1940 - Restaurants

Restaurants

McDonald hamburger stands have their beginning in a drive-in barbecue restaurant opened at San Bernardino, Calif., by New Hampshire-born movie theater co-owners Richard "Dick" and Maurice "Mac" McDonald of Glendora. Now 31, Dick and his brother Mac have earlier run a hot-dog stand near the Santa Anita race track at Arcadia (see 1948).

The first Dairy Queen soft ice cream store opens June 22 between two funeral parlors at Joliet, Ill., with Sherm Noble serving 8¢ sundaes, 5¢ double-decker ice cream cones, and take-home pints and quarts (see 1938). J. F. McCullough and his son Alex last year acquired western U.S. rights to a continuous-type freezer patented by inventor Harry Ortiz; they and Ortiz will franchise the operation, there will be 100 stores by 1947, and by 1950 Dairy Queen will be a nationwide system with 1,446 stores (see Canada, 1953).