Neil Fox received McDonald’s first franchise in 1953. The McDonald brothers granted him the franchise for a restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona.
Fox was an executive with the oil company Standard Oil of California. His Phoenix restaurant was designed using the McDonald brothers’ operating ideas and featured the early Golden Arches as a prominent architectural sign.
The 1953 franchise predates Ray Kroc’s involvement with McDonald’s. Kroc became the company’s franchise agent in 1954 and opened his first McDonald’s restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1955.
A common error is calling Kroc the first franchisee. Kroc was the key figure in nationwide expansion, but Neil Fox was the first person to receive a McDonald’s franchise under the brothers’ system.