Speedee appeared on McDonald's first logo in 1948.
The logo was created when the McDonald brothers shifted their San Bernardino restaurant toward the Speedee Service System. It featured a chef-like figure named Speedee, whose smiling appearance communicated quick preparation and service. The branding matched the restaurant's central operational idea: customers could receive a limited menu rapidly.
The early logo predates the Golden Arches as a corporate symbol. McDonald's later moved toward the arches because they offered a simpler and more flexible visual mark for buildings, signs, packaging, and advertising. Speedee was gradually replaced in the public identity by the arches and, in advertising, by Ronald McDonald.
People sometimes assume Ronald McDonald was always the company's main mascot because he became so prominent. He was not part of the original 1948 logo. The first logo belongs to the earlier Speedee era, before McDonald's branding took its modern form.