Photos show what it was really like to eat at McDonald's in the 1950s
When the first McDonald's franchise opened in the 1950s, the experience of visiting the restaurant was vastly different than what we see today.
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- The first McDonald's franchise restaurant opened in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1955.
- When the first McDonald's restaurant opened, the menu only had nine items.
- A McDonald's museum was later opened to show visitors what the restaurant was like in the '50s.
The McDonald brothers, Richard and Maurice "Mac" McDonald, launched their burger restaurant in the 1940s.
It had a simple menu, which allowed the brothers to keep costs low and quality high, and self-service counters to make ordering faster.
Then, in 1954, Ray Kroc, a milkshake machine salesman, came across the small burger joint. Amazed by its efficiency, Kroc wanted in, and he became the first McDonald's franchisee agent.
The following year, he founded McDonald's System, Inc., which would later become the McDonald's Corporation, and he opened his first franchised location in Des Plaines, Illinois, on April 15, 1955, according to the company.
By 1958, McDonald's had sold 100 million burgers. There are now more than 38,000 McDonald's restaurants in more than 100 countries.
Nostalgia is one of the leading trends in fast food, with many chains reflecting on what made them successful in decades prior.
Though McDonald's has yet to tap into any '50s-themed meals or merchandise, the chain has paid homage to subsequent decades with last summer's limited-edition cups inspired by iconic Happy Meal toys and its viral Grimace-themed shake two years ago, which starred the character first introduced in the 1970s.
Here's what it was like to visit McDonald's in the 1950s.
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The restaurant's famous red-and-white design was designed by architect Stanley Meston.
However, after the McDonald brothers saw the design for the first time, they said that the roof looked too flat. It was then that Meston added the now-iconic golden arches to the building's roof.
The oldest still-operating restaurant featuring the original red-and-white design is located in Downey, California.
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Called the "McDonald's No. 1 museum," the site in Des Plaines was created to replicate what it would have been like to visit the McDonald's franchise when it opened.
The museum was demolished in 2018 after repeated flooding and declining tourism, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Still, photos from the museum show how visiting the first restaurant was a very different experience from what it's like to go to McDonald's today.
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Instead of the drive-thru model that's popular today, this method of ordering was called "drive-up."
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Every McDonald's worker had a specific job, and most of the food was preassembled before customers even ordered, according to History.com.
This allowed McDonald's locations to serve their food much faster than their competitors.
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The original McDonald's menu offered hamburgers, cheeseburgers, french fries, milk, root beer, orangeade, Coca-Cola, coffee, and three kinds of milkshakes: chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla.
In 1949, potato chips were swapped with french fries and McDonald's began selling milkshakes.
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At the first McDonald's location, every item cost less than 25 cents, and hamburgers were only 15 cents. Burgers could also be purchased by the dozen for large parties.
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All burgers were pre-made with ketchup, mustard, onions, and two pickles. If you wanted to order your hamburger a different way, you would have to wait just a little bit longer.
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The chain marketed its signature shoestring fries as "salty goodness," Fox News reported.
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McDonald's might have looked very different had it not been for the invention of the Multimixer.
Multimixer salesman and McDonald's Corporation founder Ray Kroc first met the McDonald brothers in 1954 while attempting to sell them more Multimixers for their restaurants.
It was then that Kroc introduced the idea of franchising their business and set plans into motion to open his first location.
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Customers took their burgers on the road or chose to sit in the parking lot, gazing up at the McDonald's sign advertising its 15-cent burgers. The experience started what would eventually lead to the expansion of the No. 1 fast-food chain in the world.
Just over a decade later, there were 1,000 McDonald's locations in the US.
Today there are more than 38,000 McDonald's restaurants in more than 100 countries.
