C I T Y L I G H T S


childish blowups. He died in early 1984 at 81. Now there is a book that


presents a balanced picture of both of them. It’s Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made the McDonald’s Fortune and the Woman Who Gave It All Away, by Lisa Napoli, pub- lished by Dutton. The publi- cation date is November 15, and Napoli gives a talk about the book at 2 p.m. December 3 at the La Jolla library. Consider the “chaste”


designation. Joan was mar- ried to a McDonald’s fran- chisee. She and her first hus- band were widely admired in Rapid City, South Dakota, where they had their fran- chise and he was known as “Mr. McDonald’s.” However, tongues wagged when word got around that the “viva- cious blond piano player” would have “a cigarette in one hand and a martini in the other when kids came over to play after school,” writes Napoli. When Ray Kroc would meet Joan and her husband in Rapid City, local gossips thought Joan was leaning toward Ray “a bit too suggestively.” She had met Kroc in 1957


while playing the organ at a posh St. Paul restaurant — surrounded by heavy cigarette smoke, as usual. She wore a dress “that flaunted her fig- ure,” says the book. “She loved to flirt, to chat up strangers.” The dapper popinjay Ray Kroc walked in and was immediately smitten. Long into the night, they talked. Both were married, and Ray was lining up a second mar- riage. Ray was 26 years older than Joan and wallowing in debt that had piled up in his efforts to get a national fast- food chain going full bore. Soon, Ray and Joan were


having a secret, long-dis- tance affair, although Ray told his lawyer that it didn’t involve sex — yet. Writes Napoli, “Every so often, she’d impose on a friend to mind her daughter for a few days, offering up a vague excuse


C I T Y L I G H T S


C I T Y L I G H T S UNDER THE RADAR The Krocs’ house in Fairbanks Ranch


with a wink for her need to get out of town — without her husband. The friend couldn’t help but wonder: Was it to see Ray?” Joan wanted to make it in


the big time — and, particu- larly, to get out of Rapid City, which she called “Wretched City.” In the early 1960s, she agreed to marry Ray. They


affair had given enormous satisfaction to both of them. In 1969, having divorced their spouses, they married. By that time, they were


very rich. In April of 1965, McDonald’s went public by selling stock to outside inves- tors. The stock opened at $22.50 and by week’s end was $36. At age 63, Ray was worth $33 million on paper and had $3 million in cash. Finally, Ray could strut legitimately, and Joan’s life was changed forever. Eventually, he would be worth $500 million. But there was a prob-


Lisa Napoli


would move in together in Woodland Hills, about 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles. First, they had to move to Las Vegas tempo- rarily. No-fault divorces could be quickly attained there. They had to wait six weeks to legitimize their union in the eyes of the law and social convention. In the fifth week, Joan backed out. Her mother did not


approve of her abandoning her husband. And accord- ing to the book, Joan’s teen- age daughter Linda told her, “If you marry him, forget that you have a daughter.” Her husband, of course, was deeply saddened by the whole thing. So Joan returned to Wretched City, sans Ray. However, the clandestine


lem: Ray’s drinking. In his younger days, when he was struggling, he constantly gulped a brand of booze that Napoli calls “rotgut.” Even after Ray was worth more than $30 million, he still gulped that rotgut. And, as in the past, Ray


would fly off the handle at the slightest provocation. Joan was often his target. In 1971, when they were living in one of Chicago’s richest areas, Joan filed for divorce, claiming that Ray had “a violent and ungov- ernable temper” inflicting upon her “physical harm, violence, and injury.” He moved out of their luxury Lake Shore Drive quarters. Meanwhile, the Boy Scouts presented Ray with the Good Scout award for his support of a national beau- tification program. But the old pattern


returned. In early 1972, she called off the separation and the couple reconciled. Joan continued on page 33


Quid pro Peters An old Bill Clin- ton White House hand has shown up in the WikiLeaks dump of Hillary Clinton campaign honcho John Podesta’s emails, singing the free- trade praises of La Jolla Dem- ocratic House member Scott Peters. “I hope you can join me later this month for a small dinner with Congressman Scott Peters, a good friend. The dinner will be held on Thursday, Sep- tember 17th at 6:30 pm at Bistro Bis, in the Hotel George at 15 E Street NW,” says the September 2, 2015, $2700-a-plate fundraiser invitation from Nelson Cun- ningham, Clinton’s ex–special advisor to the president for Western Hemisphere affairs. He now works for McLarty Associates, a self-styled global business consulting firm for- merly known as Kissinger-McLarty. “Congressman Peters was one of only 28


A dinner with the engaging and engaged Scott Peters — $2700 a plate


of the high-dollar public relations world via the firm of NCG Porter Novelli, has tapped a Dem- ocratic practitioner of the art of spin to run his flagging downtown anti-homelessness effort. Per Stacie Spector’s LinkedIn profile, she has specialized in “project management; applying and maximizing the relation- ship between policy, politics, and communications to prior- ity initiatives and issues; strate- gic planning; creative marketing; advocacy based and non-tradi- tional communications tactics; relationship and coalition build- ing; problem solving, crisis and public affairs consulting.”


If putting a positive spin on the city’s ever-


House Democrats who voted for Trade Promotion Authority this summer, and he has been targeted by some of our fellow Democrats as a result. He deserves our strong support for his courageous vote.” Peters, the email notes, is “a member of the New Democrat Coalition and the No Labels Cau- cus. Because of San Diego’s location, he is deeply engaged in immigration and border and port infrastructure issues. You’ll find Scott engaging and engaged, and we hope to see you for dinner.” McLarty Associates, run by Bill Clinton’s


ex–White House chief of staff Mack McLarty, made news last month when Politico reported that another of the firm’s partners, former Reagan administration official Richard Burt, had a major role in draft- ing GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s first big for- eign-policy speech this past spring while at the same time lobbying on behalf of New Euro- pean Pipeline AG, run by Rus- sian state-owned oil giant Gaz- prom, controlled in turn by Rus- sian Federation president Vladi- mir Putin. Said Politico, “The pipeline, opposed by the Polish government and the Obama administration, would complement the origi- nal Nord Stream, allowing more Russian gas to reach central and western European markets while bypassing Ukraine and Belarus, extending Putin’s leverage over Europe.” The McLarty firm got $365,000 for its work on behalf of the pipeline in the first two quarters of this year, Politico added.


Homeless PR agent San Diego Republican mayor Kevin Faulconer, a veteran


growing plight of the homeless proves to be an impossible gig, it won’t be a new experience for Spector. A former political operative for ex-Dem- ocratic vice president Al Gore, Spector arrived in town back in August 2004 to become vice chan- cellor of university communications and public affairs at UCSD for the then-tidy annual salary of $180,000 a year. During her five-year reign, Spec- tor announced a six-figure “branding initiative” for the campus, promoting it to national media and telling the Union-Tribune, “The bottom line is, outside of San Diego the UCSD name is not that well known.” Spector’s flashy tenure peaked in May 2007 with a $100,000 on-campus appearance by Gore. “Sponsor shall provide the monetary equivalent of round-trip air transportation at first class fare from Nashville, Tennessee or New York, or Vice President Gore’s then current location, at Vice President Gore’s discretion, to the place of engagement for Vice President Gore and one (1) additional individual,” said a May 25, 2007, contract between the university and the Harry Walker Agency. A margin notation said, “Airfare $12,200.” Added the agreement, “the


Stacie Spector, enlisted to work on the mayor’s anti-homelessness effort


Sponsor will also pay for first class hotel accommodations, for Vice President Gore plus one additional individual. The Sponsor will be responsible


for meals, phone calls, and any other related expenses for Vice President Gore and one addi- tional individual.” To avoid any appearance of being an energy glutton, Gore specified that his UCSD-supplied chauffeur-driven car would be “a sedan, NOT an SUV. In addition, sponsor will make best effort to use [a] hybrid car for Vice- President Gore’s transportation in the city of engagement.” As for the media, the contract said, continued on page 33


San Diego Reader November 3, 2016 3


PHOTOGRAPH VIA LINKEDIN.COM


PHOTOGRAPH BY PRESTON WILES


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