97 Fun Facts About McDonald's

In which California city did the McDonald brothers open the original McDonald's restaurant in 1940?

The brothers opened McDonald's Bar-B-Q in San Bernardino in 1940, on Route 66, after running an earlier hot-dog stand, the Airdrome, in Monrovia with their father.

What was Ray Kroc selling when he first visited the McDonald brothers in 1954?

The brothers had bought eight of his Prince Castle Multimixers, and Kroc went to see why one stand needed so many.

Ray Kroc's first franchised restaurant opened in 1955 in which Illinois town?

Kroc's Des Plaines restaurant opened on April 15, 1955, the date the corporation counts as its founding, though it was in fact about the ninth McDonald's overall.

For what sum did Ray Kroc buy out the McDonald brothers in 1961?

Kroc paid $2.7 million in 1961, a figure set so each brother cleared $1 million after taxes; they lost the rights to their own name and renamed their original stand The Big M.

What was the brothers' streamlined kitchen method, the fast food industry's template, called?

The Speedee Service System, launched in 1948, turned the kitchen into an assembly line: the brothers fired their 20 carhops, swapped plates for paper and bags, and slashed the menu to a handful of items.

What did McDonald's original mascot, a winking chef from 1948, have for a head?

The 1948 mascot was a winking chef with a hamburger for a head, used on signs and ads; the Golden Arches replaced him as the logo in 1962, a year before Ronald McDonald.

Who first sketched the two yellow arches that became McDonald's Golden Arches?

Richard McDonald drew the rough sketch; several architects wanted to drop the arches before Stanley Meston agreed to build two 25-foot neon-trimmed arches, first seen on the 1953 Phoenix franchise.

The Big Mac was invented by franchisee Jim Delligatti and first sold in 1967 in which Pennsylvania town?

Delligatti's Uniontown restaurant sold the first of the double-decker burgers in 1967; he admitted he had simply copied the Big Boy, and the sandwich went national in 1968.

Which of these was a rejected early name for the Big Mac?

The Aristocrat and the Blue Ribbon Burger were both tried and dropped; the winning name came from Esther Glickstein Rose, a 21-year-old advertising secretary at headquarters.

In the 1974 jingle, a Big Mac's patties, sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions sit on what?

The 1974 jingle lists 'two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame-seed bun'; the special sauce resembles Thousand Island dressing.

The Economist uses the price of which McDonald's item to compare the buying power of world currencies?

The Big Mac Index, introduced in 1986 by The Economist's Pam Woodall, compares Big Mac prices as a light-hearted gauge of purchasing-power parity and coined the term 'burgernomics'.

Ray Kroc's meat-free rival to the Filet-O-Fish was a grilled slice of what?

The Hula Burger put pineapple and cheese on a cold bun; the fish sandwich 'won hands down' and was nationwide by 1965.

The Egg McMuffin, invented in 1972 by Herb Peterson, was designed to resemble which breakfast dish?

Herb Peterson modelled the Egg McMuffin on Eggs Benedict, swapping hollandaise for a slice of cheese and cooking the egg in a ring mould to make it perfectly round; Ray Kroc liked it enough to put it on menus chain-wide.

According to McDonald's, Chicken McNuggets come in four shapes: the ball, the bell, the boot and what?

The bow tie, also called the bone, completes the set of four; René Arend, the company's first executive chef and a native of Luxembourg, created the McNugget recipe that went national in 1983.

The McRib, introduced in 1981, is made from what meat?

The McRib patty is restructured boneless pork shoulder pressed into the shape of a tiny rack of ribs; unlike the US, where it appears only in limited runs, Germany has kept it on the menu year-round.

Since the 1980s, what flavour has McDonald's March-only Shamrock Shake been?

The Shamrock Shake has been mint-flavoured since 1983; the 1970 original used lemon-lime sherbet, and by 1973 it was just a vanilla shake dyed green.

Proceeds from Shamrock Shakes helped fund the first Ronald McDonald House in 1974, in which city?

Eagles player Fred Hill's daughter Kim was being treated for leukaemia; the team, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and local McDonald's operators, who donated Shamrock Shake proceeds, funded the house in 1974.

Until 1990, McDonald's fries in the US were cooked mainly in what?

Until 1990 the fries were cooked mostly in beef tallow; the switch to vegetable oil followed ads by heart-attack survivor Phil Sokolof, and in 2002 the chain paid $10 million to settle suits over undisclosed beef flavouring.

The Happy Meal went national in the US in which year?

The Happy Meal rolled out nationally in June 1979 with a circus-wagon theme; its first film tie-in, that December, was a Star Trek Meal promoting Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

The Happy Meal grew out of a 1970s 'Ronald Menu' created by a franchisee's wife in which country?

Yolanda Fernández de Cofiño, whose family ran McDonald's in Guatemala, bundled a burger, small fries and a sundae as the 'Menú Ronald'; ad man Bob Bernstein later developed the idea into the boxed meal.

The Quarter Pounder was created in 1971 by franchisee Al Bernardin in which city?

His slogan was 'Today Fremont, tomorrow the world', and it went national in 1973.

The McFlurry was invented in 1995 by a franchisee in which country?

Franchisee Ron McLellan's store in Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada, sold the first McFlurry in 1995; its hollow-handled spoon attaches to a blender spindle so the toppings are mixed in the cup.

The McCafé coffee-shop concept was created by McDonald's in which country in 1993?

It began in Melbourne, and locals there call the chain Macca's, a nickname it has used in official Australian branding.

Which television weatherman played the very first Ronald McDonald in 1963 Washington, D.C. commercials?

Willard Scott, later the Today show's weatherman, had just finished playing Bozo the Clown on Washington's WRC-TV when he created the first Ronald McDonald for local commercials in 1963.

When Grimace first appeared in 1971, what was he?

'Evil Grimace' tested badly, so McDonald's removed his extra arms and made him a lovable lump; the company has confirmed he represents a giant taste bud.

In 1973 the creators of which children's TV show sued McDonald's, claiming McDonaldland copied it?

Sid and Marty Krofft, creators of H.R. Pufnstuf, argued Mayor McCheese copied their Mayor Pufnstuf; they won in 1977, and McDonald's dropped several McDonaldland characters.

What colour is Ronald McDonald's hair?

Ronald McDonald has a shock of bright red hair, a yellow jumpsuit and red-and-white striped sleeves, a look that has stayed essentially unchanged since the mid-1960s.

McDonald's management training school awards its graduates a degree in what?

Graduates receive a Bachelor of Hamburgerology; the school opened in 1961 in the basement of an Elk Grove Village, Illinois, restaurant with a class of about 15 and has since trained hundreds of thousands of managers.

In the 1994 hot coffee lawsuit, how old was plaintiff Stella Liebeck when she was burned?

Liebeck was 79 when coffee served at 180 to 190 degrees Fahrenheit gave her third-degree burns in 1992; at the 1994 trial the jury found McDonald's 80 per cent responsible.

After the judge cut the punitive damages, what total did the hot coffee verdict come to?

The judge cut the jury's punitive award to $480,000, three times the $160,000 compensatory award, for a total of $640,000; the parties then settled privately for an undisclosed sum.

The McDonald's Monopoly promotion was halted in 2001 after what was discovered?

Jerome 'Uncle Jerry' Jacobson of Simon Marketing skimmed the winning pieces for years, a scheme later dramatised in the HBO series McMillions.

In the US Monopoly promotion, collecting which two properties traditionally wins the top cash prize?

Boardwalk and Park Place, the dark-blue pair, win the top cash prize; Park Place is common but Boardwalk is printed in tiny numbers, so the set almost never gets completed by chance.

In 1992, who became the first celebrity to have a McDonald's value meal named after him?

The McJordan was sold only in Chicago, and a gallon of its barbecue sauce later sold for $10,000.

Who played Ray Kroc in the 2016 film The Founder?

Michael Keaton plays Kroc as a hustling salesman; Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch play Dick and Mac McDonald, and Laura Dern plays Kroc's first wife, Ethel.

Which executive convinced Kroc that McDonald's real business was owning land under its restaurants?

Harry Sonneborn, Kroc's finance chief, set up Franchise Realty Corporation in 1956 to buy or lease the land under restaurants and charge franchisees rent, turning McDonald's into a landlord as much as a burger chain.

Roughly how much weight did Morgan Spurlock gain in 30 days in Super Size Me?

Spurlock gained about 24 pounds (24.5 lb, or 11 kg) over the 30 days; within weeks of the film's premiere McDonald's dropped its Super Size option, though it called the decision unrelated.

The McDonald's in Sedona, Arizona, has arches of what unusual colour?

Sedona's arches are turquoise blue: in 1993 city officials ruled that yellow would clash with the surrounding sandstone scenery, and the company's first alternative shade was accepted.

The Big Mac in India is sold under what name, since it contains no beef?

The Maharaja Mac swaps beef for chicken (originally lamb) because most Hindus do not eat beef; McDonald's India serves no beef at all and has opened vegetarian-only outlets near pilgrimage sites.

After leaving Russia in 2022, McDonald's sold its 850 restaurants to a buyer who reopened them under what name?

Vkusno i tochka, roughly 'Tasty, and that's it', is the name licensee Alexander Govor chose when he reopened the former McDonald's restaurants in June 2022; the sale barred any use of McDonald's branding.

What did the McDonald brothers cut their menu down to when they relaunched their original stand in 1948?

The 1948 menu had just nine items: a 15-cent hamburger, a cheeseburger, three soft drinks, milk, coffee, potato chips and pie; french fries replaced the chips the following year.

The third McDonald's ever built, opened in 1953, stands in which Los Angeles-area city?

Downey's restaurant, opened in August 1953 by franchisees Roger Williams and Burdette Landon, was the third McDonald's built and the second with the Golden Arches, and it outlived every earlier McDonald's.

Which Major League Baseball team did Ray Kroc own from 1974 until his death?

Kroc bought the San Diego Padres in 1974, a year after stepping back from running McDonald's, and owned them until his death in 1984; his widow Joan became one of America's biggest philanthropists.

The first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opened in 1990 on which Moscow square?

The Pushkin Square restaurant opened on January 31, 1990, the chain's first in the Soviet Union; about 30,000 people queued on its first day, a company record at the time.

Which pizza chain did McDonald's own from 1999 until 2003?

McDonald's bought Donatos Pizza in 1999 and sold it back to founder Jim Grote in December 2003; it also owned Boston Market until 2007 and held a majority stake in Chipotle until October 2006.

Fred Turner, who became McDonald's CEO in 1973, started at the company in 1956 doing what job?

He was Operations Vice President by 1958, when the chain had just 34 restaurants, and he later succeeded Kroc as chairman.

The Economist says its light-hearted fast-food currency index makes exchange-rate theory more what?

The Economist describes its index as 'a lighthearted guide' that makes exchange-rate theory more digestible: one standardised burger is sold in most countries, so its local price hints at whether a currency is over- or undervalued.

Which circus performer designed the Ronald McDonald costume and make-up in 1966?

Michael Polakovs, the circus clown known as Coco and son of Britain's famous Coco the Clown, was hired in 1966 to redesign Ronald's costume and make-up, creating the wig, yellow jumpsuit and striped sleeves.

Ray Kroc of McDonald's trained as a wartime ambulance driver beside which future entertainment mogul?

Walt Disney and Kroc met as First World War trainees in Connecticut. Decades later Kroc wrote to him asking for a McDonald's at Disneyland, which opened without one.

The McDonald brothers planned their kitchen by chalking each piece of equipment, full size, onto what?

A tennis court behind the McDonald family home became the drawing board. Drawing everything at true size let the brothers find the efficiencies they wanted before the new building went up.

Which Nordic country lost every McDonald's in 2009 after a financial crash made imports too costly?

Iceland's franchisee reopened every one of the restaurants two days later under a home-grown name, Metro.

Fans of which animated series pushed McDonald's to bring back its 1998 Szechuan dipping sauce in 2018?

Rick and Morty opened its third season with its mad scientist obsessing over the sauce, which was first made to promote the film Mulan.

The website McBroken, launched in 2020, tracks which notoriously unreliable McDonald's equipment?

Ice cream machines at McDonald's also turn out its shakes, and the best-known model is notorious for breaking down. McBroken shows on a map which ones are working.

Which tech billionaire worked as a short-order line cook at McDonald's while he was in high school?

Jeff Bezos cooked at McDonald's as a teenager, more than a decade before he founded Amazon in a rented garage.

Which movie-rental brand began as a McDonald's venture, with early kiosks in the chain's restaurants?

Redbox grew out of a McDonald's expansion scheme called Project 361. Its DVD rentals were first tested at 140 of the chain's restaurants in Denver and other test cities.

Which Colorado-born burrito chain was majority-owned by McDonald's until it sold up in 2006?

Chipotle had only 16 restaurants when McDonald's first invested in 1998. The money helped it pass 500 before the two companies parted.

Joan Kroc, widow of McDonald's builder Ray Kroc, left most of her fortune in 2003 to which charity?

The Salvation Army was asked to spend the bequest on community recreation centres across the US, which carry the Kroc name.

Which chain passed McDonald's at the end of 2010 as the world's largest by restaurant count?

Subway finished 2010 with 33,749 restaurants, about a thousand more than McDonald's had.

Which K-pop group's McDonald's meal, with two Korean-inspired sauces, reached fifty countries in 2021?

BTS put their name to an order of Chicken McNuggets, fries and a Coke. The Sweet Chili and Cajun sauces were based on McDonald's recipes from South Korea.

Since the 1970s McDonald's has sponsored an all-star game for top high-school players of which sport?

Basketball's McDonald's All-American Game began in 1978 as an East against West contest for the best boys, and a girls' game joined it in 2002.

McDonald's was an official sponsor from 1976 until the 2010s of which global sporting event?

The Olympic Games once cost the chain millions: a 1984 giveaway tied to American medals backfired when a Soviet-led boycott let the US win far more than expected.

Which 1988 Eddie Murphy comedy features McDowell's, a burger joint forever dodging McDonald's lawyers?

Coming to America casts John Amos as Cleo McDowell, who insists his restaurant differs from the real thing in various insignificant ways.

Over McDonald's objections, which word for dead-end employment entered Merriam-Webster's dictionary in 2003?

McJob had been in print since at least 1986, and the Oxford English Dictionary defines it as an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects.

Which McDonald's dessert was deep-fried in the US until a baked version replaced it in 1992?

Apple pie joined the menu in 1968 and was only ever deep-fried until 1992, when baked pies replaced the fried ones in most of the American market.

Since France does not weigh in pounds, McDonald's sells its Quarter Pounder there under which name?

Royal Cheese is also the name in Belgium, Croatia and Cyprus, while Hungary, Latvia and Poland call the same burger a McRoyal.

McDonald's began swapping its logo's traditional background across Europe in 2009 for which colour?

Green, in a deep hunter shade, was chosen to give the chain a more eco-friendly image. About 100 German restaurants were due to switch by the end of that year.

McDonald's left its longtime suburban campus in Oak Brook in 2018 for a new headquarters in which city?

Chicago's West Loop became the company's home after 47 years in Oak Brook. McDonald's had moved out to the suburb from an office in the city's Loop in 1971.

Long before McDonald's, Ray Kroc earned money in the 1920s playing which instrument in bands?

Piano playing was one of several jobs Kroc held through the 1920s and the Great Depression, when he also worked as a real estate agent.

Birdie, the first female McDonaldland character, arrived in 1980 to promote which part of the menu?

Breakfast was a new line for the chain when Birdie arrived, a yellow bird dressed in a pink jumpsuit, flight cap and scarf.

When the McDonald brothers opened the original McDonald's in 1940, its name advertised which speciality?

Barbecue led the menu at McDonald's Famous Barbecue, but by 1948 the brothers saw that most of their profit came from burgers and rebuilt the business around them.

French farmer José Bové wrecked a half-built McDonald's in 1999 over US import curbs on which product?

Roquefort producers were being hurt by the American restrictions, Bové argued. Later that year he joined the protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle.

In the McDonald's operating motto QSC&V, three letters mean quality, service and value; what is the C?

Cleanliness is more than a slogan here: the motto is written into the procedures McDonald's uses to evaluate its franchisees.

When the McDonald brothers rebuilt their drive-in for speed in 1948, which twenty workers did they fire?

Carhops had brought orders out to parked cars. Without them, trade suffered for months, because customers did not expect to walk up to a window.

Which burger chain, founded in Kansas in 1921, pioneered the methods the McDonald brothers later built on?

White Castle is generally credited as the world's first fast-food burger chain, and it had its methods working more than two decades before the brothers built theirs.

McDonald's worked with the Environmental Defense Fund to replace burger boxes made of which material?

Polystyrene clamshells gave way to paper, one of several changes that helped McDonald's cut its restaurant waste by 30 percent over the next decade.

Cuba's only McDonald's is off limits to ordinary Cubans because it stands where?

On the Guantanamo Bay naval base, the restaurant serves only people with access to the American installation, so Cuban citizens cannot eat there.

McDonald's 'McLibel' suit against two activists became the longest trial in which country's history?

England's judges awarded McDonald's £40,000, which it chose not to collect. A European human rights ruling later found that the two activists had been denied a fair trial.

Which New York Times columnist argued in 1996 that no two countries with a McDonald's had gone to war?

Thomas Friedman called it the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention: a middle class big enough to support the chain, he reasoned, loses its interest in fighting wars.

Which journalist's 2001 book Fast Food Nation took a critical look at McDonald's and its industry?

Eric Schlosser began the book as a Rolling Stone assignment to look at the country through what it eats, and the magazine ran his reporting before the book came out.

Which Idaho potato magnate agreed by handshake with Ray Kroc to supply McDonald's with frozen fries?

J.R. Simplot had left school in the eighth grade at 14, and he died at 99 as the oldest billionaire on the Forbes 400.

Which British island territory lost its only McDonald's when a US base shut, then outlawed franchised restaurants?

Bermuda's lone McDonald's stood on an American naval air station and closed with it in 1995. Two years later a law blocked a plan to bring the chain back.

Which local chain withstood McDonald's 1981 arrival in the Philippines by cooking for Filipino palates?

Jollibee had been set up by Tony Tan Caktiong in 1978, three years before its American rival landed, and went on to become the Philippines' top fast-food chain.

Asia's first McDonald's opened in 1971 inside a department store in which Tokyo shopping district?

Ginza's Mitsukoshi store housed the restaurant, and Japanese customers know the chain by the short names makku and makudo.

The McDonald brothers, sons of Irish immigrants, were born and raised in which northeastern US state?

New Hampshire was home at both ends of the story: the brothers were born in Manchester, and the younger of the two died there in 1998.

What is the title of the 1977 memoir in which Ray Kroc told the story of building McDonald's?

Grinding It Out was co-written by Kroc and reissued in 2016, when it served as the basis for a Hollywood film about him.

Which 1996 McDonald's burger, pitched at adults with a record ad budget, became a costly flop?

Arch Deluxe was meant to shed the chain's child-centred image, but it was discontinued soon after launch when it failed to catch on.

McDonald's management school taught its first class in 1961 in which part of one of its restaurants?

The basement classroom was in a restaurant in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. It grew into a network of campuses in cities including Tokyo, London, Munich and Shanghai.

The first McDonald's built with golden arches, a franchise opened in 1953, stood in which Arizona city?

Phoenix franchisee Neil Fox surprised the brothers by putting the McDonald's name on his stand, which opened in May 1953.

After selling Ray Kroc their name, the McDonald brothers had to rename their original restaurant what?

The Big M lasted only six more years. An angry Kroc opened a McDonald's close by, and the brothers' stand closed.

Protests against a McDonald's near Rome's Spanish Steps in 1986 gave rise to which global movement?

Slow Food became an international movement three years later, when delegates from 15 countries signed its founding manifesto in Paris.

McDonald's bought which rotisserie chicken chain in 2000, mainly to get hold of its real estate?

Boston Market turned out to be worth keeping: McDonald's ran and expanded the brand for seven years before selling it to Sun Capital Partners.

McDonald's first restaurant in a communist country opened in 1988 in which Yugoslav city?

Belgrade's branch was also the first McDonald's anywhere in the Balkans, and it beat the chain's Hungarian debut, which came later the same year.

Which country became home in 1992 to the first McDonald's in both Africa and the Arab world?

Morocco's opening meant that McDonald's was operating on every inhabited continent for the first time.

Which McDonaldland character, dropped in 1985, spent his commercials trying to steal Filet-O-Fish?

Captain Crook, a pirate introduced in 1971, had a second job in the commercials: translating the Hamburglar's gibberish.

Which sociologist coined the term McDonaldization for fast-food principles spreading through society?

George Ritzer named the hallmarks of the process as efficiency, calculability, predictability and control.

Joan Kroc, widow of McDonald's builder Ray Kroc, left a record gift of over $200 million to which broadcaster?

NPR got the money because Joan Kroc believed deeply in the power of public radio, and it used the gift to expand its news coverage and lower its fees.

South America's first McDonald's opened in which beachfront district of Rio de Janeiro?

Copacabana got its restaurant in the same year that McDonald's first reached Southeast Asia, as the chain pushed into two new regions at once.

McDonald's bought a one-third stake in 2001 in which British high-street chain, selling it on in 2008?

Pret a Manger kept its independence throughout: the 33% stake was non-controlling, and McDonald's sold it to the private equity group Bridgepoint Capital.