A Brief History of Big Boy Restaurants

Robert "Bob" Wian died in 1992. He was the founder of the Bob's Big Boy restaurant chain, and the creator of the double-decker hamburger. And most notable, when it came to his employees, he gave them unheard-of profit sharing and stock option plans that made many of his waitresses and line cooks millionaire retirees.

And he was modest about his achievements. In his latter years, Wian carried around a business card that said, "Robert C. "Bob" Wian, Fry Cook, Retired."

Bob Wian

His beginnings were humble. In 1933, during the depths of the Depression, he went to work as a dishwasher at the White Log Tavern in Glendale, California, his first job as a teenager. In fact, in high school, Bob Wian was voted "least likely to succeed."

Eventually, he worked his way up to restaurant manager, earning enough money to buy a 10-seat hamburger stand in Glendale. He named it "Bob's Pantry."

It was during his days at the humble burger stand that a regular customer, a jazz musician, challenged Bob to create a hamburger that was completely different from all other hamburgers. Wian took the challenge and sliced a sesame seed hamburger bun into three pieces instead of the usual two. He then put two hamburger patties and extra layers of cheese between the slices, thus creating the first double-decker hamburger.

To Wian's surprise, his creation became very popular and so did his Glendale stand.

Big Boy

One of his regular customers was a six-year-old boy named Richard Woodruff. He was a chubby kid with baggy pants and a funny pompadour hairstyle. Wian would give him free food in exchange for chores. One day, a regular customer, Warner Brothers cartoonist Benny Washman sketched the chubby boy on a napkin and gave it to Wian. And so "the Big Boy" was born, and Washman's sketch of Richard Woodruff became one of America's most popular trademarks.

By 1948, Bob Wian had three Southern California restaurants called "Bob's Big Boy."

In 1956, his restaurants started handing out Big Boy comic books to the children of customers. The first of these comic books were written by Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee and drawn by "Sub-Mariner" creator Bill Everett.

Big Business

Eventually several restaurants outside the state of California began ripping off Wian's double-decker hamburger. One of those was a McDonald's Pittsburgh franchise owned by Jim Delligatti, who has freely admitted that his Big Mac was based on Wian's Big Boy double-decker. It was at this point when Wian decided to franchise the "Big Boy" restaurants all over the country, and he had five regional takers, including the Elias Brothers in Detroit.

In 1964, he sold his restaurants and franchises to the Marriott Corporation. Unfortunately, Marriott tried to fit the "Big Boy" restaurants into the same style and business model as another restaurant chain that the conglomerate had purchased. This plan proved unsuccessful in the long run, causing several of Wian's original regional franchisees to jump ship and start their own successful independent regional chains, such as Shoney's.

Big Boys Today

In 1986, Richard Woodruff, the inspiration for Big Boy, died at age 56.

In 1987, the Elias Brothers, one of Wian's original franchisees, bought the Big Boy chain from Marriott. To Wian's satisfaction, the Elias Brothers brought back his original management methods and restaurant menu.

In 1992, Robert "Bob" Wian died in North Hollywood, California. As of 2007, there were 850 Big Boy restaurants across the country.

SOURCES:

"Richard Woodruff obit", New York Times

"Big deal on Big Boy Street", Steven Heller, AIGA

"Bob Wian", Bill Carlino, Nation's Restaurant News