RUTHLESS salesman Ray Kroc stood stunned outside the very first McDonald’s as the smell of prime beef and French fries wafted across the car park, and eager customers queued around the block.

The hamburger joint in San Bernardino, California – opened 80 years ago this month by brothers Richard "Dick" McDonald Maurice "Mac" McDonald – was attracting families and teens from miles around and milkshake salesman Kroc wanted a slice of the pie.

After approaching the brothers, in 1954, and offering to help them grow, Kroc plotted to take over the booming business and expand it into a global success.

The travelling milkshake salesman – whose obsession with a stunning blonde led to the breakdown of two marriages – also remodelled the brothers' golden arches logo to resemble breasts.

But family members claim he "cheated" them out of hundreds of millions in royalties and wiped their name off the history books.

He claimed in his autobiography that he was the original founder of the chain – which now has 37,855 outlets worldwide and today sent fans wild by opening drive-thrus during the coronavirus lockdown.

The brothers, who worked their way up to millionaires, were left broken and bitter – with one dying of heart failure and the other leaving just £1.4million in his will  – a fraction of the £500m Kroc was worth when he died.

Here, we take a look at the secrets and bitter feuds behind the most successful global chain in fast food history.

Poor kids vowed to be millionaires by 50

Growing up in New Hampshire, Dick and Mac McDonald watched their dad, a Scottish immigrant, struggle to feed the family on his wages from a shoe factory and then lose his job for being "too old".

The poverty-stricken pair vowed to find financial independence as soon as possible and become millionaires by the time they were 50.

As young men in the 1930s, they sought the bright lights of Hollywood, aiming to direct and produce movies and, after working as runners on movie lots, they opened their own cinema.

But that venture failed, largely due to America's Great Depression, and they went into fast food, initially opening a hot dog stand before gaining a £4,000 bank loan to open a drive-in restaurant on a plot in San Bernardino, California.

Huge original BBQ menu had pulled pork

McDonald’s Barbeque, as it was initially called, was very different to today’s model.

The menu had 25 items, including pulled pork and hamburgers, and food was delivered to customers in their cars by 20 waitresses – or ‘car hops’ – dressed in the recycled usherette uniforms from the failed cinema venture.

But the savvy brothers soon realised hamburgers were the biggest seller and the extended menu slowed down the process.

In 1948, they shut the restaurant for three months, sacked the car hops and narrowed the menu to nine items – hamburgers, cheeseburgers, French fries, milkshakes and drinks.

The fast food model caught the attention of other potential restaurant owners, including Glen Bell before opening his first Taco Bell outlet

The burgers were standardised, with the same sauce and pickles on each, and the cooking process was streamlined so each chef had one item to prepare, while customers were asked to leave their cars and walk to the counter to collect food.

The fast food model – dubbed the “speedee service system”– soon caught the attention of other potential restaurant owners, including Glen Bell, who sought their advice before opening his first Taco Bell outlet.

The brothers began to franchise the brand, opening 20 more outlets by 1953, and Dick came up with the first concept of the famous ‘golden arches’.

Rather than the logo we know today, the two huge yellow semi-circles were placed at either end of each building so that, caught as a certain angle, they resembled an ‘M’.

Soon the pair were raking in £80,000 a year in profit – the equivalent of £2.4m today – meaning they could splash out on Hollywood mansions and customised Cadillacs.

Their dream had come true.

Furious feud over £2.2m takeover

But it wasn't long before someone else had his eye on their prize.

In 1954, Ray Kroc was working as a travelling salesman selling Multimix machines to restaurants when he noticed he was selling more to the McDonald brothers than any other customer.

After watching the operation from the car park at San Bernadino, the ruthless businessman – who once said: "If any of my competitors were drowning, I'd stick a hose in their mouth and turn on the water" – sensed an opportunity and offered to help the brothers expand.

The first McDonald’s opened under Kroc's new expansion programme was in the Chicago suburb of Des Plaines in 1955, now the site of the McDonald's Museum.

When Kroc offered to buy the brothers out, in 1961, he was furious that they demanded £2.2m – the equivalent of £43m today.

If any of my competitors were drowning, I'd stick a hose in their mouth and turn on the water

He later said he “hated their guts” and was “so mad I wanted to throw a vase through a window” because he felt they were ripping him off.

In the end, he found backing from millionaire investor Harry Sonneborn and stumped up the cash but the franchise royalties of 0.5 per cent for the McDonald brothers was agreed on a handshake.

Sign set to resemble 'Mother McDonald's breasts'

One of the first things new owner Kroc did was remodel Dick’s beloved golden arches, with the help of design consultant Louis Cheskin.

Cheskin elongated the arches and doubled them into the now familiar ‘M’ shape, insisting the new logo represented "mother McDonald's breasts," which he claimed would be a "Freudian pull for customers.”

After enthusiastically embracing the new golden arches Kroc, bitter about the deal, set about destroying his one-time employers.

The brothers lost the rights to their name but kept their original restaurant, renamed Mac’s Place, until Kroc opened a brand new McDonald’s opposite, forcing them to throw in the towel.

Family claim brothers lost £200m

McDonald family members have since claimed Dick and Mac were then cheated out of the 0.5 per cent share in profits, which would have made them and estimated £200m by 2012.

As well as financial loss, the brothers were about to lose their place in fast food history.

In his 1970 autobiography, Kroc claimed he was the chain’s founder and the first McDonald’s to open was his 1955 De Plains outlet – completely ignoring the original McDonald's set up fourteen years before, and the 20 other franchises founded by the brothers.

In a 2016 interview the brothers’ nephew Ronald McDonald told Mail Online: “Ray Kroc just wanted more and more.

“Name me one other American corporation where an employee became the founder.”

Founders were 'written out of history'

The publicity machine at McDonald’s continued to write the brothers out of history throughout Kroc’s lifetime with considerable success.

“On several occasions [reporters] have been told that there really was never a McDonald,” he said.

“They were told McDonald’s was only a fictitious name that was chosen because it was easy to remember."

When Michael Keaton played Kroc in the 2016 film The Founder, he admitted: "First of all, I didn’t know that there were McDonald brothers and that was really interesting.”

Jason French, Dick’s grandson, says his family refused to talk about McDonald's when he was growing up, adding: “I remember him saying once, when I was a teenager, 'That guy really got me.’”

Mac died in 1971, at the age of 69, and Dick moved back home to New Hampshire with his family, living in a modest three bedroom suburban home.

Fiery affair with 'blonde beauty'

If Kroc always got what he wanted in business, the same could be said of his love life.

In 1957, he saw Joan Mansfield playing keyboard at the Criterion, a supper club in Minnesota, and was “stunned by her blonde beauty.”

At the time he was married to his first wife Ethel Fleming and Joan was married to Navy Veteran Rollie Smith and had an 11-year-old daughter, Linda.

As the pair got close, Kroc gave Joan’s husband the franchise in one of the South Dakota restaurants.

When he divorced his wife of 39 years, in 1961, he asked Joan to move in with him but under pressure from her family, Joan broke off their relationship.

Scorned, Kroc then married Hollywood socialite Jane Dobbins Green, but when the marriage fizzled out he invited Joan to a 1969 McDonald’s convention – and love blossomed again.

Within six months they both divorced their spouses and married each other.

“Sometimes it takes ladies a long time to get ready,” he later joked on a chat show.

Grim booze battle

Joan, a philanthropist, set about spending his money on good causes – including a huge campaign to raise awareness of alcoholism, which new husband Kroc suffered from.

She held meetings with addiction experts at their California ranch, where Ray lurked in the background with his favourite whisky tipple.

Ray was admitted to an alcohol dependency unit in 1980 and died from heart failure four years later at the age of 81.

Joan continued to donate large sums to charity and after being diagnosed with brain cancer in 2003.

She gave away most of her £2.2billion fortune – including a £1.5billion donation to the Salvation Army.

After Kroc’s death, Dick made a grudging peace with the global chain – which has now sold over 300billion burgers – and often took his step-grandchildren to the local outlet.

The real founder – who was served the 50billionth burger in 1984 – said: "They can't understand why I wait in line.’

"They say, 'But Grandpa, it's named after you.' Of course, the lines move very fast.

“I always have a regular hamburger, an order of fries and a chocolate shake. In 1947 you could order exactly the same meal. It cost 45 cents.”

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