Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey Elizabeth zaren Burnette, So good to see you. I
Speaker 2: got a question for you, Yes, sir, all right, do
Speaker 2: you know what's ridiculous? I do?
Speaker 3: Sit down? You sit down.
Speaker 2: I'm all buckled up. Let me know.
Speaker 3: All right. So Christian Billion, that's he's not ridiculous, Christian
Speaker 3: bon he's a cool dude. He is a Midwest He's
Speaker 3: a rude dude. He's a rude dude. He sent us
Speaker 3: a DM on Instagram, sure, and his caption was, I
Speaker 3: don't think this is a mashup, but it's unclean, unclean, unclean.
Speaker 3: And a couple other people sent it, but he was
Speaker 3: the first through the gate, and he had the funniest
Speaker 3: comment about it. Okay, And so when it was shown
Speaker 3: to me, what it is is it's Krispy Cream cheesecake tacos.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so there's some sort of it looks like a
Speaker 3: legit taco shell that has been dipped on the outside
Speaker 3: in white chocolate, oh, which is just like oil. And
Speaker 3: then I think there's some sort of cheesecake smashed inside.
Speaker 3: And then they shoved donut in it, a Krispy Cream donut.
Speaker 3: So It's like a taco shell filled with smashed up
Speaker 3: cheesecake and then a Krispy Creme donut shoved in it.
Speaker 2: This is a taco in the line of like choco.
Speaker 3: Taco completely, but shove a Krispy Cream up in there
Speaker 3: between them taco lips, and then you just have this disaster. Right,
Speaker 3: it's not a mashup, So Christian's right, it's not a mashup.
Speaker 3: And we get a lot of stuff like this. They
Speaker 3: were showing me our Instagram feed, the Ridiculous Crime. Yeah.
Speaker 3: They in turn showed me that I hadn't really seen
Speaker 3: the feed because we don't follow a lot of people apparently.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: No, it's just like a handful and it's no one.
Speaker 3: It's like random weird accounts. Anyway, they were showing me
Speaker 3: the feed, and it consists of basically dog stuff, a
Speaker 3: lot of Golden retriever things, which makes sense that when
Speaker 3: we talk about that, and then these horrible food things
Speaker 3: that aren't mashups, but like we just were scrolling through
Speaker 3: and I started writing them down. Cinnamon sugar cruffins, icy carbonara,
Speaker 3: spring rolls. What was another one? Upside down pastry, upside
Speaker 3: down puff pastry, tacos pass. There was one stuffed garlic
Speaker 3: bagel filled with cream cheese and dunked in garlic.
Speaker 2: Butter hard pass.
Speaker 3: Some Moores dip barbecue, brisket, baked potato.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I can compete on all of
Speaker 2: this stuff.
Speaker 3: Is like, if you hate yourself and you're drunk and
Speaker 3: you've got serious issues, you just throw this food together
Speaker 3: and you lay on the floor and eat it.
Speaker 2: As it sounds like you don't like food.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that's the other thing. But here's so.
Speaker 3: So I pulled up the Krispy Cream cheesecake tacos. I
Speaker 3: could only find it on the original link that tasted
Speaker 3: that is the Instagram, and it said would you try
Speaker 3: these Crispy Cream Cheesecake tacos? And you know whatever, and
Speaker 3: then you can like follow them for food content hashtag
Speaker 3: food porn. It is what it said. But the comments
Speaker 3: Lawyer's first choice said anyone who would eat this doesn't
Speaker 3: like themselves.
Speaker 2: Lawyer's first choice hard comedy.
Speaker 3: Someone said, just got diabetes looking at this. Let me
Speaker 3: get a dozen though, Okay hates himself. So anyway, it's
Speaker 3: you know, everyone's talking about how it's gluttonous and it's
Speaker 3: this and that. But you know, obviously their eye clicked
Speaker 3: on it. And if you look down at the other references,
Speaker 3: they have a cookie monster taco.
Speaker 2: Can it possibly taste good?
Speaker 3: A loaded fries variety box.
Speaker 2: It's so rich it passes the point of being sweet
Speaker 2: and saying.
Speaker 3: There's probably no flavored differential between. It just becomes a
Speaker 3: big glob of sugar and oil.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I feel like it would give you like a headache, sugar.
Speaker 3: Alcohol, everything. There's something wrong with us.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: This is not how we're supposed to be living.
Speaker 2: No, this is very late.
Speaker 3: And I like, I like desserts, and I like, you know, man,
Speaker 3: I love chacos.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but this is like, you know, the desserts that
Speaker 2: they were serving right before the French Revolution went to
Speaker 2: the court completely our version of that, the Fall of Rome,
Speaker 2: same thing.
Speaker 3: This is, this is the end times food. So that's
Speaker 3: ridiculous that I know it is.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, But how about this, Elizabeth on food?
Speaker 2: How about people who can't stop stealing enormous statues of
Speaker 2: fun little round boys. We just want everyone to enjoy
Speaker 2: a cheeseburger.
Speaker 3: Oh I think I know what this is.
Speaker 2: This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous
Speaker 2: capers heist in cons it's always ninety nine percent murder
Speaker 2: free and one hundred percent ridiculous. Yes, oh Elizabeth, Yes,
Speaker 2: Have you ever eaten at a Bob's Big Boy?
Speaker 3: They have?
Speaker 2: Did you ever eat at the famous one in Burbank?
Speaker 3: I don't believe I have.
Speaker 2: It's on the corner on Riverside.
Speaker 3: There are a lot of things that I've done in
Speaker 3: my life and I don't remember. That could be one
Speaker 3: of them, but I feel like I would have remembered
Speaker 3: that one.
Speaker 2: I think you would have. It's a life changing event.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Backing up, do you know what Bob's Big Boy is?
Speaker 2: Can you describe it for me? Yes? Okay, you do
Speaker 2: know You're not just like Bob's Big Boy, I know,
Speaker 2: but you might just be being friendly. You're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: I've been there.
Speaker 3: I seek Yeah, if I if I don't know something,
Speaker 3: around't been somewhere. I'll tell you a lot of times,
Speaker 3: I like to tell you cities are beautiful. I've never
Speaker 3: been there.
Speaker 2: There you go. This was my example. I'm not saying
Speaker 2: you ever are a liar, but you will occasionally say things.
Speaker 3: It may not bear a truth physically entered Bob's Big Boy.
Speaker 2: That's impressive. That's really impressive that you've done that. And
Speaker 2: then you say it was such relish because it's a diner.
Speaker 2: As you said, it's relish icon from the era of
Speaker 2: southern California car culture, right, very mid century. It was
Speaker 2: originally called Bob's.
Speaker 3: Pantry, right, Oh, that's no fun.
Speaker 2: It was started as a ten stool hamburger stand. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: In August nineteen thirty six, his twenty year old named
Speaker 2: Bob Weighan. He sold his DeSoto roadster. He got three
Speaker 2: hundred bucks for the car. He then he used that
Speaker 2: money to make a down payment on the hamburger stand.
Speaker 2: That's a good investment known as the pantry. He's like
Speaker 2: a good hamburger stand, same, right, and those were like
Speaker 2: good hamburgers too back then.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Anyway, so he's like, all right, the pantry is now
Speaker 2: Bob's pantry.
Speaker 3: They weren't shoving donuts, sip in there and stuff.
Speaker 2: My point, exact sprinkles, expecting the ingredients, keeping it del chipping.
Speaker 3: It and melted cheese exactly gold.
Speaker 2: So anyway, after he opens up shop, right, Bob wihen
Speaker 2: six months in this customer comes in late. Right. They
Speaker 2: were most likely a bunch of musicians. After a the
Speaker 2: customer asked for quote, something different, and Bob's like, I
Speaker 2: got you, brother. Now Bob listened, right, So he goes,
Speaker 2: let me think about this for a little bit. I
Speaker 2: got an idea, goes out in the back, slices himself
Speaker 2: a hamburger bun, Elizabeth, but he slices it into three pieces,
Speaker 2: not the traditional two pieces of the just cutting it
Speaker 2: in half. He maced it, he big macked it. But
Speaker 2: this was the first time anyone had ever created a top,
Speaker 2: a bottom, in a middle slice out of a bun.
Speaker 2: He added then to hamburger patties. Of course, he layered
Speaker 2: that with cheese, lettuce and a relish based sauce. This
Speaker 2: is how special pretty much special sauce. And this is
Speaker 2: how he created the first double deck hamburger. That's what
Speaker 2: he was called, right boy before this is like, uh hare,
Speaker 2: I'll put it in context. Four years later, the first
Speaker 2: McDonald's opened.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: Right, So Bob's double patty burger was such a hait
Speaker 2: he gives it a name. He calls it Bob's Big Boy. Right.
Speaker 2: The name six, of course, as you said. You react immediately,
Speaker 2: You're like, I want to order a Bob's Big Boy,
Speaker 2: his new burger innovation. As I said, so popular, Bob
Speaker 2: renames the restaurant Bob's Big Boy. He's like, just put
Speaker 2: it on the sign.
Speaker 3: I feel like this is the villain origin story of
Speaker 3: my what's ridiculous, you know what I mean? Like, yeah,
Speaker 3: Bob's Big Boy, Like put more on there. And then
Speaker 3: now fast forward here.
Speaker 2: We are being even worse, oh terrible, almost insufferable. One
Speaker 2: would say, So Bob's Big Boy, he's this burger pioneer,
Speaker 2: right leader in the field, out by himself. Erick, Yeah,
Speaker 2: totally and for decades and totally leading the field. But
Speaker 2: this is not bad for a guy Bob Weihan who
Speaker 2: was voted least likely to succeed while he was in
Speaker 2: high school.
Speaker 3: Wait, they had a least likely to succeed and didn't
Speaker 3: have one of those. And we had like bullying in
Speaker 3: our day, I know we had, but we had like
Speaker 3: you know, most it was all good stuff. You wouldn't
Speaker 3: be like Biggest, I wouldn't least likely to succeed.
Speaker 2: They were a little rough for back then.
Speaker 3: It was a little rougher, but maybe we need to
Speaker 3: bring that back the people up.
Speaker 2: Nineteen fifty two, Bob we granted the rights of his
Speaker 2: name to three brothers in Detroit, and so they franchised Bob's,
Speaker 2: Big Man and Jack. Yeah, but Manny, Moe and Jack.
Speaker 2: They decide, you know what, we don't want to call
Speaker 2: it Bob's because none of us are named Bob. So
Speaker 2: they open a hundred restaurants, but they replaced the name Bob.
Speaker 2: They call it Elias Brothers Big Boy.
Speaker 3: Oh, that does not ring the way it's about boy.
Speaker 2: Exactly right, the alliteration, it's right there, you can hear it. Anyway,
Speaker 2: they become like the first franchises. There's a lot to follow, right,
Speaker 2: there's this guy fresh, but it doesn't matter. A bunch
Speaker 2: of franchises anyway. Big Boys start popping up all around
Speaker 2: the country. Detroit soon opened, as I said, one hundred
Speaker 2: Big Boy franchise restaurants bearing the name Elias Brothers Big Boy.
Speaker 2: Just to imagine that, right, But so they're basically my
Speaker 2: point is, they're not just in southern California at this point. Now,
Speaker 2: if you look at the success of the Big Boy Burger,
Speaker 2: another burger franchise decides to imitate the double Decker burger
Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty seven. Nineteen sixty seven, Elizabeth Wild hectic
Speaker 2: times in America. McDonald's franchisee named James delea Gotti. He
Speaker 2: borrowed the recipe of the Big Boy Burger and he
Speaker 2: invents a sandwich called the Big Mac. Now dele Gotti
Speaker 2: has admitted he stole the idea, although he didn't use
Speaker 2: the word steal like I did. He'd said he preferred
Speaker 2: to compare it to innovation.
Speaker 3: And he was a franchise e, yeah, of McDonald's, so
Speaker 3: he was just but he invented a McDonald's.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Then they brought it up to corporate and was
Speaker 2: run with or whatever. Yeah, delea gotty. He says. This
Speaker 2: wasn't like discovering the light bulb. The bulbs already there.
Speaker 2: All I did was screw it in the socket. So
Speaker 2: there you go. So if McDonald's is stealing from you,
Speaker 2: you must be doing something right. Right, So back to
Speaker 2: Bob's Big Boy, Elizabeth. Big Boy. It isn't just the
Speaker 2: name of the famous double Decker burger. It's also the
Speaker 2: name of the famous iconic statue that's outside of most
Speaker 2: Bob's Big Boy restaurants. Is these the kid with the
Speaker 2: red checkered overalls. He's got that swooping cow liga and
Speaker 2: the a devilish look in his eye. All right, So
Speaker 2: it turns out there was a real big boy. His
Speaker 2: name was Richard Woodrought. Milk fed he was. He was
Speaker 2: a milk fed, little cherubic boy. Right, he was six
Speaker 2: years old. This kid loved cheeseburgers. What cand I tell you?
Speaker 2: So he would go down to the Bob's Bob's Big Boy,
Speaker 2: and he'd offer to do chores like sweep the floor
Speaker 2: in exchange for burgers. Were like, He's like, yeah, it
Speaker 2: goes for the deal. Meanwhile, at the exact same moment,
Speaker 2: he's looking at a mascot that he's asked somebody to
Speaker 2: draw up for the store, and he's like trying to
Speaker 2: come up with a name for it. Right, he likes
Speaker 2: this kid and just almost out of like instinct, pops
Speaker 2: out of his mouth. He's like, hey, all right, big boy.
Speaker 2: He's like, wait a minute. He hears it, right, so
Speaker 2: is Bob Wien later recalled he was about six and
Speaker 2: rolls of fat protruded where his shirt and pants were
Speaker 2: designed to meet. I was so amused by the youngster, jolly,
Speaker 2: healthy looking and obviously a lover of good things. Deed,
Speaker 2: I called him Big Boy. The name sticks again. So
Speaker 2: now this gets an animator from Warner Brothers. Ben Washam.
Speaker 2: He's the one who sketches a little drawing of Richard
Speaker 2: Woodruff wearing checkered overalls and then the kalick pompadoor mischievous
Speaker 2: gleam in his eye. Boom. The sketch becomes the icon
Speaker 2: of the Bob's Big Boy Burger chain. Wow, yeah, Soon
Speaker 2: they make a statue made of this jolly burger loving boy.
Speaker 2: Bob Wian added statues to all of his Bob's Big
Speaker 2: Boy restaurants. The statues become as famous and beloved as
Speaker 2: the Double Drucker for right right, in fact, so much
Speaker 2: so I thought this was crazy. I didn't know this.
Speaker 2: Stan Lee even wrote a Big Boy comic book series
Speaker 2: made for the restaurant chain.
Speaker 3: Does this mean that Big Boy is part of the
Speaker 3: Marvels universe extended Marvel universe and there could be a
Speaker 3: Big Boy movie?
Speaker 2: There could be? I don't see why not?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 2: The series The comic book series called The Adventures of
Speaker 2: Big Boy and debuted nineteen fifty six, at the height
Speaker 2: of comic book culture. We've covered. Yeah, any kid who
Speaker 2: visited the restaurants, they were given free comic books and
Speaker 2: these were so popular they gave out like one million
Speaker 2: wow over the years. Yeah it was. It's considered one
Speaker 2: of the longest running comic books in comics history. No way, totally, Anyway.
Speaker 2: Over the years, Bob's Big Boys had many run ins
Speaker 2: with the culture. I'm just going to run over just
Speaker 2: a couple.
Speaker 3: Please do the Beatles they ran them over.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you know what they did? They ran one note,
Speaker 2: they didn't run whatever. The Beatles have their own booth
Speaker 2: in the Burbanks Bob's Big Boy. Really true story. Try
Speaker 2: to say that three times. The Beatles have their own
Speaker 2: booth in Burbanks Bob's Big Boys.
Speaker 3: See, I can't do it. Does Is the Burbank building
Speaker 3: still standing?
Speaker 2: They still have the car shows on Friday down there.
Speaker 2: Oh we should go. We should do a ridiculous road trip.
Speaker 2: So your jin totally alright? Pencil that urns. I hope
Speaker 2: they can hear that. Anyway. Nineteen sixty five, the Beatles
Speaker 2: were on tour in the US. Right, They're in support
Speaker 2: of their album help right. The story goes, the Beatles
Speaker 2: were road weary, hungry, looking for quote, real American dinner.
Speaker 2: Now in August, the Beatles were in southern California, and
Speaker 2: they came to Burbank for a good spot for it.
Speaker 2: Fab forward, they DeCamp to quote. The last booth on
Speaker 2: the right is one walks in where the end of
Speaker 2: the windows face out towards Riverside Drive. So there you go.
Speaker 2: That's the spot that's known as the Beatles booth, and
Speaker 2: people go there and like take photos in the Beatles booth.
Speaker 2: It's there's a there's a plaque that marks the booth
Speaker 2: as the Beatles booth. Yes, but they weren't the only
Speaker 2: ones that loved this spot. Do you know us who
Speaker 2: has a really interesting history with Bob's big boy Elizabeth
Speaker 2: Bob Good. Guess he is weird. He's a filmmaker.
Speaker 3: Quentin Tarantino.
Speaker 2: No, even weirder, John Waters, even the more odd. David Lynch.
Speaker 3: Oh, I was like fincher, No.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, not that kind. But anyway, if you
Speaker 2: think about it, makes a lot of sense because of
Speaker 2: course he loves an iconic American diner, David Lynch. So anyway, celebs,
Speaker 2: they love to eat it. Bob's Big Boy, right, especially
Speaker 2: this first iconic location in Burbank, and you could spot
Speaker 2: Bob Hope grabbing a burger. Debbie Reynolds was known to
Speaker 2: slurp on a shake or two. But the man you
Speaker 2: could always reliably spot at the Bob's Big Boy was
Speaker 2: David Lynch. During the eighties. He ate lunch there every day,
Speaker 2: every day. Every day. He arrived always at exactly the
Speaker 2: same time. Oh also very David Lynch, Yeah, two thirty pm.
Speaker 2: He liked to arrive at that time because, as he
Speaker 2: put it, it increased the odds that he would encounter perfection.
Speaker 3: Well, I you know I love a late lunch totally.
Speaker 2: I know you does. Why to bring it up? So
Speaker 2: his daily order was never ending cups of coffee, just
Speaker 2: keep them coming, and a chocolate shake. Now at the time,
Speaker 2: the La Times, the newspaper, they wrote about this and
Speaker 2: this they covered. They said that Lynch thought that the
Speaker 2: sugar was really a beautiful thing. This is back back
Speaker 2: when he thought he believes such things. He has since
Speaker 2: changed his mind. He no longer drinks shakes every day.
Speaker 2: Well and coffee.
Speaker 3: Bye, Dian and talk about the cherry pie.
Speaker 2: I don't know that's what I expect that ay Anyway,
Speaker 2: So as he sit there sipping on his shake down
Speaker 2: in cup after cup of coffee, David Lynch loved to
Speaker 2: people watch, the tourists, the locals. He died down notes
Speaker 2: on the Bob's Big Boy napkins. So, yeah, there's a
Speaker 2: little thing. If you really want to be a David
Speaker 2: Lynch fan, find one of his Bob's Big Boy napkins.
Speaker 2: It has a note on it.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm going to go get a Bob's Boy, Bob's
Speaker 3: Big Boy napkin. I'm going to write some fake notes.
Speaker 3: I'm going to commit a ridiculous crime is auction on
Speaker 3: eBay that it's a David Lynch note and make us
Speaker 3: a little cash to fund our road trip to go
Speaker 3: down to.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm a I'm like a member of
Speaker 3: the bloods Now Burbank Bob's everything has to start with me.
Speaker 2: Blah blah. So well, here I got one more for
Speaker 2: you about the Burbank Bob's Big Boy. It has a
Speaker 2: criminal connection. But that's what we're here to talk about.
Speaker 2: So let's take a break. When I get back, I'll
Speaker 2: tell you about his connection to heat.
Speaker 5: Oh, Elizabeth, we're back, Saren. Saren, Now I promised you
Speaker 5: a heat connection.
Speaker 3: You really did?
Speaker 2: Yeah? What does that even mean? Saren? What's a heat connection?
Speaker 3: Is a heat connection?
Speaker 2: As anything?
Speaker 3: You for asking?
Speaker 2: The nineteen ninety five film by Michael Mann So Good
Speaker 2: came out in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 3: Five, Elizabeth, Oh, are we gonna do that?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: Not again? But you love the movies, right.
Speaker 3: I do love the movie.
Speaker 2: Now, Val Kilmer Blonde bank robber movie. Do you remember this?
Speaker 2: I do? Have you seen it?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: I am okay? Yeah?
Speaker 3: And then the like iconic diner seemed Yeah, he was
Speaker 3: a big boy.
Speaker 2: No, but do you remember remember the epic shootout? Yes?
Speaker 2: Also not in Bob's Big Boy. But do you remember
Speaker 2: the getaway driver Dennis Haysburg? Yeah, you remember him.
Speaker 3: He later went on to be the president in twenty four.
Speaker 2: Extended heat franchise in the World. Yes, So do you
Speaker 2: remember how he Dennis Haysburg gets shot and killed in
Speaker 2: the big shootout on the streets of downtown La. Right.
Speaker 2: He wasn't supposed to be there. Why because he had
Speaker 2: a job. Where was his job? In a diame Bob's
Speaker 2: Big Boy? He was working and that's where de Niro
Speaker 2: vel Kilmer spot him and they pick him up and
Speaker 2: they're like, hey man, he was like remember him from
Speaker 2: like Chino or whatever prison they all went, and they
Speaker 2: invite him to be the getaway driver, and he makes
Speaker 2: the worst decision of his life. Right yeh, Bob's Big Boy.
Speaker 2: I don't know why they allowed that, because the Boss
Speaker 2: is all racist and weird and like taking advantage of
Speaker 2: people because they're on parole. You think Bob's Big would
Speaker 2: leave us out of this narrative, but nope.
Speaker 3: Anyway, Like, hey, listen any publicity.
Speaker 2: Speaking of that. The greater appearance in movies Bob's Big
Speaker 2: Boys when Big Boy went to space.
Speaker 3: I have vague memories of this familiar Is it spaceballs?
Speaker 2: No, it's on the ether of your mind, just on.
Speaker 2: I know you remember this visual Big Boy circling.
Speaker 3: The Earth.
Speaker 2: From what is it from or something? Oh good, guess
Speaker 2: you're getting closer on the era. I'll give you a hint,
Speaker 2: just lifting one pink y.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: Yes, Doctor Evil has himself crygetically frozen. He's launched into
Speaker 2: orbit around the Earth, circling the planet in an enormous
Speaker 2: Bob's Big Boy.
Speaker 3: He st I've frustrated a lot of people taking a
Speaker 3: long time.
Speaker 2: That's the fun of the trip. So the CEO of
Speaker 2: Bob's Big Boy at the time was his man named
Speaker 2: Tony Michaels. Now, when the filmmakers approached him about getting
Speaker 2: him to sign off on the use of the Burger's
Speaker 2: chain mascot for the scene in Austin Powers, he had
Speaker 2: some ideas of how the scene could play out. You know. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Michaels came up with the exchange about Doctor Evil. And
Speaker 2: this is the scene decades in the future, right, because
Speaker 2: the Bob's Big Boy is still circling the earth decades
Speaker 2: in the future. Seeing goes some military dudes. He's monitoring
Speaker 2: his radar. He sees something on the screen. He tells
Speaker 2: his commanding officer there's an anomaly. The commander looks and
Speaker 2: he shouts, good God, he's back right, and then what
Speaker 2: he's looking at is Doctor Evil's enormous big Boy statue. Right,
Speaker 2: But the subordinate monitoring the radar, he corrects the officer.
Speaker 2: He's like in many ways, Bob's Big Boy never left sir.
Speaker 2: He's always offered the same I quality meals at competitive prices.
Speaker 3: Is room by the CEO.
Speaker 2: Yeah, classic Austin powers. It helps seal the place of
Speaker 2: the iconic mischievous face Bob's Big Boy statue in American culture.
Speaker 2: But those of us not in Detroit or southern California,
Speaker 2: sudden you're like, I like that, Yeah that real? Is
Speaker 2: that a real thing? They're like, Oh, I got good
Speaker 2: news for you brother. Anyway, at the moment in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four, Bob's Big Boy still around. There are four
Speaker 2: Bob's Big Boys in California left, Okay original there are
Speaker 2: other Big Boys. There are fifty five in Michigan, North Dakota, Ohio,
Speaker 2: and Nevada or Nevada, depending how you like it pronounce.
Speaker 2: They're also franchises, I know, but some people like saying, hey,
Speaker 2: I like having fun with those things.
Speaker 3: Wasn't you know what home means Nevada? Yeah, home means
Speaker 3: the hill.
Speaker 2: Oh the song of the state song?
Speaker 3: Yeah, my cousin, Yeah, it's from Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Speaker 3: And he would sing that song the state song, right,
Speaker 3: but he yeah, he learned it in school, but when
Speaker 3: he would sing it for me, he would sing it Homie.
Speaker 2: Nevada instead of home means Nevada.
Speaker 3: Was the Hills.
Speaker 2: That could Nevada and the Hills exactly. So, uh, there
Speaker 2: are other Big Boys, And I say the reason I
Speaker 2: say that is because they don't have the name Bob
Speaker 2: in front of them. Remember, they have different names because
Speaker 2: when the franchisees get them, Bob didn't require that they
Speaker 2: put Bob in front, just that they kept the big.
Speaker 3: Boys like Marcus's Big Boy.
Speaker 2: It could be it could be Elizabeth Big Boy if
Speaker 2: you wanted. So there are still franchises in Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky.
Speaker 2: There's one in Thailand.
Speaker 3: Do you know if all the California ones are down south?
Speaker 2: Yeah? They are. Yeah, Okay, I'll take you to one.
Speaker 2: We'll go to the one in Burbank. That's the one
Speaker 2: to see. There's also one in Norco.
Speaker 3: I think, still right.
Speaker 2: I think that one has a cowboy boots on.
Speaker 3: The and record little bits from that. I like that,
Speaker 3: and then that way iHeart pays for the whole thing.
Speaker 2: Oh, don't tell them. So you can you guess? Are
Speaker 2: there two hundred and seventy four Big Boys.
Speaker 3: In my pocket? I don't know.
Speaker 2: Japan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I could totally see that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they got really into it. So they there's a
Speaker 2: Big Boy Japan Company Limited. They feature the same chubby
Speaker 2: boy and checkered overalls, the devilish grand calich hair Big Boy. Right, yeah,
Speaker 2: but want to hear something fun? In Japan, you can
Speaker 2: order something called the Big Boy Viking Buffet. Wait, that's
Speaker 2: a that's a combo deal where your meal includes quote
Speaker 2: all you can eat, salad, soup, rice, and curry. I
Speaker 2: don't know where the Viking comes in, but I'm into it.
Speaker 3: Well, the Vikings went all over the place, Oh they.
Speaker 2: Did, I just don't. And the food choice, I don't
Speaker 2: see it. That's my thing, so to go along with
Speaker 2: your Bob's Big Boy. The menu, by the way, is
Speaker 2: also a little different. If you go to a Big
Speaker 2: Boy in Japan, you can order the Big Boy double
Speaker 2: decker hamburger, just like you can hear. You can get
Speaker 2: it with fries, milkshake, or you can also order a
Speaker 2: sid of spaghetti or or pork steak. They have. It's
Speaker 2: a whole entree, I believe, or a whole the choice.
Speaker 2: But enough about food and menya, So but let's get
Speaker 2: into the crome.
Speaker 3: Yes please?
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, actually no, I want to tell you one
Speaker 2: more thing. Sorry, I gotta tell you about this. Did
Speaker 2: you ever been to Yellowstone?
Speaker 3: No, I've always wanted to go, pretending Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: No, no, I know, and people talk to you about
Speaker 2: the Duttons and all that. Right, yes, okay, Well anyway,
Speaker 2: I won't go there, but there's a big Boy statue
Speaker 2: there that I'd like to show you. It's in Yellowstone apparently,
Speaker 2: or just outside of Yellowstone. If you take the entrance
Speaker 2: of the US Highway fourteen sixteen and twenty entrance into
Speaker 2: Yellowstone into the National Park, it's about twenty miles west
Speaker 2: of Cody, and there you can see the WAPPETI Boy,
Speaker 2: which is big Boy. I guess it's a big boy.
Speaker 2: He stands over a bunch of field and they're on
Speaker 2: the distance of the like high plane.
Speaker 3: Cyberglass are made of stone.
Speaker 2: It's not a replica. It's it's some artist version. But
Speaker 2: they took an actual Bob's Big Boy statue and then
Speaker 2: they rescued it. That's what they rescued it. And then
Speaker 2: they put it on and they got the person owns
Speaker 2: the land, so it's not going anywhere, right.
Speaker 3: This is kind of like the San Francisco Doggy Diner. Yes,
Speaker 3: total head head.
Speaker 2: Yes, so the guy's name is James Geyer. I may
Speaker 2: be pronouncing that incorrectly. He's the owner of the what
Speaker 2: Petee Boy Big Boy, And he says in a quote
Speaker 2: big boy restaurants for everywhere. And I always wanted to
Speaker 2: have a big boy and celebrate what's great about the
Speaker 2: big boy. So he got himself with a big.
Speaker 3: Boy celebrating what's good about the big boy. So we
Speaker 3: can we put this on the road trip. You and
Speaker 3: I have done a road trip that was pretty honestly
Speaker 3: we have. Let's do another.
Speaker 2: Think we should plan one for the summer, perhaps.
Speaker 3: A big boy road trip.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So he plants his big boy in his field
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen. We can go see it. It fast becomes
Speaker 2: an audity. Everybody locals like at the tourists love it.
Speaker 2: Then all of a sudden it disappears. In twenty twenty, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: the locals O get worry. What about our big boy?
Speaker 2: What about the peat boy big Boy? Someone starts whispering,
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, it's been stolen. Oh that's the
Speaker 2: talk of the town, probably some punk Canadians. But no
Speaker 2: fear not, Elizabeth, the big Boy was not stolen. And
Speaker 2: turns out it also was not knocked over. It wasn't
Speaker 2: even damage Geyer or Gear. He had taken him down
Speaker 2: to do some maintenance at a fresh code of paint.
Speaker 2: When Big Boy was back standing mischievously over the wyoming fields,
Speaker 2: locals were once again pleased and all was right with
Speaker 2: the Yeah. Yeah, So what if you want your own
Speaker 2: enormous Big Boy statue? You said you want one, right, Sure, Well,
Speaker 2: it turns out back I looked into this right now,
Speaker 2: Big Boy in two thousand filed for bankruptcy the restaurant shame,
Speaker 2: and a lot of restaurants closed, right, So that ended
Speaker 2: up in a lot of restructure lost the Big Boys. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like chapter eleven. So now you can often find them
Speaker 2: for sale from former employees on sites like eBay. Now
Speaker 2: keep in mind we're talking about something that can be
Speaker 2: as big as sixteen feet tall.
Speaker 3: Enormous.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so some of them were like four feet five
Speaker 2: feet tall, but a lot of them are the classic
Speaker 2: ones sixteen feet There's one in Cincinnati at the ballpark.
Speaker 2: Or it was a couple of them dressed as nineteen
Speaker 2: seventies Cincinnati Red ballplayers. Oh, it was like a little
Speaker 2: like running guy, right. Yeah, But most of the ones
Speaker 2: you will find they're just the classic model. Now. For instance,
Speaker 2: there's currently online Bob's Big Boy statue for sale and
Speaker 2: eBay eight thousand dollars. Yeah, I looked the listing, says
Speaker 2: and I quote sales for an authentic vintage Bob's Big
Speaker 2: Boy restaurant advertising statue. This Big Boy was at the
Speaker 2: restaurant located in the city of Thousand Oaks, California, which
Speaker 2: burned in the nineties. I think you means the restaurant
Speaker 2: now that the city city. We acquired it from one
Speaker 2: of the employees and has been in our home since.
Speaker 2: It measures fifty seven inches tall, thirty four inches wide,
Speaker 2: twenty eight inches deep. Normal vintage wear with no major
Speaker 2: damage to the fiberglass comes with the pressed wood pedestal
Speaker 2: shown in the pictures. Pictures show the item on sale.
Speaker 2: Feel free to ask any questions. Expect normal signs of
Speaker 2: wear on all vintage items. Refer to photographs and description
Speaker 2: for item condition. Sale is final.
Speaker 3: So this is getting into like Batman Megafunco territory.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, totally. But also there's like I found out,
Speaker 2: there's apparently East Coast Big Boy and West Coast Big Boy. Yes,
Speaker 2: so there was the traditional version there's the chubby boy
Speaker 2: with the cal lick pompadour hairstyle wearing the red and
Speaker 2: white checkered overalls holding the Big Boy sandwich. But there's
Speaker 2: also the East Coast Big Boy, created by original franchisee
Speaker 2: Dave Frish I mentioned earlier, who started Frish's Big Boy.
Speaker 2: Frish is big why it's a mouthful. His version of
Speaker 2: the mascot a bit thinner. He wore a cap. He
Speaker 2: also had striped overalls instead of checkered, and a pair
Speaker 2: of saddle shoes. He also had red or blonde hair
Speaker 2: dependent instead instead of the dark hair.
Speaker 3: That's the California ones where Chuck's not bally exactly.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 2: West Coast big Boy based on the original Warner Brother
Speaker 2: animators like a sketch. But Bob Weiean grew to dislike
Speaker 2: that original sketch. He thought Big Boy had this look
Speaker 2: of a moron. He said, so in nineteen fifty five
Speaker 2: he asked for a new mascot image to get drawn.
Speaker 2: The new mascot becomes the one that becomes the most
Speaker 2: iconic look that we think of.
Speaker 3: That poor little boy that was the model for it.
Speaker 3: They're like, this one looks like a Moron.
Speaker 2: Exactly like, oh man, it's lifelike, but Moron this kid
Speaker 2: kid So the sixties though, then they go and updated again.
Speaker 2: When the two different looks merge into one all time
Speaker 2: big boy to check it outfit, it becomes Cannon the
Speaker 2: pompadoor Hairdoo. Cannon. Big Boy gets seen sporting a lifted arms,
Speaker 2: offering the world a cheeseburger. Yeah, but in the health
Speaker 2: conscious eighties, Elizabeth Cheeseburger gone, so they get rid of
Speaker 2: the cheeseburger. Now there's a running motif involved, so that's
Speaker 2: what you see. He's yeah, he's a jogger. So with
Speaker 2: all these various styles and restaurants scrapping these big boys,
Speaker 2: what happens is you have this big Boy statue glut
Speaker 2: of different styles and ones that are coveted and not
Speaker 2: so desired. Okaycause also, by the way, a Big Boy
Speaker 2: graveyard there in Michigan. Yeah, so they apparently the Big
Speaker 2: Boy headquarters was in Michigan and Warren, Michigan. So these
Speaker 2: these local cats they'd heard about this rumored big Boy graveyard.
Speaker 2: They trek out to the Upper Peninsula woods. They bring
Speaker 2: a camera with them. They also had an aerial map
Speaker 2: like you would. And they're determined Elizabeth, and they go
Speaker 2: out there and they find it. They find the Big
Speaker 2: Boy Graveyard, and the adventure recalled and I quote it
Speaker 2: was evident upon arrival that this was indeed a graveyard.
Speaker 2: They're on it. This is a graveyard. But in better quotes,
Speaker 2: he did say, and I give you this, it's not
Speaker 2: often you come across a molded, fiberglass version of one
Speaker 2: of your favorite childhood cartoon characters, tipped over in the
Speaker 2: woods with a big hole in the side of his head.
Speaker 2: So there you go. They snapped photos of discovery. They're
Speaker 2: haunted images of Elizabeth. You'd love them.
Speaker 3: Bleak was the little boy who was the model. He
Speaker 3: grew up and then died and they buried him there.
Speaker 2: No, no, it's not that kind of graveyard. It's more
Speaker 2: of like a just toss it over here.
Speaker 3: It's more of a midden, because all the little boys
Speaker 3: who are the live models for the design who died
Speaker 3: over the years in industrial accident.
Speaker 2: A graveyard of broken boys exactly. So. But these cats
Speaker 2: get home, they post these photos online, they do a
Speaker 2: little write up about the Bob's Big Boy Graveyard. One
Speaker 2: week later, they get their first email asking where is
Speaker 2: it right? People are on it right. By the time
Speaker 2: the Explorers go back to the Bob's Big Boy Graveyard,
Speaker 2: statues are gone. They speculated it was cleared out. Someone
Speaker 2: mus have taken them for scrap metal. I'm guessing they're
Speaker 2: and then sold. That's exact anyway, So stolen big boys.
Speaker 2: Back in the seventies, it was very much a teen
Speaker 2: prank to steal a big boy statue and like put
Speaker 2: it on the roof of your high school.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it's ripe for it totally.
Speaker 2: By the end of the decade and the start of
Speaker 2: the reg and eighties, big boys were then often chained
Speaker 2: down or cemented to their pedestals, so they weren't stolen
Speaker 2: for pranks. That stopped would be pranksters, accidental thieves, kids
Speaker 2: who were opportunists looking for a lark. Right. But during
Speaker 2: the eighties, rather than steal a big boy and plant
Speaker 2: them somewhere fun, instead folks started I just outright steal them,
Speaker 2: and so they started stealing them and keeping them for themselves.
Speaker 2: No more putting them on the school. They're justo gone.
Speaker 2: What happened to a big boy? Ain't gonna see him no more.
Speaker 3: He's just in the living room. They caress his cheek
Speaker 3: every night.
Speaker 2: I'm telling well here, for instance.
Speaker 3: Is they're not all sixteen feet tall.
Speaker 2: No summer seven feet six five feet thing. Imagine a
Speaker 2: lot of them as being in the five to seven
Speaker 2: foot range. So one night back in nineteen eighty five
Speaker 2: and a town called Wenatchi in Washington State, a big
Speaker 2: Boy was stolen. A man named Chris Hansen. He tells
Speaker 2: the story of.
Speaker 3: This Chris Hansen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, quote. The town was much smaller than so something
Speaker 2: like the disappearance of the big Boy statue was about
Speaker 2: as scandalous as it got around these parts. One evening,
Speaker 2: my brother said that several of his friends but not him,
Speaker 2: of course, had been downtown partying the weekend and it
Speaker 2: went missing and had decided to big Boy nap it
Speaker 2: from the restaurant. He also claimed that it was definitely
Speaker 2: still in one piece and was now residing as a
Speaker 2: trophy in the wreck room of one of the perpetrators.
Speaker 2: One thing I do know is that the statue was
Speaker 2: never returned.
Speaker 3: Now was this one of them seven foot more fans
Speaker 3: big boys or was it a five footer?
Speaker 2: I'm thinking this is a five footer because these kids
Speaker 2: are picking it up as fiberglass, so it's not super heavy,
Speaker 2: you know. Yeah, yeah, but little big boy napping is
Speaker 2: one thing, right, But things turned uglier in nineteen eighty six, Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: this was this was This is not a crack era crime,
Speaker 2: but it feels like this new story has crackish front,
Speaker 2: crackish right. Dateline, South Burlington, Vermont, May sixth, nineteen eighty six,
Speaker 2: headline statue stolen shot in head the UPI reported and
Speaker 2: I quote, someone stole a life sized Big Boy Status
Speaker 2: you from its display outside a Hamburger restaurant, shot it
Speaker 2: in the head, and dumped it in some nearby woods.
Speaker 2: Police said Tuesday, this Big Boy statue mind You was
Speaker 2: six feet tall. He was also fifty years old. For
Speaker 2: thirty six hours he was missing, cops began their man hunt.
Speaker 2: They scoured the woods. They began to search the rough
Speaker 2: section of town. I don't know if there's a rough
Speaker 2: section of South Burlington, but I'm guessing that, you know.
Speaker 2: They anyway, Yeah, the cops they find the statue in
Speaker 2: the woods with a single gunshot to the head. Big
Speaker 2: Boy's been put down execution style, Elizabeth, like like Ronald
Speaker 2: McDonald called out a hit on his rival.
Speaker 3: It's all like in the drizzling rain totally. The guy's
Speaker 3: like holding the gun and like gives his little soliloquy
Speaker 3: and the statue stands their stone face.
Speaker 2: It's a one tier running down his cheek in the rain,
Speaker 2: distguised in the rain.
Speaker 3: And then like the investigators show and they're like, oh,
Speaker 3: we can tell from the stipling this was a close
Speaker 3: range execute. He didn't suffer.
Speaker 2: And you can see here the car tracks looks like
Speaker 2: someone watched it occur. There's an oil patch that Ronald
Speaker 2: McDonald puts the window back upt We find it size
Speaker 2: eighteen shoe. So anyway, this burger turf war that ends up,
Speaker 2: Captain Ray McGee says he'd been shot in the head,
Speaker 2: right in the ear, so big boy. He gets airlifted
Speaker 2: out of the woods. No, but he wasn't airlift. He
Speaker 2: gets carried out, taken back to the restaurant. He gets
Speaker 2: hosed down, hand washed, bullet hole repaired. Elizabeth meanwhile getting.
Speaker 3: The Gambino crime family will not take down Bob's Big bull.
Speaker 2: Uh No, not as long as they got some fiberglass.
Speaker 3: To feather out Bondo. He fixed that.
Speaker 2: Into eighteen hours. So the South Burlington Police. Mind you,
Speaker 2: they have no suspects from motives in the case. Anyway,
Speaker 2: the story has a happy ending though, the big Boy
Speaker 2: was brought back to Greek customers.
Speaker 3: So I know.
Speaker 2: Right, Let's take a little break, Elizabeth, and after this
Speaker 2: I'll tell you even more grizzly story of a big
Speaker 2: boy kidnap boy. Hey Elizabeth, Hey, we're back. Hey, you
Speaker 2: want to hear some more about big boys? I big
Speaker 2: boy do So this next one takes place in the nineties. Okay,
Speaker 2: you've been a chronological for you the nineties, specifically March
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety five. Okay, dateline Toledo, Ohio headline Police cracked
Speaker 2: the Big Boy Caper.
Speaker 3: Oh a big Boy caper.
Speaker 2: Yeah, six foot tall, three hundred pound big Boy statue
Speaker 2: was missing. It was stolen from a Toledo franchise. Detective
Speaker 2: Ron Scanlon was assigned the case. His job find and
Speaker 2: rescue big Boy, which means, Elizabeth, your job is to
Speaker 2: close your eyes and to picture.
Speaker 3: It as a close.
Speaker 2: It's Friday morning in Toledo, Ohio. You are the manager
Speaker 2: for one of the ten big Boys in the city
Speaker 2: of t Only this morning you wish you weren't because
Speaker 2: this morning, you arrived at the restaurant to open up
Speaker 2: for the day, and you discover tragedy. Your big boy
Speaker 2: is missing. How could that be? You had the feet
Speaker 2: of the Big Boy statue encased in cement to prevent
Speaker 2: exactly the sort of Big Boy napping. You're a good manager, Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: But now you look at where your big boy once stood,
Speaker 2: and all that's left is his pair of shiny black shoes.
Speaker 2: That's right, the thieves left behind Big Boy's feet. You
Speaker 2: gasp in horror at the side of Big Boy's shiny
Speaker 2: black shoes and chopped off feet. The restaurant had been
Speaker 2: closed for remodeling. You thought he would be safe. As
Speaker 2: the morning birds whistle and call, you stroll the outside
Speaker 2: of the restaurant looking for any clues. You spy your
Speaker 2: first indicator of a crime. It's Big boys severed head.
Speaker 2: You called nine to one one. You tell the operator
Speaker 2: what you found. You're starting to break up, you say,
Speaker 2: almost stream up conscious. I couldn't believe that someone would
Speaker 2: would do that to Him's friendly Holy smially.
Speaker 3: Ready to greet our customers.
Speaker 2: I mean, what kind of person would do this to him?
Speaker 2: The sight of Big Boy's severed head has done you
Speaker 2: no good. The nine one one operator tries to calm
Speaker 2: you down, to get you to answer her questions. But
Speaker 2: you're just too keyed up, you say, as if to yourself.
Speaker 2: Nine times out of ten, if the big Boy is missing,
Speaker 2: he's usually down at the University of Toledo during Fred's season.
Speaker 2: They do this as a prank. The nine to one
Speaker 2: operator says, okay, okay, do you think it was the
Speaker 2: fraternities this time, ma'am? If so, is there a fraternity
Speaker 2: you suspect might have you interrupt the nine one one
Speaker 2: operator not not this time, because I just found his head.
Speaker 2: Oh no, The nine to one operator says, real emotion
Speaker 2: colors her voice. Police arrive on the scene, Elizabeth. A
Speaker 2: pair of patrol cars roll up. They silence their sirens
Speaker 2: when they see you. They park. You've had time to
Speaker 2: walk the parking lot. You show the responding officers what
Speaker 2: all you found. You show them the severed head. You
Speaker 2: take them over to where you also found the arms.
Speaker 2: You also found a note. It's like a ransom note.
Speaker 2: The letters are cut out from magazines and glued to
Speaker 2: the paper. You hand the ransom style note to the police.
Speaker 2: One of the officers reads it aloud, big boy is dead.
Speaker 2: You hand him the other note you found. He reads
Speaker 2: that one aloud too, big boy is almost dead. Never
Speaker 2: mind now he's dead. Huh tape to the big boys.
Speaker 2: But is another note. The cop reads that one aloud
Speaker 2: as well. Strip steak two twenty nine a pound. Sergeant
Speaker 2: Richard Murphy chuckles to himself. You shoot him a dirty look,
Speaker 2: He apologizes with just his eyes they soft, and he says, well,
Speaker 2: at least they had a sense of humor. Now, naturally,
Speaker 2: you don't find your dead dismembered big boy to be
Speaker 2: so funny. No one of the notes identifies the thieves.
Speaker 2: The cop reads it aloud, the pimps of pimpliness. Hm,
Speaker 2: you roll your eyes. Sergeant Murphy turns and asks, are
Speaker 2: you familiar with these pop so Elizabeth. Later on, before
Speaker 2: the press gathers to cover this local news story, which
Speaker 2: they do this, these quotes are all from the local news,
Speaker 2: Sergeant Murphy he does a quick five like basically a
Speaker 2: comedy set for the reporter. Sergean Murphy. He's on a roll, right,
Speaker 2: so he tells the press this is a sad, sad
Speaker 2: day for the city when somebody would desecrate a hagloaed
Speaker 2: symbol of the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties. He then
Speaker 2: furrowed his brow for effect like he's just like so tough,
Speaker 2: like you know, like one of those Brolind boys might
Speaker 2: do it. And then then he grinned to let the
Speaker 2: reporters in on his joke before he said, it's really
Speaker 2: hard to keep a straight face when you talk about it.
Speaker 2: We've been trying to put him up together again, like
Speaker 2: humpty dumpty. I think he looks pretty good for a
Speaker 2: guy who's been cut up. So yeah, this stolen's Big
Speaker 2: Boy statue was valued at three three hundred dollars, which
Speaker 2: means these purps could have been charged with grand theft.
Speaker 2: That's a felony punishable by two years in jail. However,
Speaker 2: days later, the adolescent thieves were found caught, unmasked, the
Speaker 2: pimps of Pimplinis were collared. Elizabeth and Detective Scanlon informed
Speaker 2: the press that the young thieves never intended to arm
Speaker 2: the Big Boy. Things just spun out of control. Yes,
Speaker 2: and I quote from him, it was just gonna be
Speaker 2: a plan to take the big Boy and move him,
Speaker 2: Detective scandal And told the press, And but things got
Speaker 2: out of hand. They took the head and cut it off,
Speaker 2: and then the arms, and then the legs. The initial
Speaker 2: prank became malicious. So in the end, Elizabeth, each of
Speaker 2: the unidentified underage suspects they were possibly going to be
Speaker 2: charged with a third degree misdemeanor and punishable by sixty
Speaker 2: days in jail. But I'm betting the judge did not
Speaker 2: throw the book at them and chalked it up to
Speaker 2: a mostly harmless prank. Cut to one year later, May ninth,
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety six, dateline, Tucson, Arizona, headline Dismembered big Boy
Speaker 2: Bob found an abandoned motel. Oh god, he started to
Speaker 2: get darker and darker right now, Big Boy's body is
Speaker 2: found in an abandoned hotel. Like he's Bob Crane, right,
Speaker 2: So what does that mean for this story? Well, the
Speaker 2: story this, I gotta give it up to the writer
Speaker 2: on this one. The second sentence of this story is
Speaker 2: quote the east Side Big Boy Restaurant's Big Bob isn't
Speaker 2: so big anymore after kidnappers literally cut off the grinning
Speaker 2: figure at the knees. Oh God, just comes in hard hitting.
Speaker 2: This is like yellow journalism, right, it's like, you know,
Speaker 2: like a Gangbuster's era.
Speaker 3: Well, imagine if like you're reading these headlines and you're
Speaker 3: not familiar with the restaurant exactly.
Speaker 2: That's what I love about it, Like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: the grinning figure at the knees he got cut off. Honey,
Speaker 2: I will have some eggs. Yes, So the Big Boy
Speaker 2: restaurant manager discovers that her spots Big Boy had been gaffled,
Speaker 2: and since the statues are largely chained or cemented to
Speaker 2: a pedestal, the thief or the thieves in this case
Speaker 2: had to saw the Big Boy free of the foundation. Later,
Speaker 2: when local radio stations reported on the Big Boy napping,
Speaker 2: a loyal customer went out looking for the missing mascots.
Speaker 2: They found of Elizabeth good News add an abandoned motel,
Speaker 2: oh god, or rather what was left?
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh, the customer discovered and I quote found poor Bob's
Speaker 2: legs from the knees down and maybe an arm and
Speaker 2: a parking lot at a boarded up abandoned motel in
Speaker 2: a park story and they quote police were still looking
Speaker 2: for the rest of the victim one hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: to two hundred and twenty pounds before Micah formerly five
Speaker 2: feet tall with huge eyes and big brown wavy hair,
Speaker 2: red and white checkered pants, black shoes, and a white
Speaker 2: big Boy T shirt. So the general manager's name was
Speaker 2: Omar Corey, and he'd been worried after he'd heard about
Speaker 2: the Big Boy napping Elizabeth and because he'd also knew
Speaker 2: about the dismemberment that went down in Toledo the year before.
Speaker 3: Sure that gets through the Big Boy grape vine?
Speaker 2: Are you kidding me? Active grapevine? Corey told a reporter,
Speaker 2: I hope that doesn't happen to this guy, but it
Speaker 2: comes back in one piece. I bet the we'll not
Speaker 2: press charges, right, So he was trying to let him know,
Speaker 2: just give me back my big vie. Yeah, Yeah, Fortunately
Speaker 2: that did not happen, Elizabeth. Yeah, he was one of
Speaker 2: a matching set of two Bobs. The stolen and dismembered
Speaker 2: Bob was quote one of two identical running bob's Bob's
Speaker 2: who look as if they're running away. The other is
Speaker 2: the burger serving bob holding up a gigantic yeah. So
Speaker 2: Corey added that Bob's twin is wondering where the other
Speaker 2: guy went. Sad to break up a couple like that,
Speaker 2: you know. But Elizabeth, guess who has a new nickname.
Speaker 2: That's right, me Burger Serving Bob. Please use that in
Speaker 2: all public settings. So as it turns out, this latest
Speaker 2: theft was not the franchise's first stolen Bob.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: Three years earlier, Elizabeth, my man Burger Serving Bob was stolen. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he was found alone in the desert, the running Bob,
Speaker 2: one of the pair. He was stolen and dismembered. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he'd previously been stolen two years earlier. He was found
Speaker 2: in someone's backyard. Yeah. So omar Corey. He gets why
Speaker 2: the cops like to write up their silly little police
Speaker 2: reports about a stolen big boy, and that radio stations
Speaker 2: like to get off their jokes too. But to the
Speaker 2: people who love the missing Bob, to the people like
Speaker 2: Corey who have to worry late, stay up night warning
Speaker 2: if their Bob will make it through the night, it's
Speaker 2: not funny and I quote, it's like losing a member
Speaker 2: of the family. Yeah. Speaking of radio, Elizabeth, you ever
Speaker 2: heard of their old radio morning show, Mark and Bryan
Speaker 2: sound vaguely familiar on the edges there. Yeah, they were
Speaker 2: big in the nineties and the early odts. They had
Speaker 2: a syndicated morning show, usually on like a like a
Speaker 2: classic radio stations. Back when I was a painter and
Speaker 2: i'd be stuck in LA traffic, I listened to them
Speaker 2: sometimes regrettably. Anyway, I know who they are, and they
Speaker 2: used to have their own stolen Big Boy. It was
Speaker 2: a legend that they stole from a local restaurant, I
Speaker 2: don't know which one, and then they would have fun
Speaker 2: with it doing the most like outlandish like morning show
Speaker 2: kind of guys things like Brian said, and I quote,
Speaker 2: over the last six years, he's gone skydiving, bungee cord,
Speaker 2: jumping down the White rapids. We even took him to
Speaker 2: Vegas and slung shot him across the fountain. Evil Canievel jumped.
Speaker 3: Like this is radio though when.
Speaker 2: They described it very well, forty feet above and now
Speaker 2: he's coming down me. They did it for.
Speaker 3: Radio, Big Boy. They just have you know, sound effects.
Speaker 3: I think Whitewater raft totally.
Speaker 2: It's like some like NPR Saturday shows, just like they're
Speaker 2: just making stuff up. Anyway, it is full of this action.
Speaker 2: Bob doesn't exist so anyway. Turn of the century, in
Speaker 2: two thousand, things turned even more comical and more dire
Speaker 2: for the Big Boys around the nation. Boy Hell Times
Speaker 2: published the story examining the trend of big Boy thefts
Speaker 2: and other statuary based crimes, but not only around the nation,
Speaker 2: around the world. Elizabeth, because apparently it was a thing.
Speaker 2: I didn't know this, but dateline January thirty, first, two thousand,
Speaker 2: headline Stolen Moments with Bob's Big Boy and the Garden Nomes.
Speaker 3: Of France Stolen Moments.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, it sounds so dirty, sounds like like
Speaker 2: a Harlequin novel that you could go anyway. The news
Speaker 2: story opened with tales of quote, a growing plague of
Speaker 2: innocent statues being kidnapped and even dismembered by ruthless criminals.
Speaker 2: The source for this claim was Garden Design Magazine, the
Speaker 2: periodical I had written.
Speaker 3: About next quotative journalism, the.
Speaker 2: Front Deliberation than a the Jadin or Deliberation Front for
Speaker 2: garden homes.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: A group that steals lawn statues, takes them to a
Speaker 2: secret camp for liberation rituals and repainting, then leaves them
Speaker 2: in odd locales, squatting on cliffs, crouching along highways, or
Speaker 2: floating aboard rafts on lakes.
Speaker 3: Liberation ritual Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: The leader of the Liberation Front said, and I quote,
Speaker 2: we off fight thing against bad taste as ibadi by
Speaker 2: the ze garden gnome of the proletariat household.
Speaker 3: Oh my god. Yes.
Speaker 2: So in Germany similar provocateurs, but not only steal the
Speaker 2: lawn gnomes, but they would take them on vacations, pose
Speaker 2: them for photos, and then they send the photos to
Speaker 2: the owners of their stolen nomes living a better life
Speaker 2: than them and some neighbors back in Boden. Boden it
Speaker 2: gets a photo over a gardenome enjoying himself at taj
Speaker 2: Bahology's like a So now that's all fun, right, But
Speaker 2: meanwhile the La Times story covered the American version of this. Right,
Speaker 2: the paper focused on Tucson, which where you just were there.
Speaker 2: It is a rash of big boy thefts and dismemberments, apparently,
Speaker 2: But instead the t Times they decided to focus on
Speaker 2: a rival Burger Channelizabeth the story of a Ronald McDonald's
Speaker 2: statue that quote flaming red hair, bright yellow jumpsuit, striped socks,
Speaker 2: and red clown shoes. Last spotted joy riding on East
Speaker 2: Broadway in the back of a silver blue CJ seven jeep. Oh, Wowlizabeth,
Speaker 2: there's a.
Speaker 3: Lot of fast food rivalry in Tucson. That's home of
Speaker 3: the Sonora exactly.
Speaker 2: That's why I called your attention. It's the food rivalry
Speaker 2: home of the Southwest. But that wasn't all, Elizabeth, because
Speaker 2: this paper also ran a litany of recent statue nappings
Speaker 2: in this ongoing turf war. And I quote Tony the
Speaker 2: Wonder Horse, who disappeared from a monument to actor Tom Mix.
Speaker 2: A second Wonder Horse was kidnapped a few years later,
Speaker 2: also never to be seen again. A pair of wooden
Speaker 2: lions stolen from the sanctuary at Missioning Sand Xavier. Several
Speaker 2: cast aluminum fish abducted from a sculpture at the University
Speaker 2: of Arizona. A carved wooden bear chopped off at its
Speaker 2: feet and swiped from a business. A Bob's Big Boy
Speaker 2: mascot taken from the front of a restaurant and recovered
Speaker 2: in pieces days later. That's by you, and giant statues
Speaker 2: of Winnie the Pooh and er speared it away from
Speaker 2: a Christmas display. Oh man, I'm telling you. But that
Speaker 2: was not all, because they also cited the theft of
Speaker 2: a quote four foot tall Pillsbury dough boy, a seven
Speaker 2: hundred pound captain with a parrot on his shoulder, assorted
Speaker 2: religious statues, and a two hundred and fifty pound fiberglass
Speaker 2: dolphin that once stood at Marine Land. What's going on?
Speaker 2: In two something happens? Those statues are safe. So my
Speaker 2: favorite part in this news story is.
Speaker 3: Right now, like the idolatry of it all.
Speaker 2: They pathologize the crimes and they ask for an opinion
Speaker 2: of a psychiatrist. What is driving this craze? Enter doctor
Speaker 2: Sigmoid Flexure.
Speaker 3: Wait, Sigmoid Sigmoid not Sigmund Sigmoid Flexure, noted as the
Speaker 3: author of quote men who love statues and the statues
Speaker 3: who are indifferent toward.
Speaker 2: Them, Doctor Sigmoid Flexure, which almost absolutely has to be
Speaker 2: a made up name because when you look him up
Speaker 2: or his book, the only result is this one La
Speaker 2: Times news story. So I'm thinking somebody got a over
Speaker 2: on the Times reporter in Tucsons.
Speaker 3: Yes, or let's bust him for making.
Speaker 2: Hey, I ain't going to do that to him, but hey,
Speaker 2: they told the paper that statue thieves were driven by
Speaker 2: their psychology, their past traumas, and that by stealing a
Speaker 2: big boy or your own, Ronnie McDonald. They were attempting
Speaker 2: to fix a wound in the past, as doctor Sigmoid
Speaker 2: Fletcher put it, and I quote Elizabeth most had cold
Speaker 2: and distant parents and are trying to recreate that relationship
Speaker 2: with a statue. And he concluded that this is really
Speaker 2: a cry for love.
Speaker 3: Now, I wrote for a daily paper needing for a question.
Speaker 3: I had to do stuff like when you do like
Speaker 3: a little feature like that and it's a dumb thing
Speaker 3: and you got to call people and.
Speaker 2: Ask for yeah, and you couldn't get one.
Speaker 3: I had to do a New Year's Eve thing about
Speaker 3: like hangover cures. I'm calling bars.
Speaker 2: And they were just playing along.
Speaker 3: Yeah, or they were just being so creepy and make up.
Speaker 2: A bar owner. Huh, you make up a battle.
Speaker 3: But I mean you get you get tempted.
Speaker 2: You can see why somebody might come up with doctor
Speaker 2: Boid Flexure.
Speaker 3: And make up that book.
Speaker 2: The book is the giveaway, right that title has got
Speaker 2: to be fair men who love statues and the statues
Speaker 2: who are indifferent toward them. How many people need that book,
Speaker 2: Doctor Sigmoid Flexuer, come anyway, Well, it really isn't this.
Speaker 2: I swear to God it's in the story. But Elizabeth,
Speaker 2: would you ever steal a statue as a desperate cry
Speaker 2: for love?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: Well, if so, what statue would you cry?
Speaker 3: If I had to steal a statue, like, I.
Speaker 2: Would probably steal one of them, babe, the big Blue
Speaker 2: Ox statues like I don't need to.
Speaker 3: Go Dinosaur in Dixon, California.
Speaker 2: Yes, on the side Milk Farm Road there. Yeah, just
Speaker 2: a little past that.
Speaker 3: Yes, i'd steal that. I don't want I mean it
Speaker 3: would upset people. I wouldn't want to steal a statue
Speaker 3: that would like really hurt people's feelings.
Speaker 2: No, No, we're just wipe swiping something.
Speaker 3: Maybe I wouldn't do that because I'd be upset if
Speaker 3: someone stole that.
Speaker 2: Well, just to close this out, Elizabeth.
Speaker 3: I think it's gone already.
Speaker 2: No, I think it's that they moved it back. I
Speaker 2: think it's still there. So we've covered statue theftist comedy, Yeah,
Speaker 2: statue theftist tragedy, yeah, and statue theftist psychological compulsion must
Speaker 2: cover statue theftist marketing stunt.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty, stealing a big Boy statue became a
Speaker 2: great way to drive some engagement and get some eyes
Speaker 2: on your new product line dateline June thirtieth, twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: headline who stole Norco Bob's Big Boy Statue? So after
Speaker 2: Noorko raise.
Speaker 3: Up Norco California.
Speaker 2: After one of the last remaining original Bob's Big Boys disappeared,
Speaker 2: locals were concerned. Elizabeth. The statue, which adorned the Norco
Speaker 2: franchise was iconic. Yeah, I mentioned it before, right in
Speaker 2: social media, people, they lit up all these stories of
Speaker 2: the stolen Big Boy. Everybody's worry, Where's Big Boy? What
Speaker 2: up to Big Boy? Who took Big Boy? Do you
Speaker 2: have Big Boy? Anyway? Soon enough, footage of the thieves
Speaker 2: making off with Big Boy surfaces. It's uploaded online. Everybody's like, oh,
Speaker 2: they got Big Boy? Who are they? Surveillance camera footage
Speaker 2: records four men working in a coordinated effort to disconnect
Speaker 2: and lift the two thousand pound Big Boy. This is
Speaker 2: one of them, like long daddy big Boys, real big
Speaker 2: big Boys?
Speaker 3: Was it members of the Burdeaux Hell's Angels?
Speaker 2: Good guess No, they would not deign to be involved
Speaker 2: in this crime. The thieves loaded the statue into pickup
Speaker 2: truck and they drove off The Big Boys later discovered
Speaker 2: unharmed in a field. Yes, it was safe. The thieves
Speaker 2: then came forward. They posted on their Facebook page and
Speaker 2: I quote, Okay, we're busted. Yeah it's true. We were
Speaker 2: in Cahusa Bob's Big Boy Norco to borrow one of
Speaker 2: their iconic Big Boys statues. We hold a centement, place
Speaker 2: our arms for a big Boy. We will be returning
Speaker 2: Big Boy to the Norco location later this evening, along
Speaker 2: with a monetary donation to help them feed frontline heroes
Speaker 2: within their community. Thanks big Boy, what a blast. Support
Speaker 2: your local big Boy, and if you steal one, treat
Speaker 2: it with the respect it's earned over all these years.
Speaker 2: As kids, we crave their burgers, and as adolescents we
Speaker 2: stole their statue. So how better to demonstrate the two
Speaker 2: thousand pound payload of our decked truckbed drawer system. Then
Speaker 2: with a real live Big Boy himself, we apologize for
Speaker 2: anie stress this may have caused. You see your local
Speaker 2: big boy hashtag who stole Big Boy marketing? Yes, for
Speaker 2: a two thousand pound payload of the deck truckbed drawer system,
Speaker 2: You're welcome decked. Oh my god, there you gobeth. One
Speaker 2: long strange ride stolen Big Boys. What pray tells our
Speaker 2: ridiculous takeaway here?
Speaker 3: I would say for to say, if I ever have
Speaker 3: a Big Boy franchise, let's just say.
Speaker 2: When, yeah, when, Let's be positive, I would.
Speaker 3: The statue, right, I would have a skeletal system of
Speaker 3: fiberglass installed inside and then have it just filled with
Speaker 3: red jello. And then when someone goes to cut it,
Speaker 3: then all the jello spills out and they see the balls,
Speaker 3: and they just lose it and we killed the Oh
Speaker 3: my god, he was a real boy.
Speaker 2: Big Boy came to life and we killed to see.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think that's the only answer here. That
Speaker 3: is the one way to address this.
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Pinocchio, big Boy.
Speaker 3: Saren, Yes, what's your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 2: Let's say that again one more time? I missed that.
Speaker 2: Could you say it one more time? My good ear,
Speaker 2: Hello Elizabeth, thank you for asking my ridiculous takeaway? Is
Speaker 2: big Boy? Right?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Come on, it's big Boy.
Speaker 2: I mean he's a big boy right right there, big Boy. No,
Speaker 2: In all honesty, I love the big Boys, and like,
Speaker 2: all I want to do now is to go down
Speaker 2: and take you to the Bob's Big Boy in Burbank.
Speaker 2: On riverside so you can get the full experience. Sit
Speaker 2: there in the Beatles booth and just get ridiculous with it. Yes, hey,
Speaker 2: you in the mood for a talkback?
Speaker 3: I have always in the mood for talkback.
Speaker 2: One of them up, producer, Dave, you got one?
Speaker 4: Oh oh my god?
Speaker 2: Did you just see that?
Speaker 3: I went cheat.
Speaker 6: From one former petty Criminal to another. I thought you
Speaker 6: were dead. Then I heard you were hosting this podcast,
Speaker 6: which I have to say isn't exactly a good way
Speaker 6: to lay low after that nasty business in Libya. Anyway,
Speaker 6: kiss Elizabeth for me. I gotta go just playing. Ain't
Speaker 6: going jacke itself?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Is that DV Cooper.
Speaker 2: That's the best ever. You just made all my dreams
Speaker 2: come true. It's all time Petty Criminal told me I
Speaker 2: thought you were dead. Thank you, brother, I appreciate you.
Speaker 2: You the rudest or rude dudes. I did not kiss
Speaker 2: Elizabeth because I'm not gonna interrupt her space in her
Speaker 2: personal boundaries like that just for a bit. But other
Speaker 2: than that, thank you, well, that was great. As always,
Speaker 2: you can find us online Ridiculous Crime, Twitter, Instagrams and
Speaker 2: so forth and so on. We have a website that
Speaker 2: we do like Ridiculous Crime dot com and we love
Speaker 2: your talkback, so please go down load the iHeart app
Speaker 2: and hit us up there. Email us if you like
Speaker 2: a Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. Always right, Dan,
Speaker 2: Dear Elizabeth. Once again, we'll catch you next crime. Thanks
Speaker 2: for listening. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and
Speaker 2: Zarahn Burnett, produced and edited by Bob's Biggest Happiest Boy
Speaker 2: Dave Kustin. Research is by Viking Buffet of Fishonado's Marissa
Speaker 2: Brown and Andrea Song Sharpen Tear. Our theme song is
Speaker 2: by Thomas Bob's Fish Taco Boy, Lee and Travis I
Speaker 2: prefer Nations, Giants, Burger of East Bay Loyal Dotty. The
Speaker 2: host wardrobe provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair and
Speaker 2: makeup by Sparkleshot at Mister Andre. Executive producers are Ben
Speaker 2: Japan Has the Best Big Boys Bowlin' and original Flavor
Speaker 2: Bob's Big Boy Diehard.
Speaker 4: No Brown, Ridicous Crime, Say It one More Time, Giquous Crime.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts
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