BROASTER PRINCE VERSUS BURGER KING
The Other Ronald McDonald
There are well over 10,000 McDonald’s franchises in the United States as of 2019. And by and large, when one McDonald’s restaurant opens, it stays open; the fast-food giant has proven quite popular, becoming a mainstay in most communities. There are some exceptions, however—for example in 1996, when the lone McDonald’s franchise in the small Illinois town of Fairbury (population 3,200 or so), lost out to Ronald McDonald. No, not the red-headed clown who first appeared in McDonald’s marketing in 1963. Unfortunately he was late to the game in Fairbury because by the time he became the mascot of the burger giant, Fairbury’s own Ronald McDonald—let’s call him Ron, for simplicity’s sake—was in his mid-twenties.
Ron McDonald was born around 1940, to Earl and Dorothy McDonald. In 1956, his parents opened up a family-style restaurant on the main strip in town. Featuring Midwestern fare such as “broasted” chicken (chicken that is fried in a pressure cooker), the eatery quickly became a favorite hangout for Fairbury’s residents. The name? McDonald’s Family Restaurant. At the time, the McDonald’s corporation didn’t care, in part because the corporation itself barely existed; Ray Kroc, the entrepreneur often credited with making the burger chain into the behemoth it is today, didn’t buy into the company until 1955.
In 1970, however, McDonald’s finally took note of—and aim at—McDonald’s Family Restaurant. That year, Ron told the Chicago Tribune, McDonald’s sent his parents the first of many letters filled with ominous legal language. “It warned us about ever using arches or going to a drive-in format, and it kind of scared my folks, but they didn’t think there was anything they could do about it,” said Ron. But the real battle began in 1992, when the McDonald’s corporation opened a franchise in Fairbury. More legal wrangling ensued; Ron told the local press that “[McDonald’s] had a team of lawyers come down and practically insist we (change the name) but we said no, we can’t do that.” Ron and his wife Sue did make one concession, however: They dropped the possessive “s” from their restaurant’s name. Even that didn’t matter, though; as the Associated Press reported, “locals just called the family-owned place ‘McDonald’s East’ and the fast-food joint, ‘McDonald’s West.’ ”
Ultimately, residents ran the burger king out of town. It wasn’t out of animosity, just disinterest; per a corporate spokesperson, “McDonald’s West” closed in 1996 because “there really weren’t enough sales generated.” Ron McDonald offered a similar explanation, noting that “there are a lot of retired people in town.…They don’t patronize fast-food places much.” In the small town of Fairbury, Illinois, there was only enough room for one Ronald McDonald, and the red-haired clown lost out. With this exit, the legal threats also ended. As a result, the couple re-added the possessive “s” to their establishment’s name. It would remain there for another twenty years until the couple retired in 2016, shuttering the restaurant.