- [Narrator] Before some of the world's
most famous fast foods were born,
[cup rattling]
there was an aging salesman
at the end of his rope.
[dramatic music]
- He's making $35 a week
and is a $100,000 in debt.
- He just needs an opportunity.
- [Narrator] But a fortuitous sales call will be the spark.
- We need something that can do about 40 milkshakes at once.
- Forty?
[dramatic music]
- [Narrator] That turns a roadside burger joint...
- Let me help you go nationwide.
[chuckles]
- [Narrator] Into a 200 billion dollar American empire.
[dramatic music]
- This is it.
[suspenseful music]
- [Narrator] But to create the world's largest chain...
- Ray Kroc wants to make McDonald's
the biggest name in fast food.
- [Narrator] He'll have to transform
the fast food industry from the ground up.
- So Ray Kroc pours everything he has
into this new real estate acquisition model.
He is spending half a million dollars every month.
[suspenseful music]
- [Narrator] Outmaneuver the competition.
- We got to find a way to stop the bleeding.
- To see someone actually eclipse McDonald's,
that's a really big deal.
- [Narrator] Learn from failure.
- The Hula Burger...
What's the word? Disgusting.
Disgusting.
- [Narrator] To create one of the most
recognizable brands the world has ever seen.
- The American people will never forget the name McDonald's.
- [Narrator] And become the founding father of fast food.
- Now we're talking.
[sensational theatrical theme music]
[bell chiming] [dramatic music]
- [Narrator] In the years immediately following
World War II, America enters a new era of highway expansion.
- After World War II,
you had these Interstate Highway Acts
that create highways on a level
completely unprecedented in American history.
Big high-speed roads that enabled people
to travel much farther distances.
[bright fast-paced music]
- [Narrator] The new highway system pushes car sales
to 7.9 million putting more Americans on the road
than ever before.
- Every family wants a car,
and they want to take vacations
and travel around the country.
So the world of highway, food, and lodging
becomes incredibly important to American commerce.
[dramatic music]
- [Narrator] Howard Johnson emerges
as the industry leader in roadside restaurants,
and their success launches a franchising explosion.
- Franchising is when the parent company gives someone else,
the licensee, the right to operate a business
in the parent's name, using the parent's menu,
using the parent's business practices,
their suppliers, et cetera.
[dramatic music]
- [Narrator] As Howard Johnson's
expands to 230 nationwide locations,
it's not long before other chains follow suit,
including Dairy Queen, Carvel, and Dunkin' Donuts.
[upbeat music]
- For ordinary people who want to start a business,
franchising is a great way for them
to venture out on their own.
It didn't have a lot of startup costs,
and that's why these things started
springing up all over the country so fast.
- Someone who is a savvy entrepreneur could look around,
and say, "I think I can get rich."
[striking dramatic music]
- [Narrator] And one traveling salesman
is witnessing the franchising boom firsthand.
His name is Ray Kroc.
- Ray Kroc was born in Oak Park, Illinois.
By his own admission, wasn't very book smart,
but was always really driven.
He was also extremely good at sales
and extremely goal focused when it comes
to creating something that he can run.
- Ray Kroc sees what Howard Johnson's is doing.
They're making money hand over fist.
He wants to follow in their footsteps.
He just needs an opportunity,
and all of a sudden,
he sees it right there.
It's the Multimixer.
[dramatic music]
- [Narrator] Dubbed, "The milkshake maker of the future,"
the Multimixer can produce five milkshakes at once.
[dramatic action music]
And 52-year-old Ray Kroc
is selling them out of the trunk of his car.
- His job is a relentless, grueling, endless job
where he has to drive around the country all the time
trying to convince diner owners to buy one of these
large, complicated, expensive devices,
and it's not easy at all.
- It's usually not this finicky.
- Ray Kroc thinks he's found the ideal job.
The only catch is,
it requires him to purchase his own supplies.
- It's my demo model, so it gets a lot of use.
- And by 1954, he's making $35 a week
and is a $100,000 a debt.
[light dramatic music]
- [Narrator] Going from one cold call to the next,
Kroc is struggling to find his way.
- Where he ended up spending the most time
was in Southern California where roadside
stands were popping up more than anywhere else.
- He was already a pretty old guy.
He wasn't exactly a spring chicken
when he happened upon a hamburger stand.
- Come on, we need these burgers up.
Let's go.
[sighs] So this thing's supposed
to be the best machine, right?
- Yeah. - Because I need something
that can do about 40 milkshakes at once.
- Forty?
[striking dramatic music]
- [Narrator] In 1954,
one thriving eatery
forges an indelible impression on Kroc.
- Most of his clients want one or two
milkshakes to be made at one time.
It's a real eyeopener to Ray Kroc.
- What he sees is
it's like a factory floor.
It's like food automation.
Okay, a crazy amount of volume.
They figured out the speed
by which you have to make everything.
How the meat gets to the grill, to the bun,
everything has been thought out.
[striking dramatic music]
- [Narrator] The stand sells hamburgers for 15 cents,
along with a streamlined menu of french fries,
milkshakes, and drinks.
- They're not encouraging people
to sit down and stay a while.
They're not using car hops either.
It's truly a new type of fast food experience in America
that has not really been exploited to its potential,
in Ray Kroc's opinion.
- [Narrator] Kroc is fascinated by the concept,
and it could be the opportunity
he's been looking for.
- This is his dream come true.
It's mass production.
He realizes what it means about
the capacity for growth in this company.
He wants a part of it.
- [Narrator] Out of this single burger joint,
a colossal empire will one day rise
encompassing over 40,000 locations around the globe
and generate more money than the GDP of 93 countries.
But at the time, it's only a restaurant
controlled by two brothers,
Dick and Mac McDonald.
[dramatic music]
- Fellas, I've been on the road for years,
and I've never seen anything like this anywhere.
- [Narrator] The brothers are making $350,000 a year,
nearly $4 million today.
Yet, it's not the restaurant they are franchising.
- Anyone who wants can buy the basic idea
of the Speedee System for 900 bucks.
[tense music]
- They mapped out this thing
in the most efficient fashion.
Get the hamburgers, the fries,
and the milkshakes out the door as quickly as possible.
When they perfected this,
they called it the Speedee System.
- Not the system.
McDonald's.
[tense music]
Let me help you go nationwide.
We'll have one in every city.
[Mac chuckles]
- Ray Kroc was inspired, and he said,
"We need these all around the country,
"and the way that I'm going to make
"that happen is the idea of a franchise."
- Ray Kroc has been a salesman for over three decades,
and he brings that experience to the table
when he pitches the McDonald brothers.
He has an enthusiasm
for spreading this concept
that peaks their interest.
- I will oversee every new restaurant personally.
You can be as hands-on or hands-off as you want.
[tense pensive music]
- The McDonald's brothers are open to the idea,
but it's not something that they want to invest
a ton of time and energy and money into.
So Kroc responds like,
"How about I run franchising for you?
"You can get a cut.
"I can get a cut, and everyone wins."
- [Narrator] In 1955, they strike a deal that allows Kroc
to begin to facilitate franchising the McDonald's name
and replicating the restaurant's concept.
[light dramatic music]
Kroc rapidly establishes eight new locations
across California, Arizona, and Illinois in 1956.
Yet, he's barely making enough to get by.
- The contract that Ray Kroc signed
with the McDonald brothers was not ideal,
but he signed it anyway.
He was really desperate to get involved no matter what.
- Soon as these get clear,
I want to do setups for another 12, all right?
- They split 1.9% of the sale of each hamburger.
[switch clicking]
- That's a pretty small amount of sales,
especially when you're selling a burger for 15 cents.
Less than two cents are going to Ray Kroc,
so he is making literally cents on the burger.
- [Narrator] To boost sales,
Kroc plans to introduce
a new product to their nine item menu.
[light dramatic music]
- Kroc is going back and forth to the McDonald's brothers.
He's like, "I need to make this tweak,"
but they aren't signing off on these changes,
which is really making Kroc worried.
- The McDonald's brothers have a really strict idea
of their business and how they want to run it.
So they make Ray Kroc agree that any changes
have to be written and approved by the brothers
before anything else can happen.
- [Narrator] Without the approval of
the McDonald brothers,
Kroc introduces what he believes
will be their new hit item:
a 15 cent pound cake.
[dramatic music]
- It's the 1950s,
and you've got Betty Crocker.
You've got Entenmann's,
and pound cake is really popular at the time.
And Ray Kroc thought it would be
the perfect product to add to McDonald's menu.
- [Narrator] But his snack-sized pound cakes
are barely selling,
and Kroc's rouge maneuver
has infuriated the McDonald brothers.
- Ray Kroc is an innovator.
Sometimes it worked.
Sometimes it didn't.
But he goes immediately against the McDonald brothers.
Now with this first massive misstep,
trust is pretty much broken,
and it is really hot in McDonald's land.
[tense foreboding music]
- [Narrator] To check Kroc,
the McDonald brothers exercise their contractual rights,
forcing him to immediately stop selling the pound cake.
[tense explosive music]
- It's pretty fair to say that the McDonald brothers
and Ray Kroc were not exactly a match made in heaven.
[suspenseful music]
So, it didn't take long before Ray
saw the McDonald brothers as not partners, but an obstacle.
- [Narrator] Kroc's maverick moves has opened a rift.
- Because of profound ideological differences
between the way Ray Kroc wants to run the business
and the way the McDonald's brothers
want to run the business,
he decides that he wants to steer the ship.
[striking dramatic music]
- Hold on.
- [Narrator] Control of what will one day be
a multi-billion dollar empire hangs in balance,
and only one side will win.
[striking dramatic music]
[tense music]
[switch clicks]
- [Narrator] Former salesman Ray Kroc has been working
to expand the McDonald brothers business,
but in 1959 their relationship is fraught with tension.
[tense uneasy music]
- It's driving Ray Kroc crazy that every decision
has to be run by the McDonald's brothers,
because they don't agree with him about a lot of stuff.
They were in his way.
[telephone ringing]
- It is Mac.
- Mac, hi, it's Ray.
- It's Ray.
Yeah, how are you?
- [Narrator] Believing that only with complete control
can McDonald's achieve its full potential,
Kroc executes a daring maneuver.
- I'd like to buy you out.
[suspenseful music]
- He's asking to buy us out.
- Give me the phone. - Yeah.
[tense dramatic music]
- [Dick] 2.7 million cash up front.
[tense dramatic music]
- What?
I can't put that kind of money together.
- Ray wakes up and realizes,
"Uh-oh, I'm not going to ever be able
to deliver on what the brothers want."
But he doesn't have the $2.7 million,
and you can imagine this is a huge dilemma for him.
- [Dick] We won't take a penny less.
[tense music]
[dramatic explosive music]
[dramatic music]
- [Narrator] Kroc approaches numerous banks,
but none are willing to offer him a loan
for the necessary funds.
- There's a reason for that.
Profit margins.
Ray Kroc is getting 1.9%
of a 15 cent hamburger.
Banks are not excited about that.
[dramatic music]
- They have a hundred restaurants,
but the thing is Ray Kroc's income
from all that is only $20,000 a year.
[tense dramatic music]
- Things didn't make financial sense as they were set up,
and something had to give.
He had to get creative.
- While Kroc struggles
with the financial challenges,
one entrepreneur sees the brand
as an untapped gold mine.
- So Harry Sonneborn is the
39-year-old VP of Tastee-Freez.
They have about 1800 stores.
He's an expert in roadside food.
[light pensive music]
- [Narrator] Sonneborn recently cashed out of Tastee-Freez
and is now looking for his next opportunity.
- You are creating quite the buzz around here.
- You should tell that to my partners.
- Yeah, well, maybe you need new partners.
- Kroc has been charging at this windmill alone.
He now realizes that he could use a partner.
- Let's talk in my office.
- [Narrator] Hoping they can finally
unlock a profitable franchise model,
Kroc brings Sonneborn on board.
- Harry Sonneborn thinks of the lowest possible salary
that he can make because he's so desperate
to work with McDonald's.
He comes up with a hundred dollars a week.
- His mega task is to figure out how do we get a loan
to buy out the McDonald brothers
and take over this chain?
- [Narrator] Together they map out
a unique direction forward.
- He says, "Listen, you think
you're in the hamburger business, right?"
And Ray Kroc's like, "Yeah, of course, I'm in the hamburger.
"I'm in the hamburger, fries, and milkshake business."
This guy's, "No, no, no, no.
"You got to be in the real estate business."
[striking dramatic music]
- [Narrator] Sonneborn's idea for a new franchise model
could provide a steady stream of revenue no longer dependent
on a percentage of hamburger sales.
- Sonneborn comes up with this concept:
to buy the land under which a franchise will be built,
and then lease the land back to the franchisee forever.
- "Each of these McDonald's franchises
"will be leasing from us and paying us rent,"
and they'll be using the profits to purchase cheap land
and basically attract franchisees.
That is going to allow him to expand very quickly.
- [Narrator] The pair establish
the Franchise Realty Corporation,
a separate entity outside of McDonald's,
investing all their resources
to acquire prime real estate for franchises.
- What they did was effectively
became landlords to their franchisees,
and it was the franchisee that took on the risk
of all operations.
[dramatic music]
- So Ray Kroc pours everything he is
and everything he has into this new
real estate acquisition model.
In fact, he is spending half a million dollars every month
to acquire new land that the franchises are on.
- [Narrator] The new franchising model propels McDonald's
to open hundreds of locations by 1961.
- The real estate model truly made franchising
a lucrative and viable long-term business.
- [Narrator] More crucially for Kroc,
he now possesses what he needs
to seize control of McDonald's.
[tense dramatic music]
- How does it feel to be millionaires?
- It definitely doesn't feel terrible, that's for sure.
- So with this plan, everybody gets what they want.
The McDonald brothers each get a million dollars
and basically have a nice nest egg
for the rest of their lives.
Meanwhile, Ray Kroc gets to start his journey.
He's not a young man.
He's middle-aged at this point,
but he's just beginning. [striking dramatic music]
- [Narrator] In 1961,
Kroc purchases the name
and exclusive rights to McDonald's paying $2.7 million,
for a company whose value will one day exceed 200 billion.
- One has to say that the deal
that the McDonald brothers took to part ways
pretty much could be argued as one of the worst
business deals in history.
They took a cash buyout,
but Kroc walks away with the name on the books
and gets to say that he is the founder.
[dramatic music]
- I promise you one thing.
The American people will not forget your name.
[suspenseful music]
- Unfettered by the McDonald brothers,
Ray Kroc is going to basically take this
opportunity to expand McDonald's across America.
This is what he wants: to set up fast food empire.
- [Narrator] With a profitable franchise model,
Kroc expands at a
breakneck pace,
and McDonald's balloons to over
500 locations between 1961 and 1963.
- Frankly, the growth McDonald's had
is kind of unheard of.
They grew 5,400%,
and that really inspired other entrepreneurs
to try something on their own.
[thrilling suspenseful music]
- [Narrator] McDonald's real estate revenue
soon surpasses its food sales,
and Kroc's blueprint ignites a franchise gold rush.
- As other people see his success,
everyone wants to get in on this.
[exciting suspenseful music]
- [Narrator] He's opened the floodgates
to a new wave of competition
that will force Kroc to innovate
or be crushed by his own creation.
[dramatic music]
By 1963, Ray Kroc's revolutionary franchising model
has generated 500 McDonald's restaurants across the country.
[tense music]
- Franchises become a major part
of the American business landscape,
and really they're a way for diversifying
American populace to become entrepreneurs
without just having to start something from nothing.
- [Narrator] Among a slew of copycats,
one Florida brand, in particular,
emerges as a clear competitor to McDonald's.
[explosive dramatic music]
- Burger King was founded in Miami.
And the brand is defined, in essence,
by the flame-broiled burgers.
[exciting dramatic music]
It tastes different.
McDonald's burgers are fried.
They're put on a skillet,
and they don't taste like
something that has flame behind it.
- [Narrator] And now with a massive ad campaign,
they launch something McDonald's is missing:
a signature sandwich.
- [Announcer On TV] Well, Burger King is out
to save the hamburger.
Home of the Whopper.
[tense suspenseful music]
- [Narrator] The Burger King Whopper
is a quarter pound of flame-broiled beef
with all the trimmings of a backyard hamburger.
- The thing is like five times the size.
It's not the McDonald's burger.
It's a quarter pound of beef on this bun and flame-broiled.
So it has a taste very much akin to the backyard barbecue.
People love the size.
They love the flavor.
I remember thinking like it was juicy
in a way a McDonald's burger wasn't.
McDonald's burgers were kind of this thin beef cookie.
[tense dramatic music]
- The Whopper as a signature sandwich
captivates consumers in a way that nobody else had.
Because you can get a hamburger anywhere, right?
But you could only get a Whopper at Burger King.
[tense dramatic music]
- [Narrator] The Whopper boosts Burger King sales
by an incredible 40%,
and they soon have nearly 50 locations.
- McDonald's really has to compete hard
to stay ahead of the competition.
They're not like inherently special.
Other people can come out with cheap burgers.
They can't get complacent.
[tense suspenseful music]
- [Narrator] Desperate to strike back,
Kroc and top executive Fred Turner
look to his franchisees for an inspirational new product
that can challenge the Whopper.
- Here's what I've been tinkering with.
- [Narrator] Visiting an Ohio franchise,
Kroc wonders if the secret weapon
isn't a burger at all.
- Lou Groen was a longtime McDonald's franchisee
in the Cincinnati area.
Every Lent he was seeing
his McDonald's sales drop on Fridays,
because Catholics could not get burgers.
- And so, he pitches this to Ray Kroc.
He's like, "Listen, I've got this idea,"
and so he comes up with a sandwich.
- Filet of cod, breaded and fried,
with the dollop of homemade tartar sauce.
[suspenseful music]
- [Narrator] It's a sandwich that will
one day sell more than 300 million each year.
Yet, even with its potential to become a signature item,
Kroc is skeptical.
[suspenseful music]
- And Kroc says, "No."
[tense music]
- [Ray] That's not it.
[dramatic music]
- Can you imagine?
One of the greatest sandwiches
at a fast food chain,
and he's like, "Not gonna work."
- Ray Kroc hates the idea,
because he doesn't want his restaurants to smell like fish,
which is a valid concern.
- [Narrator] Believing a fish sandwich
won't be enough to stop Burger King,
Kroc comes up with an interesting alternative.
- This my friends is a game changer.
[tense uneasy music]
A revolutionary product like no other.
- Ray Kroc had actually already had an idea
for a beef-less, meatless burger:
sliced pineapple cooked up
with some other sandwich ingredients
on a hamburger bun.
- It seems like a desperation move,
but there weren't that many things
that you could put on a bun that weren't meat.
So it was a fish versus a fruit.
- [Narrator] Kroc believes the burger
will be the perfect way to capitalize
on a trend sweeping the nation: Tiki culture.
[light upbeat music]
- So after World War II,
a lot of American soldiers
stationed in Asia and Japan come back home,
and the Polynesian Asian inspired flavors
are really top-of-mind.
And they're bringing that appetite back home,
which allows the pineapple infusion into American cuisine.
[light upbeat music]
- And so that whole tropical aesthetic
really filters into the American popular culture.
You've got the show "South Pacific", "Gilligan's Island",
and consumer culture reflects that as well.
- [Narrator] Now Kroc wants to bring
the same flavors to McDonald's.
- The intersection of burger culture
and Tiki culture doesn't make sense.
But kind of makes sense.
[striking dramatic music]
- This is going to be the greatest thing
McDonald's ever sold.
- [Narrator] Dubbed the Hula Burger,
Kroc is hoping its unexpected ingredients
will make it a surefire hit.
- The Hula Burger was a piece of grilled pineapple
with cheese on a cold bun, which is, um...
What's the word? Disgusting.
Disgusting.
[tense suspenseful music]
- [Narrator] Kroc has passed on the Filet-O-Fish
for the unorthodox sandwich,
and it's about to go down in history
as McDonald's biggest failure.
- [Narrator] In 1963, McDonald's releases its answer
to the Burger King Whopper: the Hula Burger.
[dramatic music]
- The Hula Burger sold six
period on its first day, six.
- The Hula Burger just failed miserably.
[explosive dramatic music]
[fast-paced midtempo music]
- [Narrator] The disastrous Hula Burger forces Ray Kroc
to cede yet, more ground to Burger King.
Growing at a pace twice as fast as McDonald's,
in 1964 Burger King's number of stores nearly doubles.
- Ray Kroc viewed Burger King as the ultimate challenge,
because they were coming up from under him
and trying to steal everything that he had built.
- [Narrator] Ray Kroc is now
forced back to the drawing board.
[tense pensive music]
- Ray Kroc's prior experience sort of molds him.
He experienced a lot of failure in his life,
but he was definitely not afraid to say,
"Okay, we made a mistake."
- [Narrator] Turning his failures
into a stepping stone for innovation,
Kroc reexamines the Filet-O-Fish.
[tense pensive music]
- Cheese on fish?
[suspenseful music]
- Now we're talking.
- [Narrator] In 1965, Kroc unveils the Filet-O-Fish.
Selling for 29 cents,
it becomes the first non-burger sandwich on their menu.
[suspenseful music]
- Filet-O-Fish was so successful,
that it got added to the menu permanently.
When your menu is all about simplicity,
that is something that requires a lot of demand.
- [Narrator] The Filet-O-Fish facilitates
a 30% spike in overall sales.
Yet, despite reaching over 600 locations in 44 states,
McDonald's is forced to contend
with an increasing number of competitors.
- We have Burger King.
We have Big Boy.
We have all of these other burger chains
kind of encroaching on McDonald's territory,
and these other chains had bigger burgers than McDonald's.
- Careful here all right?
- Yes, sir. - I don't want you to
burn these ones.
- Ray Kroc decides to pour tons of money, tons of time,
and tons of research into creating a bigger, meatier,
more badass burger than they've ever created before
to take the Whopper down.
- [Narrator] Under pressure to outdo rivals
with a heftier burger,
Kroc quickly engineers a creative strategy.
- We're going to need some onions.
- He wanted a really great burger in very quick time.
So he comes up with the ingredients
that already exist in the restaurants,
so it can scale easily without
disrupting operations too much.
- [Narrator] Finally, creating a signature sandwich
of their own in 1967,
Kroc wants to make sure consumers remember its name.
- Ray Kroc starts spending advertising dollars,
which would've never been spent on fast food.
He's spending like $3 million a year,
which was 10 times their advertising budget
previous to this, right?
- "Two all beef patties."
- "Special sauce, lettuce, cheese."
- "Pickles, onions." ♪ On a sesame seed bun ♪
- We know that because of that massive ad blitz.
[dramatic music]
- [Narrator] The Big Mac almost instantly becomes iconic
as the sandwich quickly accounts
for 19% of the company's sales.
- Whereas, the Whopper has one patty,
the Big Mac has two.
And this notion of special sauce
is also brought forth onto the world.
- It is very American in this way,
always the pursuit of something that's
bigger and bolder, brasher, enormous.
The Big Mac is, you know, it's a tower,
and you need two hands to eat it.
And you can't do anything with the rest of your day.
- [Narrator] The Big Mac soon dethrones the Whopper,
and McDonald's reclaims its place
as the top fast food brand.
Riding the momentum of success,
McDonald's makes its debut on the stock market.
[dramatic music] [people muttering]
- When they go public,
the shares are first sold for 22.50.
They go up to 30 by the end of the day,
and 50 by the end of the month.
So Ray Kroc goes in a very short time
from struggling burger business owner to multimillionaire.
- But he's always looking for bigger and bigger and bigger
and more and more and more,
and is not willing to stop at expanding across the U.S.
He wants to go global.
[dramatic music]
- [Narrator] Believing McDonald's
could be more than an American fascination,
Kroc begins to grow the brand outside the U.S.,
opening stores in British Columbia
and Puerto Rico in 1967.
[tense dramatic music]
However, it quickly becomes clear
that foreign infrastructure
is ill-equipped to handle McDonald's needs.
[dramatic music]
- Ray Kroc finds the food processing
facilities outside of this country,
they're not accustomed to the high volume,
the automated production, or the raw materials.
- [Narrator] In the U.S., McDonald's is buying
over six million pounds of Russet potatoes a year,
but the variety is only grown in America.
If Kroc is going to expand
into a worldwide restaurant chain,
he'll need to rethink one of McDonald's
most beloved menu items: french fries.
[pensive dramatic music]
- Anything?
- So they start to explore with freezing technology.
- [Narrator] Since its inception,
McDonald's has used fresh potatoes,
because at the time frozen fries
are nowhere near the same quality as fresh.
- They're just not very good.
They burn, they're inconsistent,
and they don't have that crispy, fresh
french fry flavor and snap to them.
They're bad.
- [Narrator] For McDonald's to convert
to frozen french fries, Kroc insists,
they taste as good as fresh ones.
- They discover that the water retained in the potato
before freezing forms ice crystals.
When it's cooked,
these crystals rupture the starches,
compromising the potatoes' structure and flavor.
- McDonald's realizes if we're going to freeze our fries,
we need to find a way to remove the moisture from the fries
or else you're just going to end up with
kind of a soggy mess.
- To do this, they use steam blanching
and hot air to dry them before freezing.
- They're not there yet.
Keep at it.
[dramatic fast-paced music]
- Over time they refine their technique even further
by shortening the amount of time that they're cooking it
before they freeze it.
So that way when it gets to the store,
they're cooking it as close to fresh as they can.
[tense music]
- This is it.
[dramatic music]
- [Narrator] With international expansion on hold,
McDonald's finally develops a frozen fry
that's indistinguishable from a fresh one.
Kroc gamble's $3.5 million,
and puts his new frozen fries into production,
churning out 25,000 pounds an hour.
- That is the biggest innovation that Ray Kroc bought
was this frozen french fry technology
that every other fast food chain also adopted.
[bright upbeat music]
- He's a guy that's just taken these big swings.
He will continually do this over and over in his career.
He does have misses,
but when he hits, he's hitting home runs.
And for anyone who's ever had a McDonald's french fry,
you can attest they are a home run.
- [Narrator] By 1968, they have more
than 1,000 locations around the globe.
But just as Kroc reaches new heights,
a new foe bursts on the scene.
[tense music]
- A very innovated entrepreneur,
Harland Sanders is coming onto the horizon,
but his centerpiece is chicken not hamburgers.
- [Narrator] And soon Colonel Sanders' chicken restaurants
will be the fastest growing chain in the country
overtaking McDonald's.
- [Narrator] Kentucky Fried Chicken has been growing
exponentially since the mid 60s.
By 1970, they achieved the unthinkable
and surpass McDonald's in sales volume,
and Ray Kroc is feeling the heat.
- These are last month's sales figures.
- McDonald's is just this gargantuan machine of success.
So to see anyone come even close to that,
to nip at that, is wild.
To see someone actually eclipse it,
that's a really big deal.
- [Narrator] But it's not just KFC
pushing Americans toward chicken...
- In 1977, new federal dietary guidelines
link beef to increased incidents of heart disease.
So Americans are turning away from beef,
and you see chickens start to get more popular.
- We got to find a way to stop the bleeding.
- [Narrator] Facing his most formidable competitor yet,
Ray Kroc is desperate to restore McDonald's spot
at the top of the fast food pyramid.
- And this is one thing that I think
McDonald's has done very well over its history.
It's not been static.
They're not saying, "Okay,
"the thing that worked for the past five years,
we're gonna keep doing that no matter what,
even if evidence tells us
that stuff is changing around us."
- [Narrator] But chicken is
uncharted territory at McDonald's.
- [Ray] Follow me.
- [Narrator] So to come up with his own chicken item,
Kroc turns to Rene Arend,
a classically trained chef from Luxembourg.
- And this guy has been a chef for royalty.
He cooked for Queen Elizabeth, right?
He's a celebrity chef before there were celebrity chefs.
So Ray Kroc brings a celebrity chef to McDonald's corporate
to help fight back against Colonel Sanders
and his 11 herbs and spices.
- I brought you here to innovate.
You up for that?
- Absolutely.
[suspenseful music]
- [Narrator] Kroc wants a product
ready to release within six months,
but Arend has no fast food experience.
And chicken is proving challenging to mass produce.
- The issue is chickens have bones, quite a few of them.
You have all kinds of pieces and parts.
So he realizes he has to take on this
rather painstaking process of de-boning.
[striking dramatic music]
- [Narrator] To turn de-boned chicken
into a viable menu item,
Arend wants to create a machine
to not just remove the bones,
but also transform the chicken entirely.
[tense explosive music]
- Rene Arend decides he's going to grind all of the meat
and the tissue into a paste and season it,
and he's going to mold them into shapes.
- They form it into a bell, a boot, a ball,
and my personal favorite, the bow tie.
They use a breaded tempura-style coating,
so that it feels like it was fresh fried
instead of previously frozen.
[dramatic music]
- [Narrator] In a mere five months,
McDonald's is now armed with a unique chicken product
and the proprietary technology behind it.
- It's really a triumph of technology,
and even chicken focused fast food restaurants
didn't have that same technology.
[upbeat music]
- I love it. Perfect.
[dramatic music]
- It's kind of McDonald's showing that like,
"With creativity, innovation, and technological know-how,
"we can eat your lunch, KFC."
[dramatic music]
- [Narrator] Ray Kroc names it the Chicken McNugget.
- Mm.
- [Narrator] But just before its nationwide launch,
the rollout is stopped in its tracks.
[eerie music]
The summer of 1980 is the hottest in nearly three decades.
[dramatic music]
- There are huge droughts everywhere.
The agricultural industry is in shambles.
Crops are dying.
Animals are dying.
They had over $20 billion in losses.
- [Narrator] Over eight million chickens perish
as a result of the heat,
and a poultry shortage grips the country.
- Tell the suppliers we'll pay double for every bird
through the end of next quarter.
- It's not how much we pay.
They don't have any chickens to sell.
[Ray sighing]
- [Narrator] With millions already invested
in their McNugget, Kroc now faces a challenge:
recover the losses or risk his empire.
[dramatic music]
- What else could we nuggetize?
[exciting dramatic music]
- [Narrator] The inability to launch the Chicken McNugget
is about to open the door to one of the most infamous
fast food products in history.
[suspenseful music]
[dramatic music]
In the heatwave of 1980, unlike poultry,
the pork industry emerges largely unscathed.
- By the end of 1980,
the national pork inventory
is still over 64.5 million hogs.
Plenty to go around,
and actually pork prices end up falling.
[dramatic music]
- [Narrator] And now McDonald's wants to use
their Chicken McNugget de-boning technology
to pioneer a fresh approach to pork.
- Unlike chicken, pork has been served
boneless for centuries in sausage making.
Instead of using intestinal casings,
McDonald's uses salt to extract
the protein from the muscle,
which then serves as a binder
to hold the pork together.
[striking dramatic music]
- [Narrator] Inspired by a recent trip to South Carolina,
Arend uses McDonald's new technique to mold pork
into the shape of a baby back rib.
[striking dramatic music]
- Although it looks like a rib with meat and bones,
it's more of a pork burger, if you will.
- And here we go.
- Hmm. - It's not ribs.
It's pork shoulder, which is not the same as pork ribs.
- There is absolutely no rib meat,
but it is McDonald's take on southern barbecue.
And the funny thing is, even now in the 21st century,
it's really unique.
- I'm sorry, it's just awesome.
- [Narrator] In 1981,
the McRib is released nationwide.
- It's like nothing anyone's ever seen, right?
But it's got a lovely flavor profile.
It has barbecue sauce, pickles, on a nice bun.
- [Narrator] And it's coupled
with an intriguing advertising campaign.
- "For a limited time only," right?
I mean, probably one of the greatest hooks,
lures out there in fast food.
It's almost like saying,
"We only serve 25 of these burgers a night."
I mean, that's always underneath the McRib.
- [Narrator] Though it's not an instant sensation,
the McRib buoys McDonald's through the chicken crisis.
[midtempo fast-paced music]
And as the supply of chicken meat slowly recovers,
in 1983, McDonald's is finally ready
to debut the McNugget nationwide.
- Ray Kroc has been developing
this new chicken product for four long years.
This is his chance to defend McDonald's spot
as the biggest name in the fast food industry,
and once and for all crush KFC.
- [Narrator] Upon its release,
it causes an immediate buzz.
- It is a huge success.
It's the easiest, most delicious way
to eat chicken you've ever experienced.
- [Narrator] Within months,
it's not just the McNugget
that's becoming a global sensation,
but also the four unique dipping sauces alongside of it.
- I think in some ways the McNugget just kind of serves
as a vehicle for the sauce.
Personally, I'm a hot mustard and sweet-and-sour guy.
- I absolutely would reach for sweet-and-sour, ranch,
and barbecue equally.
[light upbeat music]
- [Narrator] Over the next three years,
the McNugget grows to account for 7.5%
of McDonald's domestic volume
generating $700 million in sales.
- All this technology that McDonald's developed,
they were the only people who had it.
So the fastest a competitor could come up
with their own version of the Nugget,
it was like three years later.
- [Narrator] Soon McDonald's reclaims its throne
at the pinnacle of fast food.
With KFC nearing 6,000 locations in 1987,
McDonald's is operating 10,000 stores in 47 countries.
[bright upbeat music]
- Who would've thought that McDonald's, a hamburger place,
becomes the second largest chicken retailer,
because of Chicken McNuggets.
Kind of cool, but kind of insane at the same time.
[bright upbeat music]
- [Narrator] As one of the most successful
menu additions in fast food history,
Chicken McNuggets revolutionize chicken consumption,
securing Kroc's legacy as the founding father of fast food.
[light upbeat music]
Today, McDonald's is the largest
restaurant chain in the world.
With 38,000 locations in 100 countries,
it's worth $215 billion.
- Simply drawing these golden arches in your mind,
you know exactly what it is, where it is,
what it tastes like.
And if you order a Filet-O-Fish at a McDonald's today,
a Big Mac anywhere in the world today,
if you walk into a McDonald's anywhere in the world today,
you will feel the influence, the ingenuity,
and the hard work of Ray Kroc.
[bright upbeat music]