A Big Boy Battle

When you think Big Boy, you think Shoney’s, at least if you’re a certain age.

After all, for years, from the 1950s until 1976, the two were intertwined at one of the nation’s first series of franchised restaurants, Shoney’s. And even though the iconic statue of the Big Boy has not been part of Shoney’s since 1976, to Emily Schoenbaum, the symbol is still linked with the company her father, Alex Schoenbaum, helped to build.

Alex Schoenbaum, who died in 1996, merged his restaurant with the Frisch's and Big Boy chains in the 1950s, and the entire enterprise, renamed Shoney’s, grew to more than 1,000 restaurants. And the Big Boy used to stand outside those restaurants, at least until 1976, when Big Boy split off from the chain.

That’s why she’s got a 14-foot Big Boy statue at the site of her father’s first restaurant, in Charleston, West Virginia, a site she plans to dedicate as a memorial to her father’s accomplishment on Sunday. “I erected this monument two years ago. It’s an ode both to my father and the first Shoney’s restaurant,” she said.

There’s just one problem. Shoney’s doesn’t own the Big Boy image, and neither does Schoenbaum.

In fact, the image is attached to a convoluted tale of separate companies with common roots. It was originally the mascot of Bob's Big Boy restaurants in California, one of the companies that combined with Shoney's. Bob's Big Boy was sold to Marriott, which later sold it to one of its largest franchisees, Elias Brothers in Michigan. Elias Brothers went bankrupt, and the current owner, Big Boy International, bought the company out of bankruptcy in 2000.

Big Boy International of Warren, Michigan, a company with 140 restaurants in Michigan, Ohio, and Southern California, now claims the image. And the company is not pleased with Emily Schoenbaum’s monument.

Jennifer Bourdoin, in-house counsel for Big Boy International, has written a letter to Emily Schoenbaum demanding that she remove the statue by Sunday.

“We object to the fact that it’s our trademark being use in an unauthorized way…and such a way that causes confusion,” Bourdoin told Portfolio.com. “It’s visible from the highway, and apparently people have been pulling off the highway thinking they were going to find a big boy restaurant. It’s as though they put the golden arches on top of that pole. I’m not sure that McDonald’s would be too keen on that.”

Emily Schoenbaum, though, doesn’t understand why the Michigan company is upset.

“I have no intention of taking it down,” she said. “I think it’s a piece of art, it’s a cultural icon. It is for historical purposes. It has been nothing but good PR from them, to be honest.”

Given the attitude on both sides, the next stop is probably going to be court.

“That would likely be the next step if she does not want to take the Big Boy down,” Bourdoin said.

But first, Emily Shoenbaum has something to do. She was hitting the road Friday to drive to West Virginia. She needs to get ready for Sunday’s dedication of the memorial to her father’s restaurant chain.

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Kent Bernhard Jr. is News Editor of Portfolio.com