He couldn’t understand why the McDonald’s brothers needed so many, and he went and checked out McDonald's and was like, what is this? They opened a couple of more restaurants in Southern California, and one or two in Arizona.Īnd then, in the mid-1950s, Ray Kroc, who people often think of as the founder of the franchise system, got involved. The idea was a success, but they didn’t expand very much. So they closed and reopened with a smaller menu. When the brothers saw that their burgers were bestsellers, they realized they could automize the production of burgers, fries, and drinks if they kept the menu simple. The restaurant served barbecue and generally, they had a relatively big menu. They worked in the movie industry, then they tried hotdog carts, then opened their first restaurant in San Bernandino, California in 1945. MC: So Richard and Maurice McDonald were the founders of McDonald's, and they were two brothers from New Hampshire who moved to California during the Depression to figure out their lives. To begin, who started McDonald’s and when? A condensed transcript edited for clarity is below.īen: Professor Chatelain, thank you so much for being here.īen: Of course-it's all downhill from here. Professor Chatelain and I discussed McDonald’s growth in Black communities following MLK’s death, corporations’ distortion of MLK’s legacy, and the long entrenchment of food inequity. Professor Chatelain is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America. To reflect on Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, celebrated on Monday, I spoke to Professor Marcia Chatelain about the interconnected rise of McDonald’s.

Franchise marcia chatelain