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The site of 14th and E streets in San Bernardino may well one day become a shrine to Pax Americana. It is surely where America's 20th century identity
was born. A lot of people might want to trivialize this place, but its effect has been to carry one of America's icons into every corner of the
globe.
We're talking here about McDonald's. And the birth of fast food. Like Coca-Cola before it, McDonald's has become such a staple of life in so many
places around the world that it surely must be looked upon by historians in the future as having successfully carried the American message as much as
the State Department.
They might be cross about that but I think it's true.
Situated on Route 66 - it is in fact the business loop of the famous road - McDonald's was originally brought there on a flatbed from Arcadia. The two
brothers, Dick and Maurice "Mac" McDonald, opened their first place on this site in 1940 selling mostly barbecue items. By 1948 they were successful
but tired of the problems of running such a big restaurant.
They switched their focus to selling hamburgers and fries for 15 cents and 10 cents respectively. What a blessing for the tired occupants of the
post-WWII vehicles on their way along the Mother Road. No wonder the place boomed.
Now my plaque would not be placed at this famous site but rather across the street. This is where the true miracle happened. For this is where a
salesman from Chicago happened to park in order to sell some drink-mixing equipment to the two brothers. It was in 1954, and he sat in his car
watching the activity at the restaurant. It was then he had an epiphany. His name was Ray Kroc, and it was he who took the idea of fast food and
franchised it not just back to Des Plaines, Ill., which was his first location, but eventually around the world.
By 1961, he had paid the McDonald brothers $2.7million, and the whole empire was his. It has been a true American success story, and there are few
places in the world where the sign of the twin Golden Arches is not immediately recognized.
My first experience of McDonald's was in Holland in the mid-1970s. I knew about the chain but had never been in one. However, I was in The Hague, and
it was getting late on a Saturday night. It was suggested that we go to the new "hot spot" in the city, which is normally a place of great restraint
and gentility.
A line of people was out the door and round the corner. We joined the queue. It didn't take long to get inside, but I was fascinated by the eclectic
crowd that had gathered.
Of course, there were the usual jeans and T-shirt brigade but also women in evening dresses, and even men in white ties and tails.
It was 30 years ago, of course.
Everyone was having a wonderful time, and this phenomenon lasted for the next two years until the novelty wore off and the McDonald's brand was spread
around the country.
Today the original San Bernardino site is open to the public as the McDonald's and Route 66 Museum, having been rescued by Albert Okura, the owner of
Juan Pollo, which has its headquarters there. It is packed with memorabilia of the early years of McDonald's, including many of its catchy promotions.
It also has a lot of items from the Route 66 days.
The ever-helpful and knowledgeable curator, Jack Marcus, cares for the exhibits, and as a professional cartoonist himself, he professes a particular
fondness for the many cartoon characters that McDonald's was responsible for. Outside on the weathered sign the Hamburglar gives testament to one of
the originals of those.
Both McDonald brothers are now dead, and Ray Kroc himself died in 1984 at age 81. However, they began a system that carried their products all over
the world, and today the official McDonald's Web site states that they serve 52 million people every day in 100 countries. Also, 70 percent of their
restaurants are owned by individual business people, who continue to carry the message further.
You may or may not like fast food, but it is a fact of life and a very happy one for millions of people every day. I think it's as good a reason as
any to put up a significant monument to American know-how and inventiveness.
Fast Food Source - Where happiness comes in a paper wrapper!
posted on 10/25/2008 at 09:32 AM
