McDonald's, with a speaker box: dinner in 1955

McDonald's is the little machine that turned dinner into a drive-by promise.

The McDonald brothers opened a drive-in in San Bernardino in 1940, where carhops served drivers. In 1948, the brothers cut the menu and introduced the Speedee Service System: fifteen-cent hamburgers, shakes, fries, and a streamlined self-service operation. 12

The change fit the road. The Library of Congress places the restaurant in a moment when car ownership was rising, suburbs were spreading, and drive-ins were popular. The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History shows how the next step sounded: Jack in the Box restaurants opened in 1951 with no indoor seating, and customers ordered through a two-way speaker. The museum dates one speaker-box panel to the early 1960s. 23

Ray Kroc visited the San Bernardino restaurant in 1954 while selling Multimixer machines. He became a franchise agent and opened the first McDonald's east of the Mississippi in Des Plaines, Illinois, on April 15, 1955. 1

That is the affectionate joke: McDonald's made the family meal look like a small, cheerful factory. The burger is familiar; the real promise is that dinner can arrive before anyone has had time to change the station.