Mac Tonight

Mac Tonight? I certainly remember Ronald McDonald from my youth...but this other individual, this man in black with a wan, moon-shaped head always seemed more phantom than mascot. He existed only at the edge of my consciousness, at the very periphery of my earliest memories. Had he been real or, like his crescent head suggested, just a surreal dream of cool kitsch and trippy, early morning mirage--the scraps of a fathomless and eerie nighttime journey burned before dawn’s coming rays?

Years later, thanks largely to the Internet’s bottomless trenches, I confirmed that this grinning pianist not only existed, but had actually been incredibly popular—a star in his own right. Unlike the clown, Mac Tonight was designed to appeal to an older, nighttime audience--those who'd be watching Johnny Carson or Nick-at-Nite or the eleven o'clock news. His heyday was relatively short, persisting from 1986 through the early '90s, but his star was tremendously bright for the flicker it lasted. Most mascots bear a childish air, but Mac was suave, debonair, and packed a charm that gave the garish McDonald's brand a crinkle of sophistication. His was a cool midnight blue versus the company’s usual blinding orange and fallow yellow. He was the night versus Ronald's gaping day. A yin to the other's yang.

Mac's unfortunate (and undeserved) downfall is due to the jazzy music he sang--primarily, his parodical rendition of the famous ditty "Mac the Knife." A dubious lawsuit over the use of the (significantly altered) song apparently caused McDonald's enough consternation to give its beaming musician a prolonged slumber. In the early 2000s, poor Mac received another indignity when a racist Internet organization co-opted his likeness for its own questionable ends. If not already, Mac’s career was finished then.

Few remnants of Mac remain today, with the "Epic McD" McDonald's location in Orlando, Florida being one of the last locations to preserve his legacy. There, on the upper floor, his animatronic counterpart still sits and grins. Supposedly, he still even sings, although I could discern no movement from the Moon Dude himself when music did blare from his built-in accouterments. It seems Mac is now more akin to a bluetooth speaker than a true performer, but perhaps I had just visited on a bad day.

Cheers, Mr. Mac! Perhaps someday, when the silly errors of this age have passed away, you might return to your rosewood throne to croon again. And again.--D

Defunctland has a great expose on Mac Tonight right here.

Mac Tonight as seen at what is coined the "largest" McDonald's in the world. (It's certainly the biggest in North America.)