Whether it be the Colonel’s deep fried chicken or Wendy’s square burger patties, fast food
restaurant chains have loads of help selling those burgers, chicken and other tasty treats,
and that help comes in the form of the plethora of mascot characters.
Perhaps none of these are as big a name or as recognizable a face as Ronald McDonald
himself.
So it’s time to clown around with the 10 untold truths about Ronald McDonald.
Ronald McDonald’s Many Faces
It’s rather natural for things to change over the course of time.
If things stayed the same, society wouldn’t be going anywhere and staying stagnant really
doesn’t ignite progress, so we more than understand the necessity of change, no matter
how difficult it is for a lot of us to accept.
It seems that the McDonald’s corporation has no problem with change, as they’ve made
quite a few changes over the years and not only with the incredible amount of menu items
we’ve seen.
Sometimes seeing our favorite sandwiches and offerings disappearing from menus all over
the globe (so long McDLT … we still miss you).
The changes we’ve seen also come when looking at the cast of colorful characters that have
helped McDonald’s sell their food to the world, the corporation reshaping them and
molding them from generation to generation.
Perhaps the character that has been revamped the most was none other than everybody’s
favorite clown, Ronald McDonald.
At first, the company wasn’t sure what direction to take him in, and he wasn’t the friendliest
looking character out of the bunch.
If one were to look at his original incarnation long enough, a feeling of creepiness would
outshine any rumblings of hunger that may have been felt at the onset.
Willard Scott Portrayed Ronald McDonald
The portrayal of this lovable but creepy clown was performed by none other than comedy and
radio personality Willard Scott.
His portrayal didn’t last all that long, but it definitely made an impact on one and
all, as he set the tone for the character, ultimately deciding where it would go in the
future.
Scott, who played the character for two years, from 1963 to 1965, is an author, presenter,
host and funny man, most famous for his TV weatherman role on The Today Show and of course
donning the clown suit and face paint of Ronald McDonald himself.
He is also credited as being the creator of the character and that’s no small feat.
He was no stranger to playing a clown, as he had previously played the infamous Bozo
The Clown for WRC TV in Washington.
The corporation hasn’t exactly credited Scott as having created the character, but
industry insiders have made the fact fairly known.
It was actually his portrayal that set the tone, and although the character wouldn’t
come to be as it is known today until much later, the foundation was set.
10 Different Actors Have Played Ronald McDonald
Now a lot of different small time actors have been hired to play Ronald at local McDonalds
locations for events, or maybe even birthday parties, but these were not the main “Ronalds”
that were used for advertisements and major public appearances on TV and of course other
large public demands.
For such occasions, professional actors were hired and some of them for specific amounts
of time.
After Scott hung up the clown suit for a cushy job presenting the weather, Bev Bergeron was
given the gig and he held the position for two years.
Some of the actors overlapped and shared the responsibility of bringing joy and burgers
to the world, but the longest actor playing Ronald was probably George Voorhis, who played
Ronald McDonald for a whopping twenty years in total.
He was famously responsible for ushering the Big Mac to the world and he performed at a
record number of openings around the States and elsewhere, sometimes bringing his daughter
along for the appearance.
Other performers who donned the suit include: Michael Polakovs, Ray Rayner, King Moody,
Squire Fridell and a few others.
He is currently played by Brad Lennon.
Brad took up the position in 2014.
Ronald McDonald Almost Wasn’t a Clown
Despite the success that the Ronald McDonald character has had, and of course thinking
of the buzz he brought the restaurants, it’s quite amazing to find out that he almost wasn’t
going to be a clown at all when the franchise owners first thought up the idea of having
a company mascot to help sell burgers and fries.
Two ideas were kicked around the boardroom and when seen now, these ideas don’t really
seem like they would have worked: The first character idea was for Ronald to
be a cowboy!
It’s true.
The whole cowboy thing was pretty in back then.
With Westerns having the run of Hollywood, the company figured that a cowboy would really
sit well with consumers, especially children who looked up to these cowboy characters,
but the idea was ultimately scrapped.
The second idea was a tad more far-fetched, as it were, when execs thought that a space
man would be the ultimate spokesman for the restaurant and be the right character to hype
up their menu of items sold.
The thought process here was that the space program in the States was pretty big news
and they figured the character would hit home with many consumers out there.
But now that we have a clown as McDonald’s spokesman, it seems unreal and unlikely that
anyone would have ever accepted these other characters in that role.
Of course we’ll never know, but we’ll take Ronald over the Space Man and Wild Bill
from the Wild West any day of the week.
Ronald Started at Only A Single Franchise
Before the McDonald’s corporation would catch on and use the character for world-wide
promotions, the Ronald McDonald character was used primarily at one location: the Washington
DC locale, owned and operated by Oscar Goldstein and John Gibson.
It was this specific franchise that can be made responsible for the creation of this
character, along with the aforementioned Willard Scott of course.
But talk about heat.
This character caught on and in a big way.
It was a million dollar idea and it did just what they originally thought it would do,
and that was to bring huge amounts of attention to a company and restaurant that was already
doing quite well.
Ronald McDonald was the proverbial cherry on top the already scrumptious piece of cake.
A Hefty Ronald Gets Terminated
Many wondered why Willard Scott only did two years as the character he helped bring to
fruition.
These days, Hollywood celebrities are wary of playing a character for too long, as they
fear that they will be associated with the character so much, they won’t be able to
broaden their horizons and do other things with their career.
Many have wondered if this was the case for Scott.
Well, the actual truth is a tad more controversial and it’ll inspire many to feel a tad bad
for the famous weatherman.
As it turned out back then, the powers that be up the ladder felt that a slightly thinner
man would be better at convincing the world to sell fries, burgers and cold cola drinks
to children and the masses.
The media has always tried to portray skinniness as the goal, and so McDonald’s thought a
sleeker clown would help sales and remove the negative connotation that their food might
make you gain weight.
The idea worked and the actor they took next was thinner, and the performance was recorded
as a plus rather than a negative.
Go figure.
One would think that a more portly individual would convince the masses that he had a bunch
of tasty food items to peddle, the idea being that he’s sampled the goods himself.
A Brush With The Law
As is the case with many Hollywood celebrities these days, the many actors that have donned
the paint and yellow jumpsuit have also had their fair share of run-ins with the authorities,
and we wonder … does that make them legit celebrities, or does it tarnish the symbol
of the golden arches?
Of course we’re not talking anything serious here.
Nobody was given a life sentence or anything, but a few of these stories do prove that there’s
a bad boy in all of us … even a loveable clown handing out cheeseburgers and fries.
First, we should mention that the company requests that actors portraying the famous
clown should stay in character at all times while in the suit and a lot of them have taken
this rule a tad too seriously.
One such actor was involved in a bit of a car accident a few years back and when police
arrived on the scene, they were quite shocked and amused to see who was in one of the cars
involved.
But things turned serious pretty quickly when the clown in question refused to give them
his actual civilian name.
It almost presented the ultimate in problems: a night or more in jail.
But the cops finally let him go despite it all.
They must have secretly been fans of the clown when they were kids.
Either that or he gave them coupons for free cheeseburgers.
We’ll never know.
Donald?
No … It’s Ronald!
His name is pretty much easy to remember.
After all, it does rhyme, and rhymes were invented to help us remember things, much
like mnemonic devices.
And for many of us out there who grew up knowing of him and maybe even meeting him once at
our local McDonald’s restaurant, we probably even pictured him as the title character in
the “Old MacDonald” song we heard as children.
The name is pretty straight forward, but as it turns out, not everybody thinks so.
In Japan, the character is actually named Donald.
The reason for this is partly because the word Ronald in Japanese would be pretty hard
to say and wouldn’t be as catchy either, so the name was simply changed to Donald,
and it made a world of difference.
The character has also had a fun spin-off in Japan.
Back in 2005, they designed a young female version of Ronald, or Donald, giving a completely
different and revitalized look.
The idea was to take Ronald’s classic costume and turn it into something more feminine and
fashionable.
They got rid of the old yellow jumpsuit and wrapped this version of the clown in a dress,
sure to keep the same color scheme going.
The man behind the campaign is simply known as Kazoo, another one name person like Madonna
or Prince.
His idea came from the popular costume play trend, or cosplay, which is a hit in Japan,
and the campaign actually did quite well there, being especially popular among teenage girls
of the area.
Ronald McDonald, and Friends!
The children of the eighties and nineties were subject to a pretty interesting lineup
of characters whenever they went to McDonald’s or saw an ad on TV while they were watching
their Saturday morning cartoons.
And when we say lineup, we mean a whole crew of characters ranging from the most unreal
to the absolutely ridiculous.
But we loved them just the same, and many feel that today’s generation is missing
out.
They were meant to be Ronald’s best buds and well, the camaraderie the youth of past
generations witnessed gave them an overall feeling of coziness and togetherness as they
enjoyed their Happy Meals and plethora of McDonald’s included toys.
It’s actually quite sad now to see all these characters lost to time and the corporate
mechanism of moving forward.
They were such a part of our lives and perhaps just as impactful as Big Bird, and Bert and
Ernie.
The names bring a feeling of nostalgia to our hearts as we look back: Mayor McCheese,
Officer Big Mac, Birdie the Early Bird, the cuddly and loveable Grimace, The Hamburglar,
the Fry Kids and a plethora of other colorful buddies that are quite hard to forget.
Long Live “The Hype”
McDonald’s have enjoyed decades of success, and it doesn’t only come at the hands of
the many employees that keep up the standards of the franchise every day at many worldwide
locations, or even the popularity it's enjoyed in the mainstream.
At the end of the day, the success of McDonalds can pretty much come down to the hype that
they themselves have built up over the years, and very much like the professional wrestling
industry, the corporation believes the hype that they spread, and they wouldn’t speak
against it if their existence depended on it.
In the wrestling business it’s known as Kayfabe, and it can best be described as the
practice of keeping up appearances and going along with the storyline they present in the
ring, even when walking into a hotel, checking their bags or even ordering a meal.
Of course these days, it isn’t as strict, but back in the day, it was common practice.
Well, McDonald’s isn’t all that different, as they act like they truly believe that Ronald
McDonald is a real life person.
They have yet to admit to the hiring of actors to play the part and have actually negated
this, putting forth the belief that he is real and he brings joy to the masses.
Now how’s that for Kayfabe?
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