Author: Karl Smallwood / Source: Today I Found Out
According to official company statements, Ronald McDonald is “second only to Santa in terms of recognition”. While this may or may not have been true at one point in time, you might have noticed of late that the formerly prominent fast-food mascot has almost completely disappeared from the lime-light.
So how did Ronald McDonald come about in the first place and where has he disappeared to in recent years?The original idea behind the character of Ronald McDonald was to more or less capitalize on the popularity of the iconic Bozo the Clown, with initial efforts on this front simply advertising on that children’s show in the Washington D.C. area. When this succeeded in getting kids to drag their parents to McDonald’s, in 1963 McDonald’s decided to create their own similar character, with the first to portray the Bozo knock-off being none other than Willard Scott, who would later go on to much more prominent fame for his decades of work on The Today Show.
Wanting to expand the character, McDonald’s hired Ringling Bros. clown Michael Polakovs, better known as Coco the Clown, to re-do the look of Ronald McDonald. You see, at the time Ronald’s garb featured a cardboard tray for a hat and a paper cup over his nose- not exactly prime time material. What Polakovs came up with is the now iconic look of the character.
With this, Ronald McDonald was ready for the big-time, at which point Scott was promptly fired from the role in 1966 and Bev Bergeron was hired to take his place. While you’ll often read Scott was fired for being too fat, which would be kind of ironic if true, this seems unlikely as Bev Bergeron had many more tires in his trunk than Scott at the time. From this, it seems more likely that Bergeron was probably hired as he was vastly more qualified for the role, with an extremely impressive resume as an entertainer, magician, and clown. In fact, later in life he would actually receive a Lifetime Achievement Fellowship Award from the Academy of Magic Arts and Sciences.
Speaking of that switch, “officially” McDonald’s publicly only recognises nine men as having played the character since the 1960s when he was created. Or to put it another way, if McDonald’s is to be believed, more men have walked on the moon than played Ronald McDonald. The reality though is that hundreds, if not thousands of actors have portrayed Ronald over the years, with said actors usually being tasked with being the Ronald for a specific area or set of McDonald’s restaurants.
Save for a few scant references to the handful of men known to have portrayed Ronald in an official capacity, McDonald’s as a company otherwise insists that Ronald is real and that there is only one of him. Towards this end, the company has rules in place that prevent two or more Ronalds from ever appearing in costume at the same place at the same time, with the one apparent exception being a secret convention the company holds for Ronalds it sometimes refuses to admit actually happens.
In an attempt to catch McDonald’s out, The Baltimore Sun once reached out to the company and asked how Ronald seemingly appeared in so many places at once if there was only one of him. In response, the company issued a statement they claimed was from Ronald himself reading: “If I told you all my secrets, they wouldn’t be secrets anymore. Let’s just say that between you, me and Santa, it’s magic.”
Meaning it’s the official position of McDonald’s as a company that not only is Ronald McDonald real, but that he has magic powers.
So as to not break the carefully crafted illusion that Ronald is real, men playing him are forbidden from disclosing their real identity in costume and even from taking the costume home with them. As an idea of how seriously the actors playing Ronald take this, we’re aware of at least one example of a Ronald being detained by police as a direct result of the “no admitting you’re just an actor while playing Ronald” policy handed down by McDonald’s.
Specifically, after an actor in full Ronald McDonald costume and makeup got into a minor car crash in Saginaw, Michigan in 2000, they were temporarily detained after being asked to give their real name and hilariously refusing to respond with any other name than “Ronald McDonald” to the police.
In addition to being expected to never disclose that they’re an actor just playing a part while in costume, out of costume actors who play Ronald similarly aren’t supposed to acknowledge that fact, instructed to refer to themselves as “Ronald’s helpers” when asked what their job is.
Understandably, given the character’s position as the face of their brand, McDonald’s takes the training of prospective Ronalds incredibly seriously, putting anyone wanting to don his iconic outfit through an extensive and grueling training program. While this training program has evolved somewhat over the years to reflect the changing climate surrounding the brand and its products (more on that in a moment), it is mostly the same as it was back in the 1970s and follows the rules and guidelines set out in a book titled Ronald and How.
This was penned by a former Ronald named Aye Jaye, with the help of advertising executive Roy Bergold. At this point, Jaye was serving as the company’s “boss clown” (a role that mainly involved overseeing the hiring and training of Ronalds). As you might have guessed from the title, the book teaches actors everything they need to know about being Ronald McDonald.
For example, along with containing information about the character’s history, Ronald and How gives practical advice on everything from applying makeup to walking around in those ridiculous shoes. The book also teaches Ronalds how to interact with children in a non-creepy way, which when playing a clown is always a difficult task.
For example, given the rampant stigma against strange men interacting with random children, the book carries a stark warning- “never to initiate a hug”, instead suggesting Ronalds respond to a child trying to hug them by turning to the side and patting the child on the back. With this in mind, it’s probably not all that surprising that prospective Ronalds are also subjected to extensive background checks.
Ronalds are also constantly tested on their suitability for the role by official Ronald trainers who are given the power to fire a Ronald on the spot for any reason if they ever don’t measure up to the exacting demands of the company. Amazingly, these trainers also have the power to put actors playing the character on “Ronald probation” to let them know they need to literally get their act together.
According to Geoffrey Giuliano, who played Ronald for about a year and a half in the late 1970s, one of the more unusual rules they also have to follow is never eating McDonald’s food in costume. This is reportedly as it might smudge their makeup.
Giuliano has also claimed that he was forbade by McDonald’s brass from informing children how McDonald’s hamburgers were made. Instead, if a child asked where hamburgers came from, the Ronalds are instructed to give a stock response about McDonald’s burgers being grown in patches where they are picked whole.
This was presumably done so as to maintain consistency with a series of McDonald’s ads from the early 1970s aimed at children which claimed that hamburgers grew in a special patch in a place called McDonaldland, instead of made by slaughtering approximately half a…
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