--- title: The First McDonald's Franchise: How Ray Kroc Got Started 60 Years Ago description: April 15, 1955: Ray Kroc opens a McDonald’s franchise in Des Plaines, Ill. canonical: https://time.com/3774670/mcdonalds-ray-kroc-history/ author: Jennifer Latson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-15T14:30:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:02.110Z article:section: History og:title: The First McDonald's Franchise: How Ray Kroc Got Started 60 Years Ago og:description: April 15, 1955: Ray Kroc opens a McDonald’s franchise in Des Plaines, Ill. og:url: https://time.com/3774670/mcdonalds-ray-kroc-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaeefdbc1ed946564/698787122dce01cdbb9de6a1/mcdonalds.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Neon Arches og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The First McDonald's Franchise: How Ray Kroc Got Started 60 Years Ago twitter:description: April 15, 1955: Ray Kroc opens a McDonald’s franchise in Des Plaines, Ill. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaeefdbc1ed946564/698787122dce01cdbb9de6a1/mcdonalds.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How a Late-Blooming Entrepreneur Made McDonald's the World’s Largest Burger Chain > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Our food. Your questions. What are McDonald’s fries made of? [Watch (HLS stream): Our food. Your questions. What are McDonald’s fries made of?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nGOOAY0j.m3u8) (5:05)  _Published 2015-01-20. Our food. Your questions. What are McDonald’s fries made of?_ by [Jennifer Latson](https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Apr 15, 2015 2:30 PM UTC  The first McDonald's fast food franchise with its neon arches illuminated at night, Des Plaines, Ill., circa 1955 The first McDonald's fast food franchise with its neon arches illuminated at night, Des Plaines, Ill., circa 1955 Hulton Archive / Getty Images by [Jennifer Latson](https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Apr 15, 2015 2:30 PM UTC It’s perhaps the most American of American-dream tales: The son of Czech immigrants, without so much as a high school diploma, recognizes the vast commercial potential of the humble hamburger and becomes one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs. There are a few plot twists, of course, including the fact that it took Ray Kroc more than half a century to dream his American dream. He was 52 when, on this day, April 15, 60 years ago, he opened his first McDonald’s franchise in Des Plaines, Ill. The red-and-white tiled restaurant, with the golden arches that would become the chain’s trademark, sold $366.12 worth of burgers, fries, and shakes on its inaugural day, per the [McDonald’s company website](http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our%5Fcompany/mcdonalds%5Fhistory%5Ftimeline.html). (Today, the chain serves [69 million customers each day](http://mcdonalds.q4web.com/financial-news-release/news-release-details/2015/McDonalds-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-And-Full-Year-2014-Results/default.aspx) at 36,000 locations in more than 100 countries — and reported $27 billion in revenues for 2014.) By the time of Kroc’s death in 1984, his family fortune was worth at least $500 million, [per the New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/15/obituaries/ray-a-kroc-dies-at-81-built-mcdonald-s-chain.html)_._ Before taking the step that would ultimately lead him to the helm of the world’s largest fast-food chain, Kroc paid his dues as a salesman — for 34 years. Half of that time was spent selling paper cups to fast food retailers like Howard Johnson’s and Dairy Queen, and the other half selling “Multi Mixers,” which could mix five milkshakes simultaneously. It was in this capacity that he met Dick and Mac McDonald, two brothers who ran a small chain of hamburger joints in California. They had bought eight of the mixers, and as Kroc once [told the _Times_](http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9E00E0D71F30E632A25757C1A9679C946890D6CF), “I had to see what kind of an operation was making 40 \[milkshakes\] at one time.” He was so impressed with their operation that, despite what he described as “the opposition of family, friends, and business associates,” he opened the first franchise of what he called “the McDonald’s System.” In 1961, when Kroc’s ambitious vision no longer jelled with the McDonald brothers’ goals, he bought the company from them. He was so sure of his strategy that, at the age of 62, he gambled his life savings and then some — and won. His years of selling paper cups and milkshake machines played a key role in his success, according to the French chef Jacques Pepin, who called Kroc “the ultimate salesman” in a [1998 profile for a TIME special issue about the 20th century’s greatest “builders and titans.”](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989785-1,00.html) “Kroc gave people what they wanted or, maybe, what he wanted,” Pepin wrote. “As he said, ‘The definition of salesmanship is the gentle art of letting the customer have it your way.’ ” McDonald’s has withstood countless controversies over the years, the latest of which is its part as a target of nationwide protest [slated for today ](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/business/movement-to-increase-mcdonalds-minimum-wage-broadens-its-tactics.html?action=click&contentCollection=Business%20Day&module=RelatedCoverage®ion=Marginalia&pgtype=article)to pressure the fast-food industry to raise employee wages, but it remains the [world’s largest hamburger chain](http://www.foodandwine.com/slideshows/worlds-largest-fast-food-chains#!slide=6). Likewise, its founder remains a larger-than-life figure in the business world. Kroc, who may be the subject of [an upcoming biopic](http://time.com/3668601/michael-keaton-mcdonalds-ray-kroc/) (in which Michael Keaton is reportedly in talks to play the lead), put it this way in the _Times_: “I guess to be an entrepreneur you have to have a large ego, enormous pride, and an ability to inspire others to follow your lead.” **_Read the 1998 profile here, in the TIME Vault_**: [Burger Meister Ray Kroc](http://time.com/vault/issue/1998-12-07/spread/184/) ### Early Photos of McDonald's  The first Indiana McDonald's opened in Hammond in 1956. Courtesy of McDonald’s Corporation  Future McDonald's Chairman Fred Turner, at the grill in 1956. Courtesy of McDonald’s Corporation  A McDonald's in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 1958. Courtesy of McDonald’s Corporation  McDonald's reaches 400 Million served, in 1960. Courtesy of McDonald’s Corporation  The first Ronald McDonald, played by Willard Scott, in 1963. Courtesy of McDonald’s Corporation  The Filet-O-Fish Sandwich, the first new item added to the McDonald's menu, in 1965. Courtesy of McDonald’s Corporation  McDonald's reaches 2 billion served, in 1966. Courtesy of McDonald’s Corporation  The Big Mac debuts on the McDonald's menu in 1968 Courtesy of McDonald’s Corporation  You Deserve a Break Today advertising debuts in 1971. Courtesy of McDonald’s Corporation  McDonald's reaches 11 Billion served in 1972. Courtesy of McDonald’s Corporation  Ray Kroc's first McDonald's Restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois is restored to its original form and reopens on May 21, 1985 as the McDonald's #1 Restaurant Museum. Courtesy of McDonald’s Corporation ## Transcript After graduating college I worked a lot of late nights as an engineer. And when I'd get out of work the only thing that was open was McDonald's. My favorite thing was the fries. But, the thing is, I stopped eating them. I felt guilty about eating their food. So that's why when they asked me to help you find answers I was little skeptical at first. But then I thought. Maybe this is a chance to get to the truth. Now, as an engineer I normally take a bunch of components and put them to gether to form a machine. Any machine can be deconstructed. And by looking at the assembly process in reverse, you can get a better idea of how it's made. And that's what I'm gonna do with McDonald's french fries. I'm gonna reverse engineer the whole process. I'll start with the fully finished fry, and in the end, hopefully. I'll have a potato that came straight out of the ground. So Coco, Ive been asked by people, " Are the fries even made out of potatoes ?" " Are they ground up and mashed into the fries shape ?". Sure, that is why I am glad you are here today. We are going to take you through the whole process so we can make sure you have your answers. Ok, so from the very end, all the way back to the beginning Yes. We are at the end of the freezer tunnel. Now I know what you are thinking. These look like potatoes, but are they really potatoes? Let's go check out the rest of the process. All right. So this whole thing is the freezer tunnel. Yes, it's about 50 yards in length. So the fries go in unfrozen, they come out . >> Frozen. What about me. What if I went in one side and came out the other? It would turn you a Grantcicle. [ LAUGH ]. SO what's before freezing. So these are actually cooked. Yeah they're partially frying and then the final preparation is done at the restaurant. WHy do you partially fry them. Well we want to make sure we get that crisp outer shell. Yes, I like that part. Yeah. So before they're partially fried what happens? This is the ingredient dip where we control the color and we're adding dextrose, a natural sugar to make sure we get a consistent color no matter what time of the year it is. Also, a sodium acid pyrophosphate. What is that? That's gonna make sure that we control the grain after freezing. So this is all about maintaining. Consistency all throughout this process. Yes. It's no wonder that the fries always taste the same. They always taste really good. Well let's keep going back. All right Coco so here's a big one. Now, I've been asked by people to show them the machine where you take the mashed up potato goo and you inject it into these molds in order to make the perfect french fries . >> They don't do that here. Behind us you can see whole potatoes coming at us . >> Yes, and I see this thing that, that looks like a cannon . >> It works similar to a cannon. We're lining up the potatoes in a tube with high pressure water. And shooting them through a water knife here. It's precision cutting. What? Check that out. This is crazy. How fast do they fire through here? 60 to 70 miles per hour. So Coco. Where does the ammo for the potato gun come from? Let's go find out. So these are all the potatoes coming in. I think some of these are huge. That one's as big as my forearm. Are you using GMO potatoes? No. We don't use GMO potatoes for McDonald's fries. But we do use different varieties. So we have russet, burbanks and umatillas. Potatoes are just like people. They come in different shapes and sizes. [ LAUGH ] And they're all beautiful. They're all beautiful. So I've been all through this factory and I've seen the potatoes come off the trucks. I got one final question, where does this come from? So all around us, under these vines, we'll find what makes Mac fries. All right. Clear the vines away, start digging. Am I doing good? [ LAUGH ] You're doing well. It's like an Easter egg hunt. > [ LAUGH ] Oh, this is like the worst Easter egg ever. Oh, look. This is it, right? See? A real potato. This is where it all begins. So you wanted to know McDonald's fries come from, or if they're even made out of potatoes. So I went to. I went backwards through the whole process, saw exactly how they're made and traced it all the way back to here, to this potato. Pretty simple. I know you have questions. I have questions, too. 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