Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made the McDonald's Fortune and the Woman Who Gave It All Away

by Lisa Napoli

Overview

The movie The Founder, starring Michael Keaton, focused the spotlight on Ray Kroc, the man who amassed a fortune as the chairman of McDonald’s. But what about his wife Joan, the woman who became famous for giving away his fortune? Lisa Napoli tells the fascinating story behind the historic couple.

Ray & Joan is a quintessentially American tale of corporate intrigue and private passion: a struggling Mad Men–era salesman with a vision for a fast-food franchise that would become one of the world’s most enduring brands, and a beautiful woman willing to risk her marriage and her reputation to promote controversial causes that touched her deeply.

Ray Kroc was peddling franchises around the country for a fledgling hamburger stand in the 1950s—McDonald’s, it was called—when he entered a St. Paul supper club and encountered a beautiful young piano player who would change his life forever. The attraction between Ray and Joan was instantaneous and instantly problematic. Yet even the fact that both were married to other people couldn’t derail their roller coaster of a romance.

To the outside world, Ray and Joan were happy, enormously rich, and giving. But privately, Joan was growing troubled over Ray’s temper and dark secret, something she was reluctant to publicly reveal. Those close to them compared their relationship to that of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. And yet, this volatility paved the way for Joan’s transformation into one of the greatest philanthropists of our time. A force in the peace movement, she produced activist films, books, and music and ultimately gave away billions of dollars, including landmark gifts to the Salvation Army and NPR.

Together, the two stories form a compelling portrait of the twentieth century: a story of big business, big love, and big giving.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101984956
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/15/2016
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	575,238
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Lisa Napoli has lived for the last dozen years in southern California, where she was inspired to write this book by a public artwork with a mysterious provenance. In her three decades as a journalist, she's worked for The New York Times, MSNBC, the public radio show Marketplace, and a variety of other outlets.  She's covered everything from presidential campaigns, to hacker conventions and a hostage standoff, to the dawn of the World Wide Web.  Her first book, Radio Shangri-La, is about the impact of media culture on the mysterious Kingdom of Bhutan, where she was invited to help start a radio station at the dawn of democratic rule.

A graduate of Hampshire College, Lisa leads an award-winning volunteer cooking group at the Downtown Women's Center on Skid Row in Los Angeles.  She's also the founding board chair of the Bhutan Media Society, an all-volunteer news outlet created by Bhutanese refugees in diaspora.

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Excerpted from "Ray & Joan"
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Copyright © 2016 Lisa Napoli.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

1 Jewels 1

2 Land of Crazed Speculation 15

3 Blond Beauty 41

4 First Fruits 58

5 Wretched City 74

6 The J and R Double Arch Ranch 97

7 The JoniRay 121

8 The Secret Everyone Knows 143

9 1984: Two Widows 175

10 "Dear World, I Really Love You" 196

11 Impromptu 220

12 St Joan 249

Postscript 259

Acknowledgments 267

Appendix: Where Did the Fast Food Fortune Go? 275

Notes 287

Bibliography 345

What People are Saying About This

author of JIM HENSON: The Biography and GEORGE LUCAS: A LIFE - Brian Jay Jones

In the terrific Ray & Joan, Lisa Napoli tells a story with as many colorful layers as a Big Mac. Behind the wonderfully messy, complicated, rags-to-riches tale of Ray Kroc, the mastermind of one the world's most iconic brands, is the equally complicated and generally unknown story of his wife Joan, one of the world's greatest — and stealthiest! — philanthropists. A most compelling story, most compellingly told.

author of FIRST WOMEN and THE RESIDENCE - Kate Andersen Brower

A beautifully written glimpse into the real lives of an American power couple and the incredible contributions one woman made to society.

Editorial Reviews

08/22/2016
Golden Arches aficionados worldwide have been scarfing down their Big Macs and fries in ignorance of the tumultuous, glamorous love story of its founder, Ray Kroc, and his third wife, Joan. This glitzy history by journalist Napoli (Radio Shangri-La) follows the titular couple through the first years of the legendary company, the growing popularity of the McDonald’s brand, Ray’s early career and marriages to (and divorces from) his first and second wives, and all the way to Joan’s heroic philanthropic efforts before and following Ray’s death. They met when she was a restaurant pianist and he was an ambitious, newly wealthy businessman. She supported his business efforts in a way he hadn’t experienced with his previous wives, and their long, happy marriage weathered success, lawsuits, and a changing business world. Joan substantially supported myriad causes in her lifetime, notably embarking on a dedicated crusade to help people struggling with alcoholism. Napoli’s energetic, slightly tabloidesque narrative style make this a must-read for anyone who loves a good love story behind a business success. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

…this wonderfully moving and entertaining biography will have you thinking differently about what it means to give generously and spend lavishly.” 
—Marie Claire

“Napoli's narrative skills are outstanding. She depicts Ray and Joan in vivid detail and with deep sympathy, something that's especially difficult given how neither Kroc was an especially appealing person.”
—Chicago Tribune

“Journalist Lisa Napoli’s Ray & Joan is remarkable… a playful, even waggish work of biography.”
—Christian Science Monitor

“Napoli weaves together the Krocs’s personal and business dramas with considerable intelligence… [her] portrait of Joan in her final two decades, impulsively writing multimillion-dollar checks and dispatching her private jet “like a pickup truck” to run personal errands for friends, is charming and engaging.”
—Boston Globe

"Lisa Napoli shows herself to be both a storyteller and a journalist as she pulls back the curtain."
—San Diego Union-Tribune

“Fabulous… entertaining… Ray & Joan is a moving, extremely well-written story of big business, big love, and big giving.”
—Huffington Post

“[Ray & Joan is] a fascinating story, and it arrives at an auspicious moment.”
—The Associated Press

“Napoli has done an impressive job of researching and writing the story of two extraordinary people and their considerable accomplishments.”
—Dallas Morning News

“[An] in-depth examination… Napoli provides a fascinating look at the founding couple behind a world-altering corporation and far-reaching generosity.” 
—Booklist (starred review)

“Napoli skillfully assembles the saga of their lives as a couple and just as skillfully portrays Joan's blossoming as a philanthropic force after Ray's death… A book characterized by deep research and a seamless weaving together of the details of different lives.” 
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“The author does an outstanding job… Napoli clearly addresses the flaws of these larger-than-life characters while also endearing them to audiences. A great book that will cause readers to never look at McDonald’s the same way again.”
—Library Journal

“Part corporate success story, part soap opera, this tale has a lot of territory to cover, and Napoli recounts it all in a breezy, amusing style. She’s at her best on the subject of Ray and Joan’s complicated relationship, but the backstories—Ray’s rise from milkshake machine salesman to titan of commerce and Joan’s journey from a difficult childhood to beloved philanthropist—are just as riveting.”
—BookPage, Non-Fiction Pick of the Month

“Napoli’s energetic, slightly tabloidesque narrative style make this a must-read for anyone who loves a good love story behind a business success.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Napoli's well-researched, compelling portrayals of Ray and Joan Kroc shed light on a dynamic and influential power couple whose generosity continues to improve a world where McDonald's is a household name.”
—Shelf Awareness

From the Publisher

11/01/2016
It's hard to remember a time when McDonald's was not available in every town across America. Yet all colossal corporations have a beginning. Journalist Napoli (Radio Shangri-La) takes us back to when McDonald's was a small hamburger stand to explore the lives of Joan (1928–2003) and Ray (1902–84) Kroc and the origins and unlikely rise of the company's empire, which Ray joined in 1954. The author does an outstanding job of connecting these three stories in a way that makes sense and is engaging, as all are thoroughly interwoven. Joan, the book's ultimate focus, was a philanthropist, crusader, and humanitarian who used her money and influence to make a difference where she could. Her contributions, however, would not have existed without the success of McDonald's and the fortune her husband left behind after his death. To understand Joan, readers must understand Ray. Napoli clearly addresses the flaws of these larger-than-life characters while also endearing them to audiences. VERDICT A great book that will cause readers to never look at McDonald's the same way again. [See Prepub Alert, 5/23/16.]—Sonnet Ireland, St. Tammany Parish Pub. Lib., Mandeville, LA

Library Journal

★ 2016-07-19
A dual biography of the man who made McDonald's ubiquitous and his third wife, who, after his death, spent the last two decades of her life becoming one of most generous philanthropists in American history.Journalist Napoli (Radio Shangri-la: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth, 2011) intended to write a sole biography of Joan Kroc (1928-2003), but she wisely decided to first document the life of Ray Kroc (1902-1984), who rose to become a billionaire via fast food after decades of marginal success as a traveling salesman hawking various products. Joan Beverly Mansfield Smith was playing piano and singing in a St. Paul, Minnesota, lounge when she caught the attention of her future husband, more than 25 years her senior. The romance was complicated not just by the age difference, but also due to the fact that Ray and Joan were both already married, with children in the mix. Ray would not be denied, although the road to remarriage took years to pave. Joan felt passion as well, apparently not fully comprehending Ray's alcoholism, his authoritarian personality, his unpleasant prejudices against almost everybody different from himself, and his inability to wrest attention from the business of expanding McDonald's. Publicly, Joan mostly suffered in silence until Ray's death, but behind the scenes, she often went about her life in a passive-aggressive manner. Napoli skillfully assembles the saga of their lives as a couple and just as skillfully portrays Joan's blossoming as a philanthropic force after Ray's death. She donated hundreds of millions of dollars to causes he would have vetoed, including hospice care, alcoholism treatment, AIDS research, Salvation Army recreation centers in low-income areas, National Public Radio, and much more. In the author’s telling, Ray never emerges as a sympathetic man, but Joan slowly morphs into a sympathetic heiress. A book characterized by deep research and a seamless weaving together of the details of different lives.

Kirkus Reviews

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