in Cincinnati in the early 1960s, and the Egg McMuffin was developed in Santa Barbara in the early 1970s, opening the door to fast food breakfast. The Happy Meal arrived in 1979.

A global brand

Today McDonald's serves customers in more than 100 countries, with menus adjusted to local tastes, from the McSpicy Paneer in India to teriyaki burgers in Japan. The Des Plaines replica museum closed and was demolished in 2018, but the original San Bernardino site is home to an unofficial museum run by fans.

For a deeper look at the signature burger, read our Big Mac page; for the fries, see our French fries guide.

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