This video is sponsored by
RAID: Shadow Legends. The hamburger is the quintessential American meal,
offering more than just the perfect balance of food. Out of the many burgers available at
Burger King, the Whopper takes the reins. But the idea behind the savoury flame-grilled
Whopper didn't actually come from Burger King. In fact, a cafeteria worker-turned-franchise owner
stole it from a dirty, rundown restaurant, and then boasted Burger King as the "Home of the Whopper.” This is the story of how it all began. Burger King’s story doesn’t start
with the company’s founders. Instead, it starts with a pair of franchisees
who met as strangers, but whose lives had been surprisingly similar in a number of ways. Their names were James McLamore and
David Edgerton, and they would change the face of the fast food industry forever. James was born in New York
City, New York, on May 30, 1926. His father was Thomas McLamore,
a former lieutenant in the U.S. Army, and his mother was Marian
Floyd Whitman, a homemaker. David was born a year later in Lebanon, Pennsylvania
on May 26, to Blanche Berger, a violinist who performed across the nation, and David Edgerton
Senior, a hotel manager and steel mill worker. At the age of three, James’
life was rocked when the U.S. stock market crashed and the Great
devastated millions, his family included. RAID: Shadow Legends has taken over and now gaming will never be
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in the description to get started! The Whitman family fortune was gone, and
when James’ grandfather died at the age of 76, James was convinced the sudden loss
of his family’s finances was the reason. James’ mother likewise didn’t
take the Great Depression well. She was committed to a sanitarium
where she spent the rest of her days. James never saw her again. The Depression had taken its
toll on James’ father as well. He lost his job in New York, and with
Marian gone, he moved the family out to the Whitman family farm in Edgehill. There, James’ grandmother would look after him
and his two siblings while Thomas traveled to and from New York City by train to work at a bank. Then, four years after the stock
market crash, a fire ravaged Edgehill and ended its days as a working farm. In order to make ends meet, James’ grandmother
had to sell half of the 200 acre property, and many of her most valuable possessions as well. Four years after the fire, James’
grandmother made a decision. She wanted the grandchildren she had raised to
attend college, and she knew that the best path they’d have would be through boarding school. To raise the money for tuition,
she sold more of her valuables. She sent James’ older sister Claire to
Northfield Seminary in Massachusetts first, and planned to send James to its sister school,
Mount Hermon School for Boys, two years later. Tragically, she would never get to see it. She died of a severe heart attack the next year. Still, her wish for James to attend
boarding school was fulfilled. The next year he set out for Mount Hermon, and while
he missed his family and had difficulty adjusting to the new life at first, he came to thrive there. In his senior year, James was
even elected class president. When tested for aptitude, the school advised James
to think about a career in business, specifically anything with a focus in sales or marketing. With this fresh on his mind, it was
time for James to apply to university. James took an interest in Cornell University
because of its affordable tuition, and applied to its Hotel Administration school, as it
offered the only business programs at the time. Fulfilling his grandmother’s
wish, he was quickly accepted. Fro m that moment he had 10 days to get
everything sorted and headed to Ithaca, New York. The only problem? James had no plan, no job, nowhere
to stay, and only $11 to his name. Scrambling to pull everything together, James found
room and board with a professor who took students in as long as they were willing to do housework. During the week, James went to class,
and on the weekends he worked 12-hour days around the professor’s house. However, there was a growing awareness
over the years of the conflict that had spread to every corner of the globe. James knew he would likely be drafted, and
when he and David were old enough, they both chose to enlist in the armed forces. David joined the army, while James chose the navy. Dropping out of Cornell two years after he was
accepted, James headed to the recruitment office where he was brought aboard, but it would still
take several months for him to be called to service. While he waited, James decided to take a job
and get some experience in the hotel field. He wound up working at the Hotel Astor
bar, sitting behind bartenders and ringing up tabs as they served drinks. James’ naval service brought him back to
Cornell as part of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps before he graduated three years
after enlisting, and went in search of work. Newly married, he looked far and wide for
work to support his family, and eventually landed an interview to be the director of food
service at the YMCA in Wilmington, Delaware for the largest cafeteria in the state. He got the job, and he headed
out with his wife, Nancy Nichol.. At first, the two lived out of a hotel where,
on the day of their arrival, their car was broken into and their valuables stolen. David had also attended Cornell where he studied
hotel and restaurant management, but dropped out. He later attended Northwestern University,
dropping out but staying in the area and starting a successful pie bakery
that served Northwestern students. At the YMCA, James soon found that
he had his work cut out for him. He was handed a cafeteria with a bland menu and
overstuffed storerooms with decade-old canned goods that were exploding in their cases. So, he got to work. Despite improving the menu, clearing
out the storerooms, and bringing in customers, James didn’t make much. His salary was a little over $250 a
month which even at the time was low. So when a local restaurant owner offered
him a better paying job, he was interested. Unfortunately for James, he and the
restaurant owner didn’t get along well. Before long, James got in a confrontation
that ended with him being fired. To make matters worse, Nancy was pregnant and
the two already had a daughter named Pamela, and had taken out a mortgage on a farm house. James needed a way to support
his family, and quickly. But James soon had an idea that
meant he’d get to pave his own way. He’d noticed while working at the YMCA
that a local restaurant named Toddle House had been busy 24-hours a day. It was a quick service restaurant with only
10 seats, and James believed that if he opened a similar business, it would be a success. James brought his idea to life, naming it the
Colonial Inn and renting an empty bike repair shop next door to the Toddle House for $300 a month. He believed that by making his restaurant fancier
than its inspiration, he could outcompete them. The Colonial Inn began operation by opening its
doors to customers at the start of the new year. It quickly became a local favourite and
made $90,000 in its first year alone, of which James took $15,000 home. His instincts had served him well. With the Colonial Inn successful, James took
a trip to Miami to visit his father-in-law. While there, his father-in-law showed him a vacant
building and suggested he open another restaurant. James saw a thriving food industry with poor
service in Miami and decided to take the advice, believing he could find success again. Unfortunately for him, James soon learned that
Miami was a seasonal city and the crowds he saw clamoring for food were all gone when his new
Brickell Bridge restaurant opened six months later. Little did James know, he would soon cross paths
with fellow Cornell dropout, David, and be forced to make a tough call: save the business or walk away. While James struggled to keep the Brickell
Bridge afloat, David travelled to Jacksonville, Florida to meet with Matthew Burns and Keith
Cramer, the founders of a new restaurant chain named Insta-Burger King, named after
the Insta-Machines they used to prepare food. James had already thought of opening up a
multi-unit chain restaurant, something he believed Brickell Bridge could never be, however he
needed more capital to join David in the venture. If he wanted in, he only had one choice. He would have to sell Brickell Bridge. A year later, James and David managed
to open three Insta-Burger King locations but each one was failing. They offered burgers and shakes for 18 cents each,
plus fries and soft drinks for 10 cents each. Examining the business over the
next year, James found a few issues. First off, their Insta-Machines were
anything but miraculous and kept failing. Fast and cheap food wasn’t much of a draw when their
competitors could serve food more consistently. Second, their food wasn’t actually that cheap. While they sold burgers for 18 cents, other
fast food chains sold them for 15 cents each. Third, the Florida market
had entrenched competition. A local chain named Royal Castle had
already won customer loyalty with an effective marketing campaign. And fourth, their ordering system was
confusing and frustrated customers. Customers ordered food at one
window and were expected to pay in advance — something uncommon at the time. Then they were handed tickets and directed
to a second window where they were often asked to repeat their orders despite
the tickets, much to their frustration. The two decided that they needed
to improve their ordering system. Things needed to be faster,
and far less frustrating. James described the mentality behind the change
as, “Our customers have two things to spend—time and money—and they would rather spend their money.” David and James devised a new, more efficient
order system that let them deliver food in seconds. The solution to the unreliable machines
came after David flew into a fit of rage while attempting to repair one and destroyed
it with a hatchet from his toolbox. To replace it, he teamed up with an
engineer named Karl Sundman to build a flame broiler of his own design. Despite the improvements they’d made,
James and David had a bigger issue: They were running out of money. It didn’t matter how much they improved the
Insta-Burger King experience if they went out of business before anyone could experience it. Fortunately, James’ father-in-law began to
host events at his home with the sole intent of introducing James to potential investors. During one cocktail party at his father-in-law’s
home, James was introduced to Harvey Fruehauf of the Detroit-based Fruehauf Trailer Company. David and James used this money to open three new
locations, only one of which showed any promise. But they weren’t the only ones struggling… Even the original Jacksonville
chain was doing poorly. One day, David and James decided to visit one of
their new locations on the way from Jacksonville to Miami and were shocked to find it empty. Bored, James went for a walk and was drawn
in by a line of customers waiting outside a dirty, run down drive-in restaurant. Curious, James got in line and picked up
a pair of burgers for himself and David. What they found was a big, tasty burger
with a quarter pound patty on a five inch bun with the works: lettuce, tomatoes,
onions, pickles, mayonnaise, and ketchup. After eating, James and David decided that
was exactly what their restaurants needed. They came up with plans for a large burger
with all the fixings for their chain. They decided to call it “The Whopper”
to make people think of something big. When they got back to Miami, James and
David made the Whopper the mainstay of their Insta-Burger King locations. They standardized the burger for all
seven of their restaurants, sold it for 37 cents, and added advertising
proclaiming them the “Home of the Whopper”. It was immediately a huge success, and
would soon be adopted by other franchises. David and James also chose to replace the
Insta-Shake with a more reliable milkshake maker. With this, they removed the “Insta” from their
branding and became Burger King—Home of the Whopper. James and David had begun unofficially
leading the company, even the founders in Jacksonville were following their lead now. In recognition of their success, the
founders gave the two exclusive franchising rights to southern Florida, unaware of how
much trouble Jacksonville was really in. Despite following in the footsteps of James
and David, the founders failed to find the same success and soon defaulted on their loans. Before the end of the year, Keith and Matthew were
out and their debtor, Ben Stein, was in control. The only problem? Ben had no idea how to run a
restaurant, let alone a chain of them. He wanted Miami to take control from him, but
they could never find an agreement that worked. It took four years before Ben travelled out
to Miami for a fateful lunch where James offered him 15 percent of whatever they brought
in each month for control of the company. Ben leaned back in his chair and
replied, “You’ve got yourself a deal.” Not only had James and David outlasted the
founders of the company, now they were in charge. All they had to do was build their kingdom… Four years after James and David had
taken over, Burger King was bringing in impressive profits, so James and David
decided that the time had come to go public. However, when they approached Blyth and Company
to handle their IPO they were told they were “too young, inexperienced, and undercapitalized.” The banks didn’t believe in them,
but someone else did: Pillsbury. Pillsbury was stuck in a competitive grocery store
market where sales had stayed flat without increase. They were looking for markets and businesses
where they could grow their presence, and had been advised to look into the
restaurant market, specifically Burger King. A year later, Pillsbury approached
David and James about a merger. James was ecstatic at the
news, but David wasn’t so sure. Still, he eventually agreed and early next year
Pillsbury had bought out Ben’s remaining stake for $2.5 million, plus $50,000 for attorney’s fees. Following the merger, James became
a member of the Pillsbury management team, and a director of the company. Meanwhile, David, who had wanted to
stay independent, felt the call of his old entrepreneurial spirit and left to
create a new restaurant, Bodega Steak. To drive Burger King’s success, Pillsbury
poached a key figure from their competitor and the world’s largest fast food chain, McDonald’s. Former McDonald’s executive, Donald Smith,
quickly set about building the fast food chain into something greater with two key strategies. First, he reworked the franchising system,
changing it so that franchisees could not own locations in other chains and that franchisees
had to live within an hour of their locations. These changes were to instill brand
loyalty, and to prevent franchisees from owning restaurants they wouldn’t travel to. Second, Donald took on McDonald’s
in the children’s market by creating new characters for advertisements. These included Sir Shakes A Lot, a robot named
The Wizard of Fries, and of course the Burger King — who also happened to be a magician. Under Donald’s leadership, Burger King’s
profits rose by 15%, but his reign was short. Only two years after taking
over, he was poached yet again. This time by Pepsi. His departure saw Burger King’s profits
start to slide back down, meaning that someone else would need to take the throne. With Donald gone, Pillsbury crowned another
restaurant executive, Norman Brinker, who founded the restaurant chain Steak and Ale
before it had been acquired by Pillsbury. Two years after Donald had left, Norman was
transferred to Burger King, where he introduced a new marketing campaign, the “Battle of the Burgers”
which pushed the narrative that Americans preferred Burger King’s flame-grilled burgers to McDonald’s. Under Norman’s leadership, Burger King
came close to catching up with McDonald’s. However, just like Donald, Norman
had a brief reign as burger royalty. Only a year after taking the throne, he left
to join Chili’s, and sales slumped once more. Five years later, Burger King would begin
to switch hands when Pillsbury was acquired by British company, Grand Metropolitan PLC. Burger King then expanded its kingdom to the UK. Yet, just as things were looking up
for Burger King, it was snubbed again. Nine years after acquiring Burger King,
Grand Metropolitan PLC merged with brewing behemoth, Guinness, to form Diageo PLC. Diageo had less interest in fast food
endeavours, and instead turned their attention to their alcoholic beverage brands. Three years later, Diageo expressed
an interest in selling Burger King. Soon, someone else would be wearing
the crown: Texas Pacific Group. With capital from both Bain Capital and
Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Texas Pacific bought Burger King for $1.5 billion. This would just be the first of
several times the crown would trade hands through the next two decades. Under Texas Pacific, more changes were
introduced to the Burger King brand. Four years after acquiring it, Texas Pacific
took Burger King public a second time. Then three years later, they introduced the
“Whopper Bar”, where customers could watch their burgers be built by “Whopperistas.” A year later, Burger King was taken private again
after being bought by 3G Capital for $3.26 billion. That lasted two years, before it went public
again, before finally merging with Canadian fast food brand, Tim Hortons, after another two years. After the merger, Burger King and Tim Hortons
were both run by the newly-formed parent company, Restaurant Brands International. The merger seems to have done well for
Burger King, as four years later it reclaimed the title of second-largest burger chain
in the United States with $9.6 billion in sales, edging out Wendy’s for the title who
had made $9.3 billion in sales that year. The solid foundation that David and James built
with the Whopper earned Burger King the reputation for high-quality, tasty, and affordable food. As the crown traded hands, others built on
top of their foundation, entrenching Burger King’s popularity with solid advertising,
low costs that let them keep their products affordable, and a simple menu with something
for everyone, all of which led to Burger King’s continued success as a brand. Today, Burger King is one of the
world’s largest chains with thousands of locations in over 100 countries. As for the Whopper, it remains its most
iconic menu item — helping to bring in over $1 billion in revenue — and is listed
as one of America’s favorite burgers. This is the story of how a once-fledgling chain
became a global, billion-dollar powerhouse through a series of takeovers and a stolen recipe. For more interesting stories about today’s biggest
companies, don’t forget to subscribe to our channel!
