News   Mar 28, 2024
 200     0 
News   Mar 27, 2024
 2.1K     1 
News   Mar 27, 2024
 1.3K     2 

Yonge-Finch Old vs. New

Or, what's so "big deal" about so-called "normal development"?

Methinks carewser is the sort of dumb newbie for whom the realm of stuff like Spacing magazine means nothing, absolutely nothing at all...
 
Anyone even remotely familiar with the Yonge & Finch/Sheppard area knows that it *has* drastically changed in the past 10 years, let alone the past 36.
 
carewser

Because I didn't see anything remotely interesting in this.

Funnily enough, I don't see anything remotely interesting in your postings on UT thus far either. Just lots of crude and unconstructive comments. If you don't want to see uninteresting pictures, move on and visit a forum on Dubai instead.

AoD
 
My understanding is that the first McDonalds in Toronto was on Keele, south of Finch. When I moved here in '73, I called that stretch of Keele "Food Street" because of all the fast food joints - Ponderosa Steak House, Burger King, McDonalds, and others.
 
With regards to the McDonald's/Wimpys with cut off arches at northwest corner of Yonge & Finch - Toronto archive photos:
20140112-Plazas-Yonge-Finch-Alt.jpg

7a88-20140112-Plazas-Yonge-Finch.jpg-resize_then_crop-_frame_bg_color_FFF-h_1365-gravity_cente...jpg


Toronto historical aerial photos shows:
- 1961-62 plaza construction
- 1963-67 McDonald's golden arches clearly visible
- 1968- no arch and assume converted to Wimpys

1963 - Golden Arches (cross cursor in images below is at restaurant with arches):
IMG_4094_63.JPG


1967 - Golden Arches & its shadows (cross cursor in images below is at restaurant with arches):
IMG_4082_67.JPG


1968: No arches
IMG_4088_68.JPG


Who owned this McDonald's at Yonge & Finch from 1963-67???
- copycat?
- corporate test store?
- rouge franchisee operating out of Buffalo/Detroit?
- Canadian licensee who failed to meet USA corporate McD's agreement & thus lost contract?

1963 image of northwest corner of Yonge & Finch shows full McDonald's golden arches and "DONALD'S HAMBURGERS" signage with "Mc" ripped off - literally! Zooming in on signage, you literally see jagged edge at start of "DONALD'S" VS perfectly straight edge at end of "HAMBURGERS" signage. McDonald's originally named and signage as "McDonald's HAMBURGERS" but sometimes all capitalized "McDONALD'S HAMBURGERS"
DonaldsHamburgerB.jpg


ohq-pictures-s-r-995.jpg



Note:
- McDonald's Western Canada licensee already opened their first McDonald's in Richmond BC in 1967
- In 1967 McDonald's Eastern Canada licensee was issued by Ray Kroc (McD's legendary corporate builder) to George Cohon - a lawyer with no prior food industry experience who opened his first McDonld's in London Ontario in 1968
Why would McDonald's USA want a lawyer running their Eastern Canada operation? It's around this time that the golden arches was removed at Yonge & Finch
 
I'd wonder if it was some rogue operation: even by early 60s standards, there's something off-brand about that "Donald's Hamburgers" sign--like there might have been some cease-and-desist order from the States. (Almost like some of those "impostor brands" in Asian cities, or the "Cloney Time" Coffee Time knockoffs which used to be all over the place in Toronto.)

I'd also wonder if it ever had a freestanding sign--it's hard to imagine the early McD's without one.

As an aside, it's interesting how the once rather spectacular Yonge-Finch Plaza sign "evolved": the car wash sign and star on top (did they both revolve?) removed, and the Beneficial Loans sign inserted beneath...
 
Just got a chance to review this thread and its old pics. I grew up near there from 1956 to 1973. We actually lived closer to Finch and Bathurst but a lot of my friends lived along Hendon (1 block north) and, besides, it was Yonge St. I clearly remember it as a Mcdonalds (15 cent burgers) - I have no recollection of the apparent 'Donald's Restaurant' angle. Perhaps it was a rogue operator. I don't recall going there although I must have. By the time I was into burgers and hanging out we went to the Golden Star, north of Steeles at Doncaster (still there). Yes, the car wash sign and star rotated.
Just south of Finch there was a Red Barn restaurant near a Canadian Tire. I worked the gas bar for a spell. The Hydro right-of-way just to the north was a kid's largest playground!
 
Focusing on the "DONALD'S HAMBURGER" sign: beginning is jagged with "Mc" missing, like it's been ripped off. In contrast the other end of that sign is perfectly straight. Near this end, directly to the right & below there seems to be a cartoon-like character (credit goes to Jonathan Buchanan who identified it after running the black & white image through colorization software).
Yonge-Finch_Donalds.jpg

Yonge-Finch_Donalds_Speedee.jpg


This cartoon-like figure has oversized round hamburger head, wearing white chef hat, white shirt and dark-blue and white striped pants.... that's Speedee! Huh? WTF is Speedee???
porcelain-sign-mcdonalds-speedee-15_1_07744b3775ecb5a39af6cfb9abe02c43.jpg


"Speedee was the first McDonald's mascot before Ronald McDonald was created and portrayed by Willard Scott. He was also the first company logo before the use of the Golden Arches design from 1962. Some older McDonald's stores still have a Speedee sign in front (as well as some re-built ones without updating the sign). Speedee was a man with a chef's hat on top of a hamburger shaped head. He was replaced by Ronald McDonald in 1967 and did not appear in any commercials."

In 1963-65, Willard Scott created and portrayed Ronald McDonald in TV ads for a local Washington DC area McDonald's franchise.
In 1967, Ronald McDonald replaced Speedee as McDonald's mascot

Original McDonald's first started in 1948. "In 1952, brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald decided they needed a new building to house their popular, efficient hamburger restaurant in San Bernardino, California." Architect Stanley Clark Meston and his assistant Charles Fish parabola at opposite side of restaurant "design which included two 25-foot yellow sheet-metal arches trimmed in neon, called "golden arches" even at the design stage. His design also included a third, smaller arch sign at the roadside with a pudgy character in a chef's hat, known as Speedee, striding across the top, trimmed in animated neon."
"The first franchised outlet bearing Meston's design opened in May 1953 in Phoenix, Arizona. Subsequent franchisees of the McDonald brothers were also required to use Meston's design, although Meston adapted the plans for each to the conditions and building codes of each site."
mcdonalds-getty-668411.jpg


Ray Kroc's corporate McDonald's started in 1955 and brought out the McDonald's brothers in 1961.


This 1963-67 Yonge-Finch McDonald's had the correct architectural design and even signage of the mascot for a McDonald's restaurant of that time period. If this is a copycat McDonald's, then someone spent a lot of effort to copy everything from a foreign restaurant chain that in mid-1960's basically nobody in Canada would have been familiar with since McDonald's were still starting out in USA and only had maybe 1-2 stores per larger American Cities.

I suspect this McDonald's was part of the first Canadian franchise-license,... but they messed-up and screwed corporate American McD, so they lost the contract-license; the Eastern & Western Canada license were rewarded to others around 1967. These (new and now current) licensee focused on Canadian supply chain and tried to be as independent from American corporate McD as possible - McDonald's Canada is only McDonald's with their own golden arches logo with "Canadian Maple Leaf".

Interestingly, we only have these Toronto archive photos of this Yonge-Finch McDonald's thanks to Metropolitan Toronto & TTC
- 1963 image of "Donald's Hamburgers" with dual golden arches and Speedee - because Metro Toronto/TTC was examining feasibility of extending Yonge Subway line to Finch & where to put subway stations entrances & bus terminal
- 1972 image of Wimpy's with chopped arches - Metro Toronto/TTC re-examining progress (images show cut-&-cover wooden cinder blocks covering Yonge Street) since Yonge subway extension was late - huh, Transit project in Toronto behind schedule? Unbelievable!!!
So it's really by pure dumb luck these photos are available in Toronto's archive,... question is, were there other McDonald's in Toronto before 1967 when Ray Kroc (McD's corporate builder) granted George Cohon McDonald's Eastern Canada license???
 
I posted this "Then & Now" in 2009 (I have no recollection of where I found the 1969 image and caption info).

McDonalds ...Lawrence Ave. E., W. of Brimley 1969-2009
TN McDonalds Lawrence W. of Brimley 1969-2009.jpg
 
*That* was definitely a modern Cohon-era McDonald's.

As for the Y&F McDonald's: yes, it could have been a separate, failed go-it-alone attempt to bring the brand to Canada. And I recall another McDs at Dufferin & Wilson that looked like it might have been the reclad/mansarded ghost of one of these early-model branches; so who knows whether this early attempt was a North York-specific thing--even if unlike this one, the D&W McD's actually remained in the fold until it was torn down in the 80s. My feeling is, even into the 80s McD's in Canada was a mix of franchise and independently-run operations--sort of like how "Hooker Harveys" is operationally aloof from the primary franchise, even though it maintains the same basic menu in order to maintain the brand.

It all also reminds me of the hamburger-oriented "proto-Tim's", and how that tends to be suppressed from the narrative...
 
Anybody have access to the photos from the first page without the watermarks? Also any other photos along the Yonge strip down to Sheppard?


Vintage Willowdale - Then and Now section:

Yonge and Finch (and more) is about halfway down,... previous link

I have/found more but have to one day dig them out of my old computer,...
 

Back
Top