ReviewBook review: Ray & Joan – how widow spent McDonald’s fortune on doing good
Despite its melodrama and overuse of cliches, Lisa Napoli’s biography of Joan Kroc, who gave away the millions fast-food pioneer made, is fascinating and well-timed, with Ray Kroc biopic The Founder hitting cinemas soon
3.5 stars
In 2012, journalist Lisa Napoli wrote a story about a peace monument in Santa Monica, California, that had fallen into disrepair. She soon learned the identity of the anonymous donor who had paid for it years before: Joan Kroc, heiress to the McDonald’s hamburger fortune. Curiosity piqued, Napoli went looking for a biography of the philanthropist, only to discover that none existed. So she decided to tell the story herself.
The result is Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made the McDonald’s Fortune and the Woman Who Gave It All Away, and as the title suggests, it’s less about the impetuous, strong-willed woman whom some called St Joan of the Arches than it is about her passionate and tempestuous relationship with the brash, driven entrepreneur behind one of the world’s most successful brands.
Both were remarkable individuals, but given the limited options available to women of her generation, it’s unlikely that Joan would have left as big a mark had she not married Ray. For him, it was love at first sight from the moment he first set eyes on her playing the organ at a fancy supper club in the US state of Minnesota.