For more than 40 years, kids have been begging their parents to take them through the McDonald's drive-thru for the coveted meal/toy combo promised by the Happy Meal (and for 40 years, parents have been saying "We have food at home!") From miniature Crocs to Hot Wheels, there's something magically American about getting a small figurine from your favorite movie along with your hamburger. But what was the very first Happy Meal like? Well, that depends on who you ask. Yolanda Fernández de Cofiño, a co-founder of the first Guatemalan McDonald's, is sometimes lauded as the mother of the Happy Meal.
In 1977, she introduced the Ronald Menu at the location she ran in order to provide age-appropriate portion sizes to kids, including a smaller burger, fewer fries, a small sundae, and toys that she bought at a local market. But simultaneously, others were developing the idea of a menu geared specifically toward kids. Dick Brams, the St.
Louis regional ad manager for McDonald's at the time, and Bob Bernstein, an ad manager for McDonald's locations throughout the Midwest and Southwest, have also been credited with the invention. So far as the trademarked Happy Meal in its current form? It would seem that Bernstein deserves credit for the puzzle-covered, toy-stuffed kid-friendly order we know today. It launched first in 1977 in select cities with a burger, fries, Keebler cookies, a soda, and a Cracker Jack toy, and eventually launched nationally in 1979 as a circus-themed box with McD.
