Big Boy named franchisees

History

During the 1950s and 1960s, Big Boy restaurants shifted from drive-ins to coffee shops and family restaurants. New franchisees without existing restaurants joined, and a larger standard menu emerged. Most adopted common graphic designs and promotional items from Big Boy, personalized to each franchise. Stock restaurant plans were provided by Los Angeles architects Armet and Davis or Chicago architectural designer Robert O. Burton, then modified as needed.

By the 1960s, Big Boy and other drive-ins struggled against fast food chains like McDonald's and Burger King. The last Big Boy drive-in was built in 1964, and by 1976 only 5 of 930 restaurants offered curb service. Big Boy redefined itself as a full-service restaurant. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Bob's, Shoney's, and JB's opened Big Boy Jr. stores as fast food operations with limited menus and no carhops.

In 1993, Marc's Big Boy developed Big Boy Express stores with dual drive-thrus and no interior dining; two were built, offered for sale a year later, and closed in 1995. Several franchises also held Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises and sold that chicken in Big Boy restaurants, including Marc's, McDowell's, Lendy's, and some Shoney's subfranchises. Big Boy eventually provided a similar take-out chicken scheme marketed as Country Style or Country Cousin Chicken, and franchises that resisted were forced to remove KFC items.

Marriott sold "Pappy Parker Fried Chicken" in Bob's Big Boys, a brand also sold in Hot Shoppes, Roy Rogers Restaurants, and later Marriott Hotel Restaurants.

Roster of named operators

Big Boy restaurants have appeared under at least 34 different franchisee names over the years. The parent company changed several times: Bob's Big Boy from 1936 to 1967, first independently and then under Marriott Corporation; then Elias Brothers' Big Boy until 2000. Since 2001, the U.S. trademark has been split between Big Boy Restaurants, covering most of the country, and Frisch's Big Boy, which operates independently in a few Midwestern states.

Big Boy Japan is also independent. Bob's Big Boy was founded by Robert C. "Bob" Wian in 1936 and operated in California, Arizona, Nevada, Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont, and on toll roads and airports in Indiana, Ohio, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania, run by Marriott Corp. or others. The original chain was limited to Southern California, Arizona, and Nevada. JB's Big Boy later bought Bob's locations in Nevada and Arizona.

Today, only five Bob's restaurants remain, all in Southern California, and they are the only Big Boy Restaurant Group operators allowed to use a franchise name publicly. Wian served as the original chairman of the Big Boy Board of Directors. Elias Brothers operated in Michigan, northeastern Ohio, and Ontario, Canada from 1952 to 2000, founded by Fred, John, and Louis Elias. In 1938, the brothers opened Fred's Chili Bowl in Detroit and later the Dixie Drive-In in Hazel Park, which became the first Elias Brothers Big Boy.

They are considered the first official franchisee because they formally applied to Bob Wian. Along with Wian, Schoenbaum, and Manfred Bernhard, they helped create the 1956 Big Boy character design and launch the comic book.

Elias Brothers owned the entire Big Boy system from 1987 until 2000, when the bankrupt company was sold to Robert Liggett. Many Michigan locations still operate but no longer use the Elias Brothers name, and these make up about 90% of Big Boy Restaurant Group's stores. Fred Elias also served on the Big Boy Board of Directors.