Ray & Joan
The Man Who Made the McDonald's Fortune and the Woman Who Gave It All Away
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Narrated by:
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Lisa Napoli
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By:
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Lisa Napoli
About this listen
The dramatic relationship between Ray Kroc, the man who amassed a fortune as chairman of one of America's most controversial and iconic companies - McDonald's - and the passionate woman - his wife, Joan - who then gave that fortune away.
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 20th century: a story of big business, big love, and big giving.
©2016 Lisa Napoli (P)2016 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“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)
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- The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes
- By: Bryan Burrough
- Narrated by: James Jenner
- Length: 22 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling author Bryan Burrough reveals how four Texas oil tycoons transformed America. Rising from humble beginnings through hard work and shrewd dealings, they shifted the balance of power in American politics. While hobnobbing with movie stars and presidents, the Big Rich also created the legend of the swaggering Texas oilman with island hideaways and sprawling ranches.
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Big, Sordid, Fascinating, PoliticallyCorrect
- By Darkcoffee on 11-09-09
By: Bryan Burrough
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The King of Content
- Sumner Redstone’s Battle for Viacom, CBS, and Everlasting Control of His Media Empire
- By: Keach Hagey
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Sumner Murray Redstone, once feared as the “mad genius” of media who would dump his CEOs for mere wobbles in his companies’ stock price, had built one of the world’s greatest media empires through a series of audacious takeovers constructed to ensure that he always maintained control. Today he controls 80 percent of the voting shares of both Viacom and CBS, meaning that on a whim he could replace the entire boards of two public companies with a combined value of $40 billion.
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Feels biased. Well researched, but not engaging.
- By Anonymous User on 04-03-19
By: Keach Hagey
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Good Day!
- The Paul Harvey Story
- By: Paul J. Batura
- Narrated by: Paul J. Batura
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In Good Day!: The Paul Harvey Story, author Paul J. Batura follows the remarkable life of one of the founding fathers of the news media. Paul Harvey started his career during the Great Depression and narrated America's story day by day, through wars and peace, the threat of communism and the crumbling of old colonial powers, consumer booms and eventual busts.
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Should have been better
- By Royce Brown on 12-21-09
By: Paul J. Batura
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Hershey
- Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams
- By: Michael D'Antonio
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In this compelling biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael D'Antonio gives us the real-life rags-to-riches story of Milton S. Hershey, a largely uneducated businessman whose idealistic sense of purpose created an immense financial empire, a town, and a legacy that lasts to this day.
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The Benchmark for Chartiable, Rich Men
- By Boyd Tschaggeny on 01-30-19
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Mr. & Mrs. Hollywood
- Edie and Lew Wasserman and Their Entertainment Empire
- By: Kathleen Sharp
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 18 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever wonder why so many B actors wind up as A-grade politicians? Or how the casting couch worked? Acclaimed author Kathleen Sharp traces the influence of show business through the lives of its first power couple. Edie and Lew Wasserman built the world’s largest talent agency, MCA, created the multibillion-dollar Universal Studios, and helped shape Washington, DC.
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Best Book I Have Heard In A Long Time!!!
- By James M. Patton on 09-25-16
By: Kathleen Sharp
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The House of Mondavi
- The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty
- By: Julia Flynn Siler
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 17 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in California's lush Napa Valley and spanning four generations of a talented and visionary family, The House of Mondavi is a tale of genius, sibling rivalry, and betrayal. From 1906, when Italian immigrant Cesare Mondavi passed through Ellis Island, to the Robert Mondavi Corporation's 21st-century battle over a billion-dollar fortune, award-winning journalist Julia Flynn Siler brings to life both the place and the people in this riveting family drama.
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LESS EXCITING THAN WATCHING GRAPES GROW
- By The Louligan on 11-27-09
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Lady Bird and Lyndon
- The Hidden Story of a Marriage That Made a President
- By: Betty Boyd Caroli
- Narrated by: Amanda Carlin
- Length: 16 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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A fresh look at Lady Bird Johnson that upends her image as a plain Jane who was married for her money and mistreated by Lyndon. This Lady Bird worked quietly behind the scenes through every campaign, every illness, and a trying presidency as a key strategist, fundraiser, barnstormer, peacemaker, and indispensable therapist.
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Lady Bird & btw Lyndon
- By Richard on 11-27-15
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Meghan: A Hollywood Princess
- By: Andrew Morton
- Narrated by: Charles Armstrong
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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From Andrew Morton, the New York Times best-selling author of Diana: Her True Story, comes a revealing, juicy, and inspiring biography of Meghan Markle, the American actress who won Prince Harry's heart. When Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were set up by a mutual friend on a blind date in July 2016, little did they know that the resulting whirlwind romance would lead to their engagement in November 2017 and marriage in May 2018. Since then, our fascination with the woman who has smashed the royal mold has rocketed.
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Book offers no new material
- By Jean on 04-24-18
By: Andrew Morton
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Smoketown
- By: Mark Whitaker
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Mark Whitaker's Smoketown is a captivating portrait of this unsung community and a vital addition to the story of black America. It depicts how ambitious Southern migrants were drawn to a steel-making city on a strategic river junction; how they were shaped by its schools and a spirit of commerce with roots in the Gilded Age; and how their world was eventually destroyed by industrial decline and urban renewal. Whitaker takes listeners on a rousing, revelatory journey - and offers a timely reminder that Black History is not all bleak.
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Hopes for Pittsburgh aka "Up South"
- By Dr. Pepper on 05-01-18
By: Mark Whitaker
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Chicken Soup for Entrepreneur's Soul: Advice and Inspiration for Fulfilling Dreams
- By: Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen
- Narrated by: Alan Robertson
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur's Soul is a compilation of short stories from entrepreneurs, both large and small, who share their experiences of success, failure and courage, with a little helpful advice mixed in. Many of these stories, told for the first time here, will enlighten you to new methods of entrepreneurship or simply help you believe in the possibilities of getting started.
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Great!
- By Anonymous User on 03-01-20
By: Jack Canfield, and others
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Emily Post
- Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners
- By: Laura Claridge
- Narrated by: Christine Williams
- Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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From the excesses of the late 19th-century Gilded Age, through the horrors of World War I, to the transformations of the Roaring 20s that gave birth to her magisterial Etiquette, Emily Post unfailingly took the measure of her era. A Baltimore blue blood with a populist heart, she helped the masses live the American dream with her hugely popular book, which has been continuously in print for over 85 years.
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Typical for Emily Post
- By Stephanie on 01-07-19
By: Laura Claridge
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One Summer
- America, 1927
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the most admired nonfiction writers of our time retells the story of one truly fabulous year in the life of his native country - a fascinating and gripping narrative featuring such outsized American heroes as Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, and yes Herbert Hoover, and a gallery of criminals (Al Capone), eccentrics (Shipwreck Kelly), and close-mouthed politicians (Calvin Coolidge). It was the year Americans attempted and accomplished outsized things and came of age in a big, brawling manner. What a country. What a summer. And what a writer to bring it all so vividly alive.
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Why 1927?
- By Mark on 10-18-13
By: Bill Bryson
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Dreamers and Deceivers
- True and Untold Stories of the Heroes and Villains Who Made America
- By: Glenn Beck
- Narrated by: Jeremy Lowell
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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The new nonfiction from number-one best-selling author and popular radio and television host Glenn Beck.
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Astounding History stories gather life
- By Gil on 11-13-14
By: Glenn Beck
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Razzle Dazzle
- The Battle for Broadway
- By: Michael Riedel
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 16 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Razzle Dazzle is a provocative, no-holds-barred narrative account of the people, money, and power that reinvented an iconic quarter of New York City, turning its gritty back alleys and sex shops into the glitzy, dazzling Great White Way - and bringing a crippled New York from the brink of bankruptcy to its glittering glory.
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Too long and boring in spite of a vibrant subject
- By harry rohme on 03-04-18
By: Michael Riedel
What listeners say about Ray & Joan
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Penny
- 03-30-22
Inspirational
I selected this for my book club - about someone who is a philanthropist. I liked that this book drilled down to how the Kroc fortune was attained. I appreciated that it wasn’t always flattering, the author kept it real. Joan’s generosity is an inspiration.
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- Kathleen H.
- 11-30-16
I enjoyed learning about McDonald's.
The story was well told. There is so many interesting people and events that came together to make this empire. I will never look at the Golden Arches the second again.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Melisa Gillis
- 08-25-17
Fascinating story, however a dissed jointed writing of the story and fax.
I enjoyed learning about both Ray and Joan, especially Jones philanthropy. The author used a style that seemed very dissed jointed introducing many different facts without a seeming smooth thread.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jim Fulton
- 11-17-20
Absolutely fantastic book
I have really enjoyed this book since I grew up in the late 50s and early 60s when McDonald’s were starting in my various hometowns gradebook
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- Jim
- 09-09-21
It's Worth It For the Story of MacDonald's
Ms. Napoli’s book works when she either details Ray Kroc’s life or Ray and Joan interacting together. Read it to find out how MacDonald's Inc. evolved--Ms. Napoli does a good job explaining that. After Ray dies the books turns, well, boring. Eventually it turns into one of those “it’s about us girls” books in which it’s assumed men cannot comprehend the experience of being an independent female. The author inherits a problem in that neither Ray nor Joan are particularly likable. Read the first three-fourths and don’t feel guilty if you skip the last fourth and go on to something else.
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- Katherine S. Weaver
- 02-07-17
Great book!
This book is a fascinating history of McDonalds and the people who
made it happen. Ray and Joan, like their restaurant chain, were larger than life. It's inspiring and fun to read about their enormous generosity and passionate living. Ms. Napoli weaves an engrossing tale. She is a great writer.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kalia Bonner
- 07-24-18
interesting
I found it interesting to learn about the beginning of Rays success and how it transformed over the years. Same for Joan, to hear how blessed she was to acquire her money.
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- Shelly Dee
- 07-06-17
Great as author; as narrator not so much
I saw this author on Book TV which prompted me to get this book. Napoli was great on the TV interview, but as a reader it's a chore to listen to her. I am hanging in because it IS an interesting story, but her manner of speaking is like chalk on a blackboard (not sure of digital equivalent). It sounds to me like a cross between somebody reading to elementary school children (I can picture them sitting in a semi-circle) and the local gossip breathlessly whispering her latest news.
I'm on chapter 6 now and hope I will be able to finish -- it may be a 5-star book, but for now it's a 4.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Moonbeam
- 01-09-17
Interesting and well read, but felt abrupt and focused more on the starting of McDonalds
This was a really great story, but felt like it was more the story of McDonalds than Ray and Joan. It really focuses on that for about the first half of the book, and then quickly covers some of the couples story and abruptly ends. Wasn't what I expected, but it was interesting and kept me listening until the end. Worth a listen.
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2 people found this helpful