Name: Ray Kroc.
Age: 81 when he died in 1984.
Appearance: This coming August.
Didn’t you just say he was dead? Yes, but the movie of his life is scheduled for release in August.
I see. And who was Ray Kroc? He was the founder of the McDonald’s fast-food empire.
I thought a clown founded McDonald’s? No, the clown came later. In The Founder, Kroc will be played by Spotlight and Birdman star Michael Keaton.
If he was the founder, why isn’t McDonald’s called Kroc’s? Well, to be fair, he wasn’t quite the founder. It’s an interesting story, actually.
Are you going to tell it? Not without first issuing a SPOILER ALERT.
I’m alerted. OK, then. Having lied about his age (15) in order to drive ambulances during the first world war, Kroc later found work as a paper-cup salesman, musician and radio DJ.
Uh-huh. Then, in 1954, while working as a travelling milkshake-mixer salesman, Kroc visited a successful California burger joint run by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald.
Ah-ha! Impressed by the efficiency of their operation – limited menu, factory-line cooking, no waiters – Kroc offered to franchise the system nationwide. The brothers agreed, and by 1958 McDonald’s had sold 100m burgers.
I do love a happy ending. Well, Kroc’s ambitions for the business consistently outstripped those of the more cautious McDonalds. In 1961, the brothers agreed to sell the company to Kroc, but fell out badly with him during negotiations.
What went wrong? It depends who you ask. Kroc reportedly reneged on a handshake royalty agreement. He was said to be angry because the McDonalds had refused to surrender their original, highly profitable San Bernadino restaurant to him, which they renamed M’s.
You win some, you lose some. Not Kroc: he opened a McDonald’s outlet nearby and drove them out of business.
So, it’s another story of a rapacious capitalist burning bridges in order to create a global corporate behemoth? Up to a point – Kroc retired in 1976 to concentrate on the San Diego Padres baseball team, which he had bought two years previously.
Do say: “I’m sure a warts’n’all biopic of such a figure could be fascinating, even if I can’t quite see how.”
Don’t say: “How’s the Happy Meal tie-in deal progressing?”
