McDonald's original speed-service mascot was Speedee.
Speedee was a chef character with a hamburger-shaped head, created to represent the Speedee Service System introduced by Richard and Maurice McDonald. That system emphasized a limited menu, assembly-line preparation, and rapid service at the brothers' San Bernardino, California, restaurant.
The character appeared on early McDonald's signs and packaging before the company adopted Ronald McDonald as its better-known public mascot. Speedee is sometimes confused with the later McDonaldland characters, but he belongs to the restaurant's earliest postwar branding. The name also reflected the brothers' focus on quick preparation rather than table service.
The McDonald brothers opened their redesigned self-service restaurant in 1948, and the Speedee identity helped communicate its unusual operating model to customers. Although the character disappeared from mainstream branding, it remains an important link between McDonald's restaurant system and its earliest visual identity.