Jim Delligatti, Who Invented the Big Mac, Dies at Age 98
November 30 2016 - 11:39AM
Dow Jones News
By James R. Hagerty
As a McDonald's Corp. franchisee in the Pittsburgh area, Jim
Delligatti in the mid-1960s believed the burgers-and-fries menu
needed something jazzier. He came up with the Big Mac, tested it in
one of his restaurants and saw it swiftly become a national
sensation, heralding an era of ever-increasing reliance on novelty
in fast food.
Mr. Delligatti died Monday at his home in Fox Chapel, a suburb
of Pittsburgh, his family said. He was 98 years old.
He came up with the idea for the Big Mac in 1965 and first
served it at his Uniontown, Pa., McDonald's outlet in 1967. The
hamburger features two beef patties, a mildly tangy sauce, lettuce,
cheese, pickles and onions slathered over a soft sesame-seed bun
sliced into three layers. The original price was 45 cents, compared
with an average of about $5 today. McDonald's put the Big Mac on
its national menu in 1968.
Mr. Delligatti acknowledged that the Big Mac was derived from
double-deck hamburgers made popular by rival fast-food restaurants.
"This wasn't like discovering the lightbulb," he told the Los
Angeles Times in 1993. "The bulb was already there. All I did was
screw it in the socket." Even so, his initiative helped launch
McDonald's on a long-running diversification of a menu once limited
to little more than basic hamburgers, fries, shakes and soft
drinks.
In recent years, the Big Mac's appeal has faded as McDonald's
has struggled to find ways to entice customers back from rivals
whose food is widely seen as fresher, healthier and hipper. The Big
Mac "has gotten less relevant," a top McDonald's franchisee wrote
in a memo to other operators in July. Only one in five millennials
has tried a Big Mac, the memo said.
Michael James Delligatti was born Aug. 2, 1918, in Uniontown,
about 45 miles south of Pittsburgh. He attended school in Uniontown
and Fairmont, W.Va., and served in the U.S. Army in Europe during
World War II.
In 1953, he and a partner opened Delaney's Drive-In Restaurant
in Pittsburgh. Two years later, Mr. DelliGatti met Ray Kroc,
founder of McDonald's, at a restaurant trade show in Chicago. He
became a franchisee of McDonald's in 1957, opening an outlet in
Pittsburgh, the first in western Pennsylvania.
Mr. Delligatti is survived by his wife, Ellie, two sons, five
grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. His two sons and two
of his grandchildren are McDonald's franchisees. In all, the family
owns and operates 18 McDonald's restaurants in western
Pennsylvania.
In 2007, the family opened a McDonald's Big Mac Museum
Restaurant in North Huntingdon, Pa., near Pittsburgh.
Mr. Delligatti also innovated by coming up with an early version
of the chain's breakfast offerings--hotcakes and sausages initially
aimed at steelworkers returning home from overnight shifts.
He wasn't alone among franchisees in coming up with a hit
product. McDonald's said other franchisees invented the Egg
McMuffin and the Filet-O-Fish.
Write to James R. Hagerty at bob.hagerty@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 30, 2016 11:24 ET (16:24 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
McDonalds (NYSE:MCD)
Historical Stock Chart
From Feb 2024 to Mar 2024
McDonalds (NYSE:MCD)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2023 to Mar 2024