Photos show what it was really like to eat at McDonald’s in the 1950s

In 1954, future McDonald’s Corporation founder Ray Kroc, a Multimixer milkshake machine salesman, came across a small burger joint run by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald. They had opened their first location in 1940 before opening other locations like the one in Downey, California. The restaurants had a simple menu, which allowed the brothers to keep costs low and quality high, and self-service counters. Amazed by the efficiency of the restaurant, Kroc wanted in. He became the first McDonald’s franchisee agent.

In 1955, Ray Kroc founded McDonald’s System, Inc., which would inevitably become the McDonald’s Corporation we know today, and opened his first franchised location.

By 1958, McDonald’s had sold 100 million burgers.

The McDonald’s No. 1 museum was created to replicate what it would have been like to visit the McDonald’s franchise when it opened — a very different experience from what it’s like to go to McDonald’s today.

The first McDonald’s advertised its “Speedee Service System,” a predecessor of the drive-thru model.

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.

The original McDonald’s menu dated back to when the McDonald’s brothers were serving food at their drive-in restaurants in 1948.

In 1949, potato chips were swapped with french fries and McDonald’s began selling milkshakes.

At the first McDonald’s location, every item cost less than 25 cents and hamburgers were only 15 cents. However, burgers could also be purchased by the dozen.

Every McDonald’s worker had a specific job, and most of the food was preassembled before customers even ordered. This allowed McDonald’s locations to serve their food much faster than their competitors. 

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.

The chain marketed its signature shoestring fries as “salty goodness.”

McDonald’s today might look very different had it not been for the invention of the Multimixer. 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 opening his first location.

Whether 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.