Roy's Motel and Café

History

Roy Crowl opened Roy's as a gas and service station along U.S. Highway 66 in Amboy in 1938. The highway's 1931 realignment through Mountain Springs Summit had bypassed Goffs, California, to directly connect Needles and Essex and continue west to Amboy, prompting the construction. In the 1940s, Crowl partnered with his son-in-law, Herman "Buster" Burris, and expanded the business to include a café, an auto repair garage, and an auto court of small cabins for overnight rental.

Burris single-handedly created much of the town's infrastructure, some of which remains semi-functioning, and brought power to Amboy and Roy's from Barstow by erecting his own poles and wires alongside Route 66 using an old Studebaker pickup truck. Postwar business was profitable after the World War II years of tire and gasoline rationing and halted car manufacturing; Crowl and Burris kept the garage and café operating constantly, recruiting help through classified advertisements nationwide.

By the early 1950s, Roy's employed up to 70 people, while the town's population was 700. Aesthetic changes came in 1959, including the February 1 erection of a neon boomerang sign visible for miles and the construction of a new Mid-Century modern guest reception described as an "inclined roof flying over a glassed wedge." The 1972 opening of Interstate 40, unconnected to and north of Amboy's section of Route 66, caused an overnight loss of business; Burris said it "went down to zero" that day.

Roy Crowl died in 1977, and Burris continued the business for fewer travelers. Burris was known to chase off "unacceptable patrons" at gunpoint. During Amboy's decline, Roy's became the town's only business besides a post office and the Bristol Dry Lake chloride works.

Restoration

In February 2005, the property entered foreclosure, and White and Wilson gave up control, returning ownership of Amboy to Bessie, the widow of Buster Burris. She put the entire property up for sale on the steps of the San Bernardino County courthouse, but no one placed a bid. The following month, with assistance from her granddaughter Bonnie Barnes, Bessie put the town up for sale for a week, with the highest bidder set to win at noon on Friday. The buyer was Albert Okura, a Southern California preservationist, who promised Bessie he would restore Roy's, maintain its original Route 66 look, reopen it, and create a museum about Amboy's past.

On May 3, 2005, Okura paid $425,000 for roughly 950 acres that included the town and Roy's Motel and Café. Okura, who owned the Juan Pollo restaurant chain, struggled to get the town's electricity and water working again because most of the infrastructure had been installed by Buster Burris and did not meet modern building codes. Bessie kept visiting and helping Okura, gathering memorabilia for the town and Roy's, until she passed away at age 91 on May 17, 2008, in Wonder Valley, California.

Okura had prior preservation experience as the owner of the Original McDonald's in San Bernardino, which he ran as a museum. Unlike White and Wilson, who wanted to keep Roy's and Amboy looking worn for film productions, Okura aimed to fully restore the property as a nostalgic tourist stop and Route 66 rest area for travelers heading to and from Colorado River recreation spots. He died before finishing the work, so his son Kyle Okura took over. The coffee shop and gas station were renovated and reopened on April 28, 2008.

Repair and restoration costs for Roy's Motel and Café have so far reached almost a certain amount. Gas at the station remains pricey due to delivery costs, but it is cheaper than it was under White and Wilson. Okura also planned to open a Roy's Café and mini-mart, but a lack of drinkable water kept the café kitchen from operating.

In popular culture

Roy's Motel and Café has drawn a number of famous visitors over the years. Harrison Ford and Anthony Hopkins both stopped by when they could, and autographed photos of them hung on the restaurant's wall. Ford often flew his own plane in, landing at the adjacent Amboy Airfield, one of California's earliest airports. The property has also served as a film and television backdrop.

The 1986 movie The Hitcher, starring Rutger Hauer, shot scenes in Roy's Gas Bar. The reception area and neon sign set the scene for a 1999 Qwest Communications commercial, and the location appeared in Enrique Iglesias's music video for Hero. The 1993 film Kalifornia, featuring Brad Pitt, was filmed in Amboy. In 1978, Buster Burris married Bessie Van deVeer, a local artist who brought her love of the desert to the town.

She painted roses on the side of the preparation table in Roy's kitchen, which can be seen in The Hitcher. The Burrises managed the town together until 1995. The music video for Queens of the Stone Age's 2000 single The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret was filmed at Roy's. Rush drummer Neil Peart wrote fondly in his book Ghost Rider about staying there during a motorcycle trip. In 2008, the location served as the background for Sky's Twister identifications.

The 2010 mystery-thriller Beneath the Dark was shot primarily at Roy's, and the 2010 racing video game Blur included Roy's as part of a level set in Amboy. Armin Van Buuren filmed parts of his 2013 music video for This Is What It Feels Like in Amboy, and a national TV commercial for Lucas Oil Products was also shot at the motel and café. The 2015 film Southbound used Roy's in its first story, The Way Out, and its final story, The Way In. Bob Dylan's painting of the Roy's sign is currently on display in Miami as part of a 180-piece exhibition.

Japanese rickshaw driver Yuji Suzuki stopped at the café during his 2019 attempt to run the length of Route 66. A 2022 Nissan commercial featuring college mascots, which aired during the NCAA basketball tournaments, was filmed at and near the motel.