October 05
Raymond Albert Kroc's Birthday

Ray Kroc washing down the walk of the first store in Des Plaines, IL

What did Ray Kroc, Ernest Hemingway, and Walt Disney have in common? They were all joined the Red Cross during World War II to become ambulance drivers. Ray and Walt served in the same regiment Walt was born in Chicago, Illinois and Ray and Ernest were also both born in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park. However, unlike Hemingway who gradated from high school first before joining the Red Cross, Ray and Walt quit school and lied about their age to get into the ambulance regiment.

After dabbling in music as a jazz pianist and DJ in Oak Park, Ray gave up his planned career in music to became a salesmen for Lily Tulip Cup Company. He left the paper cup business after nearly 30 years to sell a milkshake mixer called a MultiMixer that could make five milkshakes at once. When he got a large order of mixers from Richard and Maurice McDonald's hamburger shop in San Bernadino, California. he was blown away by their assembly-line system. That convinced Ray at age 52 to get into the hamburger business with part-time, low-wage, teenage workers and started his own assembly line hamburger shop in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1955.

Then Ray developed the concept of a franchise system for selling burgers which became McDonald's Corporation the same year and convinced Richard and Maurice McDonald' to make him their exclusive agent. Ray eventually bought out the McDonald brothers in 1961 for $2.7 million Those low minimum wage jobs made Ray a multimillionaire.

Now back to Ray and Walt Disney. According to Max Boas and Steve Crain who wrote , Big Mac: The Unauthorized Story of McDonald's (1977), after Ray launched his franchise operation agreement with the McDonald brothers, he sent a letter to his old ambulance driver buddy Walt Disney in which he wrote, "I have very recently taken over the national franchise of the McDonald's system. I would like to inquire if there may be an opportunity for a McDonald's in your Disney Development." Walt apparently agreed to the offer with a stipulation to increase the price of fries from ten cents to fifteen cents with the extra nickel going to Walt. Ray refused to gouge his loyal customers which left all the little Mouseketeers without a quarter ponder and fries when they visited Disneyland.

So to celebrate Walt's birthday, we suggest making a Big Mac and topping it with McDonald's Big Mac Sauce while watching Pulp Fiction (1994) just for Samuel L. Jackson's conversation with John Travolta.

VINCENT: ..You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?

JULES: They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?

VINCENT: No, they got the metric system there, they wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is.

JULES: What'd they call it?

VINCENT: Royale with Cheese.

JULES: Royale with Cheese. What'd they call a Big Mac?

VINCENT: Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it Le Big Mac.

McDonald's Big Mac Sauce

Ingredients

1 cup Miracle Whip salad dressing
1/3 cup creamy French dressing
1/4 cup sweet pickle relish

1 TB. sugar
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp dry minced onions

Instructions

1. Blend well with fork and refrigerate overnight.
2. To build a Le Big Mac, use: two all beef patties, sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions on a sesame seed bun.