McDonald's Restaurant Sign, 1960

In 1948, the McDonald brothers transformed their Southern California drive-in restaurant with their radical new "Speedee Service System"--assembly-line production of a limited menu at drastically reduced prices. Richard McDonald created this sign design in 1952. In 1955, milkshake machine salesman Ray Kroc franchised the McDonald's concept--prompting numerous imitators and ultimately turning America into a "fast food nation."

Brothers and drive-in restaurant owners, Richard and Maurice McDonald, had had enough of loitering teenagers and unreliable cooks and carhops. They had a radical idea -- the Speedee Service System: limited menu, walk-up service, assembly-line food production, and drastically reduced prices. At the end of 1948 they introduced this new system, which revolutionized the fast food industry. Neon signs, like this one, with a single "golden" arch and Speedee, the hamburger-headed chef logo, flashed in front of the early McDonald's franchises. This sign lit up the McDonald's franchise located in Madison Heights, Michigan.