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Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. Ronald McDonald is the second most recognized figure in the world (after Santa Claus). In television commercials, the clown inhabits a fantasy world called McDonaldland, and has adventures with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, and The Fry Kids. The McDonald's Corporation has also characterized Ronald McDonald as being able to speak 31 different languages including Mandarin, Dutch, Tagalog, and Hindi. In recent years, the "childish" McDonaldland has been largely phased out, and Ronald is instead shown interacting with normal kids in their everyday lives. He was first portrayed on television by Willard Scott.

Many people work full-time making appearances in the Ronald McDonald costume, visiting children in hospitals. There are also Ronald McDonald Houses, where parents can stay overnight when visiting sick children in nearby chronic care facilities. Since August 2003, McDonald has been officially recognized as the "Chief Happiness Officer" of the McDonald's Corporation.

Origin

George Voorhis/Terry Teene

George Voorhis is a late 20th Century American performer who performed under various monikers as a clown. He claims to have been the 'original' Ronald McDonald. (A 1963 newspaper clipping from the Valley News (a San Fernando Valley newspaper) identifies George Voorhees as "Ronald McDonald" at a "local McDonald's restaurant".) According to George Voorhees and Terry Teene, in the early part of 1963 Voorhees and Terry Teene created the original character and design of American advertising icon Ronald McDonald, including costume (featuring "French-fry bag pockets") and facial design, for a hired performance at a local Los Angeles, California area McDonald's restaurant. He was subsequently enjoined from performing as, or exhibiting the likeness of, Ronald McDonald in any form.

Additionally, and disregarding Voorhees' claim, on March 28, 2000, Henry Gonzalez, McDonald's Northeast Division President, thanked Scott for creating Ronald McDonald, during a taped tribute to Scott on the Today Show.

In 1965, Roy Burgold assigned Aye Jaye as Boss Clown worldwide in charge of hiring, writing, creating shows, media handling, training, and major events such as The White House appearances, Macy Days, etc., and finally opening Ronald worldwide for 35 years. Aye Jaye was responsible for the hiring of hundreds of past field Ronalds. In 1965, Roy Burgold assigned Aye Jaye as Boss Clown worldwide in charge of hiring, writing, creating shows, media handling, training, and major events such as The White House appearances, Macy Days, etc., and finally opening Ronald worldwide for 35 years. Aye Jaye was responsible for the hiring of hundreds of past field Ronalds.

Actors

At any given time, there are dozens, or possibly hundreds, of actors retained by McDonald's to appear as Ronald McDonald in restaurants and events. It is assumed, however, that the company uses only one actor at a time to play the character in national television commercials. Following is a list of such primary Ronald actors.

• Willard Scott (Washington, D.C. 1963–1965)
• Bev Bergeron (Southern California, 1966-68)
• George Voorhis (South California, 1968-1970)
• Bob Brandon (1970-1975)
• King Moody (1975-1984)
• Squire Fridell (1984-1991)
• Jack Deopke (1990-1992)
• Joe Maggard (1994-2007)
• Brad Lennon (2007-Present)

Various forms of the name "Ronald McDonald" as well as costume clown face persona, etc. are registered trademarks of McDonald's. McDonald's trains performers to portray Ronald using identical mannerisms and costume, to contribute to the illusion that they are one character.

McDonald's marketing designers and stylists changed elements of the Ronald McDonald character, persona, style, costume and clown face when they adopted the clown as a trademark, possibly in deference to "The Code", the tradition of clowns to scrupulously avoid copying other clowns' appearance or performance style.

The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald

The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald was a series of retail animated direct-to-video features produced by the ka-chew! division of Klasky-Csupo (an animation company famous for creating shows like Rugrats, The Wild Thornberrys, and Duckman) for the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. A total of six forty-minute tapes were produced, released at various times between 1998 and 2003.

• Scared Silly a haunted house tale
• The Legend of Grimace Island, dealing with the Grimace's origin
• Visitors From Outer Space, a science fiction tale dealing with extraterrestrials
• Birthday World, dealing with a scheming mad scientist's plot
• Have Time, Will Travel, A story of Time Travel
• The Legend of McDonald-Land Loch, homaging the Nessie myth

Although the series is "free-standing," ongoing artistic influences can be inferred from the ways certain characters were drawn for animation. For example, the character Birdie shares certain aspects of grooming and costume with Eliza Thornberry, and the rendition and bearing of the Hamburglar, reminiscent of Darwin and of Chuckie Finster, may have been an influence on the design of Otto Rocket. Elements of early K-C "house style" are also very evident on other supporting characters like Sundae the dog and the Chicken McNuggets. Co-protagonist Tika, however, is a very normal looking human girl of color. Iam Hungry appeared to be in one part of the episode Visitors From Outer Space.

Miscellaneous

Voice talent on these tapes includes K-C veterans such as Christine Cavanaugh, Kath Soucie, and Charles Adler. The role of Ronald McDonald is credited as "Himself."

• Ronald McDonald
• Birdie the Early Bird
• Hamburglar
• Grimace
• Iam Hungry
• CosMc
• Fry Kids
• King Gonga
• Mayor McCheese
• Uncle O'Grimacey

By various accounts, the titles turned out to be rather popular, and individual McDonald's locations frequently ran out of tapes. Klasky-Csupo therefore agreed to carry them for direct sale at their online gift shop, which closed in the fall of 2005.

In other countries

In Thailand, Ronald McDonald greets people in the traditional Thai "wai" greeting gesture of hands together.

In Japan, Ronald McDonald is called ドナルド・マクドナルド - Donald McDonald - apparently because this is easier for the Japanese to pronounce. An ad campaign for the Tomato McGrand featured a young man and woman dressed in colors similar to Ronald's garb.

See also

• Ronald L. McDonald

References

1. Brownell, K.D. (2004). Overfeeding the future. In A. Heintzman & E. Solomon (Eds.) Feeding the future, from fat to famine. Anansi.
2. McDonald's India: Fun Zone

Further reading

• Schlosser, E. (2006) Chew on this: everything you don’t want to know about fast food. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co.

External links

• Ronald McDonald House Charities - the official website
• Ronald.com — the official website
• Ronald McDonald at IMDb
• TV Acres info about Ronald McDonald

• Articles lacking sources from May 2008
• American clowns
• Corporate mascots
• McDonald's characters