It's St. Patrick's Day, and for today's blog celebrating, It's Fast Food history time again. In this entry, we're going back to the 1970s, to take a look at the Shamrock Shake offered by McDonald's and the forgotten mascot who helped promote them, Uncle O'Grimacey.
Before I talk about the Shamrock Shake, let's take a look at Mcdonalds itself, because there is some Irish background to the company as well. It all began in 1937 with two brothers Richard "Dick" McDonald and Maurice "Mac" McDonald. Richard was born on February 16, 1909, and Maurice was born on November 26, 1902. The brothers were born to Patrick and Margarete McDonald, two immigrants that who to the United States from Ireland as children.
After their father lost his job at the G. P. Crafts shoe factory After 42 years of loyal service, the family moved from Manchester New Hampshire to Hollywood California. After the brothers graduated from high school, the McDonald brothers began working as set movers and handymen at Columbia film studios and in 1930, they opened a movie theater called The Beacon.
Unfortunately, The Great Depression prevented the business from succeeding. After seeing the success of a root beer stand called Willey's, the brothers had the idea to switch from movies to food by opening a hotdog stand in Monrovia called The Airdrome.
The Airdrome was a decent success being located on Route 66, and capturing various hungry drivers on the route. In 1940, the brothers brothers moved their stand from Monrovia to San Bernandino and renamed it McDonald’s Bar-B-Que. It focused more on BBQ rather than strictly hot dogs and hamburgers and upgraded to a carhop ordering system.
In 1948, The brothers swapped carhops for a more efficient system they called Speedee Service System, which allowed for a hamburger to be made far quicker than any other restaurant at the time. In 1954, Ray Kroc, a milkshake mixer salesman from Chicago, visited the San Bernardino restaurant and seeing the potential, he bought the rights from the brothers.
On April 15, 1955, Ray Kroc opened the first Mcdonalds restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois. It sold hamburgers for 15 cents that could be served in as little as 2 minutes. This was radical for the time as the average diner would take twice as long and cost twice as long. By 1958, the company sold its 100 millionth hamburger and in 1961, Kroc bought out the McDonald brothers.
In 1963, in order to create a mascot that could appeal to kids, former Bozo the Clown actor Willard Scott created and performed the character Ronald Mcdonald on television adverts.
In 1971, advertising agency Needham, Harper & Steers decided to give Ronald a world he could live in, and buddies to pal around with. They created a fantastic imaginary world they dubbed McDonaldland, and a cast of characters to populate it: the Hamburglar (A pint-sized burglar who often attempts to steal hamburgers and cheeseburgers from Ronald), Grimace (A large purple monster who attempts to steal milkshakes and Cokes), Captain Crook (Who tends to steal Filet-O-Fish sandwiches and often interprets Hamburglar's gibberish), Officer Big Mac (The main source of law and order in McDonaldland, spending most of his time chasing Hamburglar and Captain Crook.), Mayor McCheese (McDonaldland's bumbling and incompetent mayor), the Professor (A scientist who is McDonaldland's inventor and researcher who specialized in inventing different comical devices) and, of course, Ronald McDonald.
In 1970, Rogers Merchandising in Chicago created the Shamrock Shake to sell for St Patrick's Day. Originally, the shake was lemon/lime flavored with vanilla ice cream, lemon/lime sherbet, and vanilla syrup. By 1973, the lemon/lime sherbet was substituted for a mint flavor. The shake proved to be a massive hit, and Mcdonalds continued to sell them for a limited time every year.
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