Richard and Maurice McDonald

The McDonald brothers were born in Manchester, New Hampshire, to Irish Catholic parents Patrick James McDonald from Dingle and Margaret Anna Curran McDonald from Emlaghmore, who came to the United States as children. Maurice was born in 1902, and Richard was born in 1909. In the 1920s, the family moved to California, where Patrick opened a food stand in Monrovia in 1937. == Careers ==

The first restaurant the McDonald brothers opened in 1937 was in Los Angeles. In the 1940s the McDonald brothers operated a successful drive-in restaurant, but found several factors were cutting into their profits. Some of the more expensive menu items, such as barbecue sandwiches, were rarely ordered, and they used actual dishes, which were constantly lost, stolen or broken, plus the reputation of drive-ins becoming seedy hangouts for teenagers was driving families away. In 1948, the brothers fully redesigned and rebuilt their restaurant in San Bernardino to focus on a reduced menu consisting of their nine most profitable and cost-effective items: In addition to their 15-cent hamburger, the menu included a cheeseburger, soft drinks, milk, coffee, potato chips, and a slice of pie. The restaurant was about a mile from route 66 at 1398 North E Street at West 14th Street in San Bernardino, and eventually became a museum. the brothers began franchising their restaurant system in 1953. The first franchise was a restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona, operated by Neil Fox. After the brothers purchased eight of his Multi-Mixers for their San Bernardino, California restaurant, Kroc visited that restaurant in 1954. That year, the McDonald brothers hired Kroc as their franchise agent. Kroc took 1.9% of gross sales, of which the McDonald brothers got 0.5%. The McDonald's brothers had resisted a large expansion and Kroc soon became frustrated with their desire to maintain only a small number of restaurants. The brothers also consistently told Kroc he could not make changes or improvements to things such as the original blueprint. Eventually, Kroc decided he wanted control of the company entirely; In 1961, Kroc purchased the company from the McDonald's brothers for $2,700,000 (), calculated so as to ensure each brother received $1,000,000 () after taxes. At the closing, Kroc became annoyed that the brothers would not transfer the real estate and rights to the original San Bernardino location to him. The brothers had told Kroc they were giving the operation, property and all, to the founding employees. In his anger, Kroc later opened a new McDonald's restaurant near the original McDonald's, which had been renamed "The Big M" because the brothers had not retained the rights to the name. "The Big M" closed six years later. Richard McDonald reportedly said that he had no regrets over the situation. On November 30, 1984, Richard McDonald, the first cook behind the grill of a McDonald's, was served the ceremonial 50 billionth McDonald's hamburger by Ed Rensi, then-president of McDonald's USA, at the Grand Hyatt hotel in New York City. ==Death and legacy==

Maurice died from heart failure at his home in Palm Springs, California, on December 11, 1971, at the age of 69. Richard also died from heart failure in a nursing home in Manchester, New Hampshire, on July 14, 1998, at the age of 89. His cremains were entombed in a niche at the Mount Calvary Cemetery in Manchester. In the 2016 film The Founder, a biopic about Kroc and his business relationship with both Maurice and Richard, Richard (Dick) McDonald is played by Nick Offerman, and John Carroll Lynch portrays Maurice (Mac) McDonald. The backstory of the Golden Arches is also inaccurate in that it was not created by Richard McDonald, but by Stanley Clark Meston, an architect hired by the brothers. The site of the first McDonald's was purchased in 1998 by Albert Okura, founder of restaurant chain Juan Pollo, who moved his company's headquarters to the location and established an unofficial McDonald's museum on the site. == References ==