The McDonald brothers saw their father, Patrick, let go with no pension from a position he held for 42 years. It was the push Dick and Maurice needed to leave New Hampshire and go west to become millionaires by age 50, something their father could never achieve.

Father's Struggles

Dick and Maurice initially went to California with dreams to direct and produce movies. With the money they made from working on silent film sets, they opened a movie theater called the Beacon in 1930, but they had to sell it after seven years due to financial struggles.

Movie Theater Flopped

McDonald's Barbeque, their first food stand in San Bernardino, had carhops serving the food to drivers in their cars. They then revamped as McDonald's in 1948, with the customers now having to get out of their cars and order at the counter, which initially drove them away.

Initial Concept Failure

While Rob Kroc played a major part in McDonald's global expansion, he tried to write the brothers out of its history by saying he was the founder in his autobiography. He also claimed that the first McDonald's was the one that was opened under his name in Des Plaines, Illinois.

Distorting History

In 1961, Dick and Maurice sold the rights to their business to Kroc, but the contract didn't include their original San Bernardino restaurant. Renamed The Big M after the deal, Kroc took revenge by opening a McDonald's a block away and drove them out of business in six years.

Closure of The Big M