A quick look at the titans of the fast food industry
Raymond Albert Kroc was an American businessman. He purchased the fast food company McDonald’s from the McDonald brothers in 1961 and was its CEO from 1967 to 1973. Kroc is credited with McDonald’s global expansion, turning it into the most successful fast food corporation in the world by revenue.
Kroc was born in Oak Park, Illinois, and worked various jobs, including as a paper cup salesman and a musician, before becoming a milkshake mixer salesman. In 1954, he visited a hamburger restaurant in San Bernardino, California, owned by Richard and Maurice McDonald. Kroc was impressed with the efficiency and speed of the restaurant’s operations, and he convinced the brothers to allow him to franchise the concept.
Wilber Hardee
Born in Martin County, NC in 1918. Opened the first Hardee’s in 1960 in Greenville, NC
Died: 6/20/2008
Colonel Harland David Sanders was an American businessman and founder of fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. He later acted as the company’s brand ambassador and symbol. His name and image are still symbols of the company.
Born: September 9, 1890, Henryville, IN
Died: December 16, 1980 (age 90 years), Louisville, KY
Glen Bell
Glen was an entrepreneur who opened a hot dog stand called Bell’s Drive-In in San Bernardino, CA, in 1948. He watched the success of a Mexican restaurant across the street and learned how to make the hard-shell tacos they were selling. He opened a new stand in 1951, which was eventually called Taco Bell. He sold the business to PepsiCo in 1978 for $125 million in stock. PepsiCo subsequently spent off to Yum Brands. Yum Brands also owns Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and several other brands of fast food outlets.
Dave Thomas
Thomas was born Rex David Thomas on July 2, 1932, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Thomas never knew his birth mother and was adopted by a Kalamazoo, Michigan, when he was six months old. When Thomas was still a pre-teen, his family (his father, Rex, had remarried again) moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he worked at such jobs as a paperboy, golf caddy, and at a soda fountain counter in a drugstore.
Thomas got his first job at a restaurant when he was 15 years old, and when his family decided to leave Fort Wayne to move again, he refused to leave, dropping out of school in the 10th grade and going to work full time.
After complaining that he couldn’t find a good hamburger in Columbus, Thomas decided to open his own restaurant. On November 15, 1969, he opened the first Wendy’s restaurant, named for his 8-year-old daughter, Melinda Lou, known as Wendy.
In 1958, the Carney brothers borrowed $600 from their mother and opened a pizza restaurant catering to students after a local real estate agent with an unrented building convinced them that pizza would be a promising business. This is the very first Pizza Hut location.
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