“America’s fast-food chains were not launched by large corporations relying upon focus groups and market research. They were started by door-to-door salesmen, short-order cooks, orphans, and dropouts, by eternal optimists looking for a piece of the next big thing.”
The second part of a writing project. The first was “Getting my first fluffy pony”.
This story was adapted from The Founder, which was a retelling of Ray Kroc’s expansion, and eventual buyout of the McDonalds Corporation from the McDonalds brothers Big thanks goes to @Karn and @Carpdime , who gave me feedback while I was working on the draft of this big-ass story.
There’s a lot that went into this story, but I’ll save the discussion for later. Instead, I’ll post the notes:
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Will Kroc is based off Ray Kroc. I opted to have his first name be based off Will Smith, who played as a similar “Will Smith” on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The TV Will smith’s real name is William, while actor’s actual name is Willard.
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McBrega is a combination of “McDonalds”, “Hasbro” and “Sega”. In this setting of this story, McBrega could be a fictional Scottish clan or some unique Irish name. Credit goes to @RoseTea for the creation of the McBrega name
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The McBrega brothers were based off the real McDonalds brothers, while their names are taken from the respective creators of each of the three companies. Henry Hassenfeld for Hasbro, Maurice McDonald for McDonalds and Irving Bromberg for Sega
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The first fast food outlet as we understand them may have been pioneered by A & W and White Castle. McDonalds was just the most well-known (and copied)
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the way fluffies are created can be alluded in one of my previous stories: Bio-Lathe. I also invite you to read this Gorodetsky’s own idea for fluffies created from bio-matter
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Afton’s Automat is, of course, a reference to William Afton of the FNAF franchise. The Automat is a restaurant where all the food is dispensed entirely by vending machines. the Automat is considered to be the forerunner of the modern fast food joint.
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Marty, McBrega’s mascot, was first mentioned in “Getting my first fluffy pony”
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Tina and Marty were named after Athena and Mars. Both were the Greco-Roman deities of War. In addition, Athena was the “brainchild” of Zeus, while Ares/Mars was born of Hera/Juno.
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the other inspiration for Marty McBrega was Marty McFly, of Back to the Future fame
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Nolan Turner is based off Fred Turner, the fry cook who would later become senior chairman of McDonalds. The other inspiration for his name was Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari and, more relvant to this story, Chuck E Cheese
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Jebediah Berenstain is based off Jan and Stan Berenstain, creators of the Berenstain Bears franchise
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Fievel Belyayev is named after Fievel, from An American Tail
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the real Dmitry Belyayev was behind silver domesticated fox project, which had worked towards domesticating silver foxes in Russia. In the setting of this story, Dmitry undertook this project much earlier. This setting also has Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel making their respective discoveries, and even properly meeting each other, during the Enlightenment, allowing for contemporary setting that has far advanced genetic engineering than in our own timeline
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Gerry Vannevar is based off Harry Sonneborn, the businessman who introduced the Sonneburn model to Kroc that turned the fast food into the corporate giant it now is today. His name is based off two individuals: Gerry Anderson, who developped Supermarionation and Vannevar Bush.
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Walt Iwerks is a combination of Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks
Further viewing: