Big Boy is a restaurant chain started in 1936 by Bob Wian in Glendale, California as Bob's Big Boy. Marriott bought the chain in 1967. One of the larger franchise operators, Elias Brothers, purchased the chain from Marriott in 1987, moving the headquarters of the company to Livonia, Michigan, and operating it until declaring bankruptcy in 2000. Following the bankruptcy, the chain was sold to investor Robert Liggett Jr., the current company CEO, who renamed the company to Big Boy Restaurants International, now headquartered in Warren, Michigan. The company is the franchiser for more than 455 Big Boy Restaurants in the United States, Canada and Japan.The chain is best-known for its trademark chubby boy in red and white with suspenders holding a double decker hamburger. The inspiration for Big Boy's name, as well as the model for its mascot was Richard Woodruff. When he was 6 years old, he walked into the diner as Bob Wian was attempting to name his new hamburger. Wian said "Hello Big Boy" to Woodruff, and the name stuck.Children attending some restaurants often receive a free comic book chronicling the adventures of Big Boy. Advertisements in the comic book implore readers to join the Big Boy Kids Club, and passages are sometimes written in the club's "secret code", a substitution cipher, whose key appears on the back of membership cards. Members receive tokens for a free Big Boy on their birthday.Besides its namesake Big Boy hamburger, other distinctive offerings are "Slim Jim" sandwiches, "Brawny Lad" burgers, Hot Fudge Cake and Strawberry Pie.
