History Buffs: The Founder

The irony that McDonald's was built by a milkshake machine salesman yet their milkshake machines are always broken is almost poetic.

“It’s better to have one great restaurant than 50 mediocre ones.” It’s so weird to hear that in a story about McDonald’s.

If there was a third McDonald brother, Ray could have been the quarter founder with cheese.

The McDonald brother who lived longer was interviewed in a documentary and it was said that the McDonald brothers knew Ray Croc would be successful so they invested in McDonalds and did quite well as a result. So, they felt very warmly toward Ray Croc because their stock really paid off. I recall reading that Ray had to borrow from all kinds of places such as foundations that lent out to pay off the McDonald brothers.

Let's all take a moment to appreciate Keaton's acting. He's such an understated, versatile actor that puts his all into every film. It's unreal.

When I was in rehab for addiction they played us this movie as an example that no matter where we were in life we could always recover and build great success. The next day they played 'What about Bob?' 🤣

The McDonald brothers continued to make appearances at annual owner conventions well into their later years. That's a fact rarely mentioned. If they were really upset with the corporation then I doubt they would have done this.

I worked at a McDonald’s restaurant during high school in the 1980s. I clearly remember that each location had a wall plaque commemorating Ray Kroc. I guess it was a corporate tactic to erase the legacy of the McDonald brothers.

Does anyone else get unreasonably excited whenever there’s another History Buffs video out? 😂

My father, Carl Eriksen, was Ray Kroc's personal assistant from 1966 to 1970. He is briefly mentioned in Kroc's book. I knew Ray Kroc and his wife Jane. (there was a short-lived experiment called "Jane Dobbin's Pie Restaurant") I was around when Ray divorced her for Joan (not Joanne as you say in this video). In 1970, my parents and I went to Hamburger University in Elk Grove, Illinois (west of Chicago). I was the youngest graduate at age 14! I still have the diploma. Kroc was supposed to help my parents start up their own franchise but somehow that deal did not materialize. I can personally vouch for the portrayal of Kroc in the film. He was a ruthless and angry man with a huge ego. When he bought the San Diego Padres baseball team, he got into trouble with the Commissioner of Baseball because he used the PA system to apologize to the fans for his team's poor performance in 1977. He was a control freak and everything had to go his way. He would often visit a McDonald's in his Rolls Royce and if there was trash in the parking lot he would personally pick it up and then berate the manager.

Fun fact: Joan Kroc gave $200 million to National Public Radio in her will. At the time, it was twice the annual NPR budget, and continues to fund the service today.

From Mr. Mom to Pacific heights, to Batman, The Founder and more, Micheal Keaton has been a wonderful and versatile actor in many roles. I'm glad to see he is still active and I did like this movie. Thank you History Buffs for your analysis. Best to all.

He actually did a handshake deal like in the movie with an ice cream supplier, who later sued McD and I think settled out of court for millions, so he was known to make deals like that and to break them.

History Buffs understands that it’s better to have one great video than 50 mediocre ones.

Kroc was nothing but a true businessman, shrewd, conniving, inventive, sneaky,but still a true businessman.

I think the most important aspect is the milkshakes. See, you really have to understand how they used to be made, milk, ice cream, flavour. Let me tell you about this time I worked as a Gelato maker. Very tiny factory making products for a restaurant chain. Within a couple of meters of floor space, we managed to fit in the production of ice cream / Gelato. It starts with the milk pasteuriser. A large machine which churns and heats the milk. Then, you have those soft serve machines, they mix and chill the milk plus two items, base and paste. The base makes the ice cream and the paste is what you add to it afterwards, drizzle on top. So, there is a fundamental shift between a large factory making just ice cream, to the process of making ice cream being distributed. I would say this shift was the key to McDonalds long term success. Distribution is everything that makes a large business like this work. You couldn't possibly store all of that ice cream on site for so damn long, and to be honest with you, it's actually much easier then you might think to make ice cream. You can literally do it at home, the machinery is not as complicated as you might think, and I seriously laugh at the price tag placed on Italian ice cream, it's a joke. Soft serve is simply just a less frozen version of ice cream. Ice cream was designed to be much colder for long term storage, by keeping soft serve a bit warmer, you reduce a substantial cost right there. People assume soft serve is an inferior product, no, they are just saving costs on refrigeration. And yeah, it cuts down on the cleaning costs as well.

This was such an underrated movie, and I'm surprised it didn't win any awards.

For a company that was all about speed and efficiency, it’s kinda weird that they dived into making pizza in the 80’s. Pizza can be made faster today, but back then it took a lot more time.

This is the kind of content that brings me back to a channel. Well-researched, thorough and interesting. History Buffs, and Gaming Historian videos will always get me to click on them.

Funny story. My class watched this movie in social studies and we actively cheered when Ray Croc got divorced because we all hated him so much. This is a great movie