Brothers
Dick and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant on May 15, 1940. The tiny street corner eatery was located at 1398 North E Street at West 14th Street in San Bernardino, Los Angeles, California).
The eatery was originally a barbecue drive-in, but the McDonald brothers discovered that most of their profits came from hamburgers. In 1948, they closed their restaurant for three months, reopening it in December as a walk-up hamburger stand.
This new venture introduced the "Speedee Service System," establishing the principles of the modern fast-food restaurant. The brothers replaced the trained cooks in their San Bernardino eatery with low-paid teenagers who simply flipped burgers and dunked fries in oil. The menu was reduced to a few items and cutlery and china was discarded. Customers had to queue for their food and eat out of a cardboard carton with their hands. Prices was reduced, people piled in and the fast food restaurant was born.
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American Ray Kroc, a mixer salesman, recognized the idea's potential and partnered with the brothers. Kroc opened his first
McDonald's franchise, the ninth overall in Illinois on April 15, 1955, an occasion considered to be the founding of the present corporation. He later bought out the McDonald brothers.