It was in 1956 when the very first Elby’s Family Restaurant opened on National Road in Wheeling, and before the eateries were sold to Elias Bros. Inc. in the late 1980s, there were 73 units in five states.
No one knows for sure how many employees once worked for one of the units, but John Garner owns fond memories of being a customer and an assistant manager of an Elby’s in Pennsylvania.
“My love affair began with Elby’s Big Boy during my youth. My family went to Elby’s for meals like families go to McDonald’s today. It was THE place to go,” Garner explained. “I remember always looking forward to seeing the statue outside of restaurant as if it was a real oasis to child. There was something about the red and white checkered bibs that instilled a sense of welcome, good food and security. That sense never left me as grew older.
“While away at college, my classmates and I would travel to a Big Boy Restaurant to study and write term papers. We were fortunate to have a breakfast bar that was open late and always welcomed college students,” he said. “It was during a return trip home that I learned that Elby’s would be closing. It was a franchise and, honestly, it was not as it used to be. Fast forward a few years, and I found myself looking for a part-time weekend job for a little extra cash. The Big Boy in the city I relocated to was hiring cooks, and I applied. After being interviewed for a cook’s position, I was offered an Assistant Managers career. Little did I know that my love affair was once again going to grow big, and that is when I began collecting Big Boy items.”
Even a Statue
Garner, the executive director of the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, has traveled to see former locations, some of which have been transitioned into different restaurants, medical offices, and used car dealerships while others have been demolished since being shuttered.
The franchise was well-known for the consistent quality of food, top-notch customer service, and for the Big Boy statues that stood near the front door at each Elby’s location. At one point in the early 1980s, a squabble between ownership and franchise officials forced the fiberglass figurines to vanish, but they returned a few years later.
Despite the history, Garner had always wished to find a Big Boy statue to restore and add to his collection, and that dream soon will come true.,
“I left my career at the Big Boy in 1998, and then, in 2004, I found my seven-and-a-half-foot tall Big Boy,” he recalled. “Unrestored and heavily weathered, the statue was stored in a barn in upstate Pennsylvania. The owner shared that her father once owned the Stroudsburg, Pa., Elby’s Big Boy, and the statue was from that location.
“A deal was finalized, and I brought Big Boy home,” Garner said. “I cleaned the statue up as best as I could and sat him on the back porch. For me, having a statue in my collection represented more than just another item. It’s having a childhood memory to look at, and no serious Big Boy collector would be without a genuine statue.”
But Garner initially feared allowing the icon to leave his presence to be restored.
“One can read the numerous tales of school students kidnapping or defacing the statues from all over the country, and that kept me from sending him out for restoration,” he admitted. “But looking at the statue, I knew it was more than I was capable of doing. The 45-year-old fiberglass was cracked, chipped and deeply scored, and it was not going to be an easy task to make the repairs.
“A friend of a colleague asked me if he could do the work, and I was taken back because someone actually approached me about taking on the challenge of restoring the Big Boy. If I supplied the means, he would ensure a total quality restoration was performed,” he said. “After all, if he restores vintage automobiles, surely he would care for the restoration of the statue. The day we met to discuss the statue, I pointed out with a parent-like attitude the flaws he possessed like the rotten base, the iconic double-decker burger lifting off and breaking free of the plate and the various, very apparent stress fractures.”
Departure Day
Just ask him and Garner will recall the day he finally let go.
“It was a warm Saturday morning in June when the day came for Big Boy to leave my care and head to the shop for new life. He was carefully loaded onto a trailer and proper supports were formed to cradle the arm and the neck,” Garner explained. “Although painful to me to see him leave, I knew he would be in good hands.
“Once in the shop, a better assessment was made. Indeed, the 45-year-old fiberglass was in much need of attention. Big Boy was then sanded down in a search for other areas of concern. The stress fractures were located, and the deep scars were smoothed out to receive a special blend of fiberglass repair material,” he said. “It was then discovered that a simple coat of primer would not be enough. There were other areas that would not be concealed once the primer was applied, and Big Boy would once again have visible imperfections.”
The project was divided into steps, and the famous double-decker burger was first on the list, and then the Big Boy body was addressed.
“The head was the next part to receive attention,” Garner said. “The back side of his head had a four-inch rub mark that was present when I purchased him so long ago. Much attention went into making this repair along with the neck stress fracture repairs.
“The hair was painted first, followed by the face and arms. Next, the facial features were painted in, the blue eyes, lips and eyebrows,” he continued. “Big Boy was coming along nicely, and the smile oN his face was just as big as my own.”
Then came the painting of the red-and-white overalls, and then the shoes. Some Big Boy statues feature black shoes while others through the year donned green and blue shoes.
“I opted for the blue shoes because of what it means to me: this is how I remember the Big Boy that greeted me some 45 years ago,” Garner insisted. “The final part of the body to be completed shall be the base. The builder’s plate is missing from this statue. The mounting holes have been filled in and smoothed over. I have a photo of the builder’s plate I hope our local trophy shop can reproduce.
“Within the next few days, the burger will be united with the plate,” he said. “All of the seams will receive the appropriate attention and made weather-proof. At that time, Big Boy will be complete, and we will wrap him securely to transport him from the restoration shop to my Big Boy room.”
Yes, He Has a Room
Garner has a large collection of Big Boy memorabilia, including old menus, newsletters, piggy banks, coloring books, and the blueprints for one of the Elby’s locations, and now he is in search of an authentic booth that once rested inside one of the restaurants.
“My wife tolerates my collection,” Garner said. “She is not always thrilled as I might be at my latest acquisition, but she tries to understand. We recently made a trip to Warren, Mich., and we stopped off at a Frisch’s Big Boy location in northern Ohio so she could experience the ‘other’ Big Boy.
“Frisch’s Big Boy of Northwestern Ohio (a sub-franchise of Frisch’s) was good, but it was not the same as a ‘real’ Big Boy,” he reported. “It was more fast-food oriented than a traditional sit-down venue. Even the stores in Michigan, more or less ex-Elias units, did not have a warm and welcoming feel.”
But then their trip took a twist.
“When we arrived at Madison Heights, that changed. This was the style of Big Boy that I wanted to franchise,” Garner said. “It was not the essence of Elby’s, but instead it is it’s modern Big Boy. My wife and I visited this same location just after it opened so many years ago, and much to my surprise, she fell in love with the Big Boy.
“For the rest of our trip, she was asking questions and reading about the birth of Bob’s Big Boy all the way through the new Big Boy Food Group,” he added. “She is now scouring the internet and asking, ‘Do we have this?’ and, ‘Do we have that?’ Maybe I will get that franchise after all.”
