‘Big Boy’ Remembered Fondly

SPARR HEIGHTS — The Bob’s Brigade gathered in force at Sparr Heights Community Center Aug. 31 to exchange memories about one of Glendale’s greatest contributions to the world of family dining.

An incidental reference to McDonald’s from one audience member was greeted with proper disregard by the loyal; Bob’s remains in another category entirely for those who remember the Big Boy from its days of glory.

Leading the memory parade was Bruce Herman, vice president of the Glendale Historical Society, co-sponsor of the program with the Historical Society of Crescenta Valley.

Herman, an appraiser on the Antiques Road Show, among other places, has been a Bob’s memorabilia collector since meeting Bob Wian, the father of the Big Boy.

The whole story started in 1936, at the height of the Great Depression, when a young Glendale resident sold his car to buy a nine-seat diner on Colorado Boulevard.

Wian soon found his ticket to success with a new, double decker hamburger created at the request of a patron looking for something new. Wian named the sandwich the Big Boy, reportedly after a neighborhood youngster, and the legend began. Herman said the young man, Richard Woodruff, was given a lifetime free pass to Bob’s.

The pictures were instant nostalgia. The Glendale store, known reverently as “number one,” was followed by Burbank, Eagle Rock and Toluca Lake, which keeps up the tradition locally. All that is left of the Crescenta Valley location is a building, short blocks from where the historical societies’ meeting was taking place.

Herman said Wian franchised the sandwich , and it was served in establishments with many different names throughout the country.

Bob sold the chain in 1967 to Marriott, and it has survived under a number of different names. It is now headquartered in Warren, Mich. The Big Boy lives on, though; one audience member said he found a Big Boy Restaurant at Tokyo Airport, and there are now two in Las Vegas.

Herman said the Bob’s car hops were carefully trained, never wore roller skates and donned a variety of uniforms. When the popularity of Bob’s created traffic jams on Colorado Boulevard, Wian hired his own police force/parking guards.

Wian served as mayor of Glendale and was a committed community leader. He hired his executives from within the company; Herman said the loyalty factor was so strong that after World War II, all but one employee came back to the company.