McDonald's original 1940s logo featured a chef mascot named Speedee.
Speedee was drawn as a smiling chef with a hamburger-shaped head and represented the restaurant's emphasis on fast service. The name echoed the word “speedy,” a central selling point of the McDonald brothers' original Speedee Service System.
The mascot appeared before the Golden Arches became McDonald's best-known visual symbol. In 1948, Richard and Maurice McDonald reorganized their San Bernardino restaurant around a streamlined self-service system, and Speedee helped communicate that identity to customers.
Speedee is sometimes confused with later McDonaldland characters, especially Ronald McDonald. Ronald was introduced in the 1960s, while Speedee belonged to the earlier restaurant-branding era and was eventually replaced in prominence by the arches.