Cavalcade of Awesome

Fast food franchises have been around for years. Some of the first ones were started back in the ’50s as malt shops or diners. Since then, there have been many different variations of the fast food franchise; burgers, chicken, ice cream, seafood, family-style, etc. As the type and menu changed, so have the styles, image and logo of the establishment. Many of the most popular fast food franchises of today have been around since the ’60s and if you were to travel back in time to see your favorite restaurant as it stood back in the day, you may not even recognize it.

I was perusing some of the photostreams in Flickr as well as some of my favorite fast food groups and you can see plenty of awesome pictures of fast food franchises and how they used to look back in the day.  I even remember some of them!  So let’s take a look at a few of the more popular franchises and how their “look and feel” has changed from ’60s until now.

You can click any of the below pictures to see them BIGGER.

McDonald’s

McDonald’s began in 1940 with a restaurant in San Bernandino, CA opened by (surprise, surprise) the McDonald brothers. They developed their “SpeeDee” delivery system in this restaurant that has become the basis for all modern fast food franchises.   Ray Kroc, a salesman providing milkshake machines to the brothers, convinced them to let him franchise their operation in 1955.  Kroc bought out the brothers and took McDonald’s to the lofty heights you see today.  Due to its long history, McD’s architecture has had more face lifts than Joan Rivers.  There are so many different styles of McDonald’s restaurants that it’s almost impossible to nail down different eras of buildings.  Don’t even get me started on the different styles for the “golden arches” signs as there are too many to even begin a listing here.  I could probably do an entire article on McDonald’s architecture and store design (*note to self).  Moving along, the picture above is one of the earliest building incarnations from a McDonald’s in the ’50s – ’60s.  Many McDonald’s restaurants today are being built in this “retro” styling.  Check out the huge, modern, 2-floor McDonald’s in Chicago that was built in this style.

This is probably one of the more familiar versions of the McDonald’s restaurant.  It’s brown roof with white striping has become iconic for McDonald’s lovers as it’s visage was used throughout the ’80s in commercials.  This style started, I believe, in the ’70s or ’80s.  There was also a version of this building with yellow striping on the roof.

Every few years a new McDonald’s building type will get introduced.  Here’s a newer, stacked-stone style architecture as seen in the McDonald’s restaurants around my neighborhood here in Jacksonville.

McDonald’s is big on “theme” buildings. They will design unique restaurants to draw attention and publicity in order to get more people to visit the stores and buy food. The first pic on the left is a Mickey D’s diner. This was a short-lived trial by McDonald’s in a select few cities. Second from left is a jungle themed McDonald’s in Niceville, FL. The next pic is a McDonald’s Bistro found in Orlando, FL. It contains upscale menu items including panini sandwiches and gelatto. As you can see, McDonald’s is all about trying new and different things. That’s probably why I’m fascinated with them.

Taco Bell

Glen Bell opened the first Taco Bell in Downey, CA in 1962.  The picture above shows what those first Taco Bell restaurants looked like.  The building looks more like a place to buy illegal fireworks than a beefy burrito.  I love the ancient sombrero/blanket/bell sign.  I think a few Taco Bells today still use that sign.  To make it even more awesome, most of these restaurants in the ’60s had a statue of a little Mexican dude out front.  Ole!!

In the ’80s, the bell logo was updated.  They also updated the color scheme to what can only be described as “doo doo” brown.  **Insert Mexican food joke here**  This particular styling can still be readily found in the brown or purple color schemes.

In the ’90s the color scheme was updated, as I said earlier, to purple.  In the last few years the architecture style has also been updated to what is known as a “bistro” style.  Very modern.  Lame, but modern.

Arby’s

Arby’s was started in the late ’60s in Ohio.  Here’s what some of the first franchises looked like.  I love that “big hat” sign.  How many of you remember the Arby’s “big hat”?  Those “big hats” were used for years until Arby’s updated the 10 gallon hat for a more modern hat in the ’70s.  The Arby’s in Hoover, AL where I grew up had a “big hat” for the longest time but changed it sometime when I was in college, I think.  Many Arby’s restaurants today still have the vintage “big hat” sign despite it’s official “discontinuation” and it has gained quite a few fans wherever it exists.  As a matter of fact, there’s a Flickr group dedicated soley to its enormous awesome-ness.  Get a better look at the vintage “big hat” sign here. Also check out the vintage big hat in glorious color and motion here.

Here’s the newer, updated Arby’s from the last few years.  I think they started updating in the late ’90s.  You can also see the newer, modified version of the “big hat”.  Not as much character as the old one, I think.  Like I said, you can still find many of the newer restaurants with the old “big hat” sign out front.

Kentucky Fried Chicken

KFC is one of the elder statesmen of fast food restaurants.  The Colonel started making his chicken in the ’30s and served it out of an old cafe/gas station he owned in North Corbin, KY.  He didn’t actually open the first KFC until the early ’50s in Utah (yes, the first KFC was in Utah). I’m not sure what some of the first few restaurants looked like.  In the picture above, you can see images from a product catalog showing building and sign designs for a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in the ’70s, which probably was developed in the ’60s.  Gotta love the giant, rotating bucket that will show up on signs all the way into the ’90s!  The building looks like a circus tent.

Here’s a picture of a slight redesign of the ’70s architecture and sign.  You can still see the red/white steeple on top (though modified) but the huge sign is gone and the rotating bucket of chicken is the only sign the Colonel felt they needed.

In ’91 Kentucky Fried Chicken re-branded itself to the abbreviated KFC.  Here you can see the modified logos for this re-branding on the signs and giant, rotating buckets.  There are many rumors going around about why this happened.  Some say the state of Kentucky had trademarked their name and wanted royalties, some say the restaurant wanted to de-emphasize the word “fried”.  Whatever the reason, it caught on and now the restaurant is mostly known as KFC.  Interestingly enough, in 2007 the full Kentucky Fried Chicken moniker began returning in advertisements, packaging and new restaurants.

Similar to Taco Bell (as they are both owned by Pepsi), KFC is modifying many of its restaurants to the newer “bistro” style architecture.  Also many of the rotating bucket signs are being taken down and trashed.  I found a bucket in Montgomery that had been taken down and was laying on the ground ready to be trashed in the near future.  It’s sad, I really like the giant spinning bucket.

This was not an “official” KFC architecture, but it has become one of the most famous. The KFC “Big Chicken” restaurant in Marietta, GA was originally built in the mid 1950s as a Johnny Reb’s Chick, Chuck and Shake (yes, you would be correct in thinking that this name kicked ass).  It was later sold and made into a KFC franchise.  In the early ’90s it was almost torn down but public outcry saved the day and the chicken was refurbished and renovated.

So that’s the first batch of fast food restaurants that have had major changes throughout the years. When I started this article I didn’t realize how much info I was gathering.  I’m going to have to split this into two parts.  In Part II of this article I’ll look at other famous eateries like Burger King, Dairy Queen and Pizza Hut.  So come back next week for Part II.

Until then, you can find me at KFC getting a bucket of extra crispy.

UPDATED — Part II of this article can be found here

This entry was posted on January 27, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under advertising, Americana, fast food, food, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's, pop culture with tags advertising, fast food, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's, pop culture, Taco Bell. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.