FOOD: The Burger That Conquered the Country

Monday, Sep. 17, 1973

Digg
Facebook
Yahoo Buzz
Twitter
MORE
- Add to my:
- Blog this on:
  - TypePad
  - LiveJournal
  - Blogger
  - MySpace

(10 of 10)

Moreover, the quiet pleasures of retirement could hardly match the kick that Kroc, the unsuccessful piano player, gets from finally wowing an audience. "When you are in this business you are in show business," he says. "Every day is a new show. It's like a Broadway musical—if people come out humming the tune, then the show was a success." Today, Ray Kroc's show will play to standing-room-only crowds at more than 2,500 houses round the world. More than a few patrons will walk out, stomachs full, humming his tune: "You deserve a break today ..."

^{*Although the hamburger originated in medieval Europe, as raw
beef shredded by a dull knife. Merchants from the Baltic carried the
dish to Hamburg, where it is still popular both raw and cooked.
German immigrants brought it, fried and bunned, to South St. Louis, and
introduced it to the rest of the U.S. at the St. Louis World's Fair in
1904.}