Elias Brothers Rotating Big Boy

The Elias Brothers Big Boy comes from Manistee, Michigan. Manistee’s Big Boy Restaurant was established in 1979 on U.S. 31, and the Big Boy statue adorned the front for almost 30 years. It closed around 2007, located where Manistee’s Walgreens sits now. After demolition, Jeff Seng of Seng’s Marina acquired and stored the statue, but helped the Museum acquire it in 2016. Though the location began operation in the 1970s, its statue design looks to be from the 1950s – it is possible the restaurant used an older statue from another location.

Originally starting with Bob’s Big Boy in California, Big Boy restaurants spread across the country in a complicated franchise system where different territories would use different names and Big Boy designs. Big Boys in the Michigan territory were owned by the Elias Brothers franchise. Elias Brothers Big Boys used what was known as the “West Coast” Big Boy design that originated in California that includes checkered overalls and dark hair. At one time, Elias Brothers ran all of the Big Boy franchise territories outside of those owned by Frisch’s (OH, KY, IN, and TN); however, Elias Brothers went bankrupt in 2000 leaving the remaining Big Boys in their system to form the Big Boy Restaurant Group.

Fair: rotator no longer works