Gearhead Curios along Route 66 in Galena, Kansas, has a new addition — a modified Big Boy statue from a Big Boy Restaurant.
Instead of the Big Boy carrying a hamburger, he’s hoisting four tires. That seems to be an appropriate modification for a site that once was a Texaco station.
Gearhead Curios owner Aaron Perry said he acquired his Big Boy — now called Texaco Big Boy — from Canton, Texas.
“The tires he is holding were on my ’58 Ford that I was driving the day I found this Texaco for sale. The burger is inside the tires,” Perry wrote in an email.
Perry bought the 1939 gas station in fall 2018 so he could sell his “gearhead” artwork (hence the name) and Route 66 souvenirs.
“I found him online and swooped him up,” he said about his new acquisition. “A high school buddy that now lives in Paris TX picked him up for me and I then picked him up from my friend.
“I have always wanted a Big Boy and it seems fitting to have a ‘Texaco’ Big Boy.”
Perry said he wasn’t sure from where his Big Boy originated or how old it is.
The history of the Big Boy and the restaurants go back to the 1930s:
In 1936, Bob Wian sold his prized DeSoto Roadster to purchase a hamburger stand in Glendale, California. He named it Bob’s Pantry. Six months later, Bob sliced a bun into three slices, added two hamburger patties and, voilà, the very first double-decker burger was born!
Customers couldn’t get enough of Bob’s new creation. One fan, in particular, a chubby six-year-old boy named Richard Woodruff, loved the double-decker. His devotion inspired Bob to name the new burger Big Boy after his nickname for Richard.
The Big Boy burger craze that ensued prompted Bob to change the stand’s name to Bob’s Big Boy and to introduce the now-iconic Big Boy mascot.
There still are 74 Big Boy restaurants in the United States. No Big Boys exist on Route 66, though several operate in the Los Angeles metro area.
(Image of the Texaco Big Boy at Gearhead Curios in Galena, Kansas, courtesy of Aaron Perry)