See original audio slideshow on Shoney's memorial
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A ceremony Sunday in honor of the Shoney's restaurant chain will apparently go on without Big Boy, after an attorney for Big Boy Restaurants International heard about the memorial online.
Right now, the familiar Big Boy restaurant icon hoists a double cheeseburger atop a 14-foot red pole along Kanawha Boulevard near Patrick Street, part of a memorial conceived by Emily Schoenbaum, daughter of Shoney's founder Alex Schoenbaum.
The site marks the spot of the original Parkette restaurant, started by her father in 1947, that later merged into a restaurant chain that grew into more than 1,000 locations nationwide.
But in 1976, Shoney's split from the Big Boy organization, so use of the Big Boy icon is trademark infringement, said Jennifer Bourgoin, vice president and general counsel for Big Boy Restaurants International in Warren, Mich.
"We do not want the 'Boy' on the 14-foot pillar," she said. "As an owner of a trademark, we have a duty to make sure the marks are used in authorized or trademarked ways and as the owner of the mark we have the sole authority to determine how the marks are used."
Last week, after finding an online Charleston Gazette story and audio slideshow about the memorial, Bourgoin sent a letter that reached Emily Schoenbaum and memorial project manager Naomi Bays. It asked that they desist from using any contemporary Big Boy imagery.
Bourgoin said she's had one conversation with Emily Schoenbaum and was to speak with her again early this week. Schoenbaum could not be reached for comment Monday.
In their initial talk, Bourgoin said, she learned some people have seen the memorial statue from afar and driven up to it, expecting a Big Boy restaurant: "We cannot have the public misunderstanding the relationship and believing they are affiliated in any way," she said.
"While we recognize there is some history that goes back to the original Shoney's, as you know Big Boy and Shoney's are no longer affiliated."
See original audio slideshow on Shoney's memorial
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A ceremony Sunday in honor of the Shoney's restaurant chain will apparently go on without Big Boy, after an attorney for Big Boy Restaurants International heard about the memorial online.
Right now, the familiar Big Boy restaurant icon hoists a double cheeseburger atop a 14-foot red pole along Kanawha Boulevard near Patrick Street, part of a memorial conceived by Emily Schoenbaum, daughter of Shoney's founder Alex Schoenbaum.
The site marks the spot of the original Parkette restaurant, started by her father in 1947, that later merged into a restaurant chain that grew into more than 1,000 locations nationwide.
But in 1976, Shoney's split from the Big Boy organization, so use of the Big Boy icon is trademark infringement, said Jennifer Bourgoin, vice president and general counsel for Big Boy Restaurants International in Warren, Mich.
"We do not want the 'Boy' on the 14-foot pillar," she said. "As an owner of a trademark, we have a duty to make sure the marks are used in authorized or trademarked ways and as the owner of the mark we have the sole authority to determine how the marks are used."
Last week, after finding an online Charleston Gazette story and audio slideshow about the memorial, Bourgoin sent a letter that reached Emily Schoenbaum and memorial project manager Naomi Bays. It asked that they desist from using any contemporary Big Boy imagery.
Bourgoin said she's had one conversation with Emily Schoenbaum and was to speak with her again early this week. Schoenbaum could not be reached for comment Monday.
In their initial talk, Bourgoin said, she learned some people have seen the memorial statue from afar and driven up to it, expecting a Big Boy restaurant: "We cannot have the public misunderstanding the relationship and believing they are affiliated in any way," she said.
"While we recognize there is some history that goes back to the original Shoney's, as you know Big Boy and Shoney's are no longer affiliated."
Meanwhile, Bays has adapted the memorial ceremony. As of Monday, she had not learned when the Big Boy on the pole might be coming back to earth. But plans that called for serving 1,000 free Big Boy hamburgers at Sunday's ceremony have been modified, she said.
"We're going to have 1,000 burgers 'from that era.' I can't legally call them 'Big Boys,'" she said.
The original Gazette story included a call to the public to donate memorabilia from the Parkette and Shoney's early years, including the Big Boy character, in his signature red-and-white-checkered overalls.
"We're allowed to have Big Boy trademarked memorabilia. Shoney's will have had that trademark association at that time," Bays said.
"In general, people are going to come and get free food and at about 4 p.m. we're gong to dedicate the memorial. I believe the mayor is going to be there and a representative of the governor. Bob Webb has plans to do an oral history and people can take away a CD that day."
Bays has been gathering memorabilia such as trays, photos, menus and the like, some of which will be placed in glass cases at the memorial's base. She is also looking for people with stories from their days of hanging out at the Parkette, a popular spot in its heyday.
The memorial, even without a great Big Boy in the sky, pays homage to a restaurant empire with humble origins in a single spot in Charleston.
"Basically, everything is set in place," Bays said. "The only thing I have to do is order Coke."
Reach Douglas Imbrogno at doug...@cnpapers.com or 304-348-3017.
Post a comment
I am writing to you pursuant to request by your restaurant chain for the removal of memorial statue of the Shoney’s “Big Boy” restaurant located in Charleston, West Virginia. The memorial is erected at the historical landmark of a beginning site for The Parkette restaurant started by Alex Schoenbaum in 1947, which later merged into the Shoney’s Big Boy chain of restaurants. The business separation of Shoney’s and the Big Boy™ franchise occurred in 1976.
There is not a dispute regarding the business separation, however the site memorial was erected, and is intended as a historical tribute only, and there is no intent to compete or operate any form of restaurant, and or other business to cause harm or financial hardship for Big Boy Restaurants International.
Keeping that in mind, and in that context, it would not be publically beneficial to demand business remediation through exercising the legal remedies as you have stated. To needlessly create ill will in the Charleston, West Virgi
Perhaps the best thing Ms. Schoenbaum can do is to comply with the wishes of Big Boy International, then go one step further and give the Big Boy figure a proper, on-site burial complete with memorial service, tombstone, and wake at which free hamburgers will be served. The epitaph could read, "Here lies Big Boy whose image must be concealed from public view. Big Boy's past contributions to our fond memories of this location, however, shall remain with us always."
Problem solved :)