Disney had also lied about his age
Yes. Born on October 5, 1902, Ray Kroc (pictured below, left) lied about his age to serve in World War I as a Red Cross ambulance driver. Though not shown in the movie, the real Ray Kroc met fellow Illinois native Walt Disney (pictured right) while training for Springfield MA escort the Red Cross. The two men served in Ambulance Company A together but did not stay in touch much after the war, that is until Kroc contacted Disney more than three decades later, in late 1954, about putting a McDonald’s on Disney theme park property (it didn’t happen, not until the late 1990s). -McDonalds
Yes. The Founder true story confirms that brothers Richard and Maurice “Mac” McDonald opened a drive-in barbecue and burger restaurant in Arcadia, California in 1937 and then moved it to San Bernardino in 1940. It was successful for eight years, but they eventually decided that the service was too slow and shut it down in the fall of 1948 in order to reopen with a streamlined menu and a more efficient system. They focused on just hamburgers, french fries and soft drinks, and they did away with carhops, which were time-consuming. “This was after the war years,” recalled Richard McDonald. “People were pretty impatient. Everybody seemed to be in a hurry, and here we had this very slow system.” -Sun Journal
Yes. In fact-checking The Founder movie, we learned that after serving in World War I as a Red Cross ambulance driver, Ray Kroc mainly worked in sales, and for 17 of those years, he worked as a paper cup salesman for Lily Tulip Cup Company. (Some of his other jobs to help make ends meet included pianist and DJ on a local Oak Park, Illinois radio station.) He transitioned from a successful career selling paper cups into working as a traveling milkshake machine salesman (Ray Kroc Documentary). The McDonald brothers, who owned a small restaurant chain based out of San Bernardino, California, became clients of Kroc’s in 1954 after they had purchased eight Multimixers, which sold at $150 a piece (a hefty price back then). The five-spindled milkshake machine promised to make five shakes at a time. “This little fellow came in with a high voice,” recalled Richard McDonald in a 1991 interview. “He says, ‘My name is Ray Kroc.’ My brother and I were impressed with him. He was a very aggressive guy. That’s the type it takes to sell anything.” -Sun Journal
Upon his first visit in 1954, Kroc was blown away by the low prices and effectiveness of the restaurant’s operation, which had been put in place by its owners, brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald. In particular, Kroc was amazed by how quickly the restaurant could fulfill a customer’s order. This was partially due to the fact that they focused on just a few items (burgers, fries and drinks) and had a chain of employees working together to prepare each order. The restaurant was drawing attention, especially after making the cover of American Restaurant Magazine in 1952. Initially, Kroc envisioned how much money he could make if there were hundreds of McDonald’s across the country, each equipped with eight of the milkshake machines (Multimixers) that he sold. -McDonalds
They were serving hamburgers for fifteen cents, french fries for ten cents and milkshakes for twenty cents, and basically that was the menu
“In those days, nobody had eight Multimixers in one business,” recalled Kroc. “So, I went out there, and I was amazed. And I said, ‘That’s for me.'” In real life, Kroc didn’t make a cross-country drive to California. He flew out to Los Angeles and then drove to see the restaurant the following morning. -BBC McDonald’s Documentary