 Okay, here is another freaky one for you. The creation of Ronald McDonald has been debated in both the boardroom and the courtroom. Right now I'm going to give you the quickie version of his creation and ask you to leave your decision below in the comments. That's right, you are now on jury duty, and Ronald McDonald is on trial. Don't be scared! In 1963, McDonald's restaurants were popping up all across the United States. Each location was owned by a franchisee. One franchisee owners would purchase more than one location, which is exactly what the Washington DC native Oscar Goldstein had done. Oscar was a forward thinker and was always trying to improve on his investments. For a while Oscar had been wanting to come up with a mascot of some sorts for his restaurants. Then one day while listening on the radio he noticed a voice on the radio show was the same voice that had been playing Bozo the Clown on the local TV station. Oscar knew that the Bozo the Clown show was not on the TV anymore, so he contacted the radio station and talked to this man. His name was Willard Scott. Oscar asked Willard if he would like to come down and shoot a commercial for his McDonald's locations. He said just grab your old Bozo stuff and we'll use it. Willard said that he could not dress as Bozo because that would be copyright infringement, but he could come up with another type of clown to use for the commercial. Oscar agreed and they set a date to start filming. Willard showed up with a very different costume than his old Bozo outfit. Although he was still a clown, this time he had a soda cup for a nose and carried a tray with burgers and fries on it. He even came up with the name Ronald McDonald. After they filmed the commercial and sent it to the local TV stations, all the kids in the Washington DC area wanted to go meet Ronald McDonald in person, so Oscar hired Willard to film more commercials and even started paying him to show up in the stores on certain days. Disagreement between Oscar and Willard was working well and lasted for many years. It was not long before other McDonald's franchisees around the country came up with their own versions of Ronald McDonald. At one point they were said to have been more than 300 Ronald McDonald's in the United States alone. Eventually McDonald's corporation decided to step in and claim the character. They had a whole new vision and direction for Ronald McDonald. They created more characters and even a home for him called McDonald Land. One of the first things McDonald's did was tell all the franchisees to stop using their previous versions of Ronald. There was going to be one version and one version only. They also came up with a new rule. Anybody that was going to play Ronald McDonald had to look healthy and be active. Anyone that looked a little bit overweight was no longer allowed to play Ronald. Well, guess what? Willard was the first ever Ronald, but he lost his job for being overweight. Now, I'll bet you're thinking, aha, so this is where the lawsuits come in. Well, you would be correct. Oscar made a deal with McDonald's Corp. So that they could have the Ronald McDonald character. Willard Scott said, hold on, wait a second, I created him. You do not have the rights to sell him to McDonald's. Plus you just fired me. Oscar said, I hired you to play a clown. So that was me creating the character. Willard said, I designed him, I named him, and I gave him a personality in the commercials, which means I own him more than you do. Now, if things were to stop right there, we as the jury might be able to make a decision. But in steps George Voorhees. George had been playing his own version of Ronald McDonald for years in California. He claimed that the version McDonald's Corp is buying is the version that he created himself. George's version was by far the most popular one of the 300 or so running around the country. And yes, this was the version McDonald's was using to launch their nationwide campaign. Boy oh boy did things just get complicated for McDonald's. Now before I tell you how all of this works out, I want you to leave a comment. Remember, you are the jury. If you think there is a clear, sole creator of Ronald McDonald, type it below right now. Is it Oscar, Willard, or George? If you have an idea of how it could be split up or some sort of agreement, type it below too. I am interested in what others think about this. So here's how it ended. McDonald's wanted to own Ronald McDonald 100%. They knew that this trial could last for years and possibly mess up their momentum. So they did what most big companies do. They settled out of court with all three of them. Nobody knows for sure what each one received monetarily. But all three, Oscar, Willard, and George never complained or spoke about it in public again. Oscar did get recognized as the primary creator and continued to own his McDonald's locations in Washington, D.C. Willard Scott received an award for his contributions to the creation of Ronald McDonald and went on to have a long career in television, becoming part of the Today Show on NBC. In 1992 though, he did appear in a Burger King commercial poking fun at McDonald's, but nothing was mentioned about Ronald. George Voorhees was employed by McDonald's Corp until that day he died. Over 20-something years, he also got to dress as Ronald McDonald and film the commercial introducing the world to the Big Mac. If you enjoyed that video, make sure you hit the subscribe button right there so you stay up to date on all Thanksgiving culture. So go ahead and check out one of these two playlists on the side for more videos just like the one you just watched. I'm Shannon from Comic NTV, the only place on YouTube where all geek culture collides. Take care Geeks.