Shoneys Showdown

[CoolBreeze]

For the last several months, the daughter of Shoneys founder Alex Schoenbaum has been building a small monument to her fathers business, Shoneys, on the site of the very first Shoneys restaurant here in Charleston on Patrick Street.

The monument is a miniature of that first round restaurant, with the "Big Boy" on top. There is going to be a dedication ceremony Sunday Oct 4th, including the giveaway of 1000 "Big Boy like" hambugers.



ONLY ONE PROBLEM:

Legal issues remains over whether the memorial can include a Big Boy statue atop the 14-foot-tall structure.

Shoney's split from Big Boy restaurants in 1976. Starting then, it lost the legal right to use the trademarked "Big Boy" figure, an attorney for Big Boy International in a letter sent last week.

The attorney, Jennifer Bourdain, said she spoke with Schoenbaum for a second time Tuesday, reiterating Big Boy International's stance.

"We requested that the Big Boy come down right away," Bourdain said yesterday from the company's headquarters in Warren, Mich. "Whether or not Ms. Schoenbaum does or not, I don't know. Those were the instructions she was given."

More....

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200909290628

[The Interpreter]

Don't miss the slideshow:

http://media.cnpapers.com/shoneys/

She says she ordered 1000 "Big Boy Hamburgers." Oh, really. From where? The nearest Frisch's is in the Cinci area. Does she not understand Shoney's is NOT Big Boy?

[Big Media]

If I were Big Boy, I wouldn't want any association with Shoney's either. Shoney's has become a dump of a chain. Most all of the Shoney's I've been inside in the past 10-15 years were filthy, flies were all over the food in the buffet, and every waitress in the place looked like she was addicted to meth... and don't get me started on the quality of the food. The once exception is the Shoney's in Teays Valley, which is very clean but the food still blows.

I am honestly surprised this chain didn't go belly-up years ago.

[Hoosier Daddy]

Am I the only one who thinks this "monument" is ugly and out of place?

Me thinks Jerry should get busy with his Photoshop pimp hand and replace "Big Boy" with "Crystal Meth Crack Whore Waitress". Maybe some flies around the food being served to add some ambience and realism.

[CoolBreeze]

I spent a lot of time at Shoneys, from the mid 50s onwards. I worked for Alex for a time. I saw the downfall start when Alex sold the chain to a company in Tennessee. It practically nosedived overnight. But the problem was that little if any customers complained (except me of course). I'd be behind several customers at the cashier and she'd ask them all the same thing: "Was everything alright?" Not ONE of them ever complained. NOT ONE. But I did! From the very start I told them that the food or the service wasn't up to Shoneys standards. But one person doesn't change a damned thing, so the downfall continued until they finally went bankrupt and had to re-group.

West Virginians for some reason would rather LEAVE a business than tell them that they have a problem. If you really like a place and you notice a problem, it's your duty to tell them. Otherwise they'll continue down a path that may not be reversible. As passionate West Virginians are for most things, they simply cant bring themselves to complain in restaurants. They feel that's for New Yorkers. I don't know about other states, but here that's been a fact, at least in the past. So the Shoneys you see today is the Shoneys they (the home office) think is doing OK. Another issue is that older people are set in their ways, and will continue going to the same place no matter HOW bad it gets. I know a couple that you could set your watch by: 5 O'clock?....they're in Shoneys. They even told ME how bad it was, but they'd been there every day for 20 years and weren't going to stop now. Hell, I know SEVERAL restaurants where I wouldn't take my dog, but the old folks go there each day or week because "it's ALWAYS what they've done". How can a restaurant improve when they're dealing with these types of issues?

[Jet Black]

This same attitude also explains the dominance of the Democrat Party in West Virginia.

[jag]

There is going to be a dedication ceremony Sunday Oct 4th, including the giveaway of 1000 "Big Boy like" hambugers.

Hmmmm..., "Big Boy like (emphasis added) hamburgers." Does something strike anybody a bit odd about the use of the word "like" in that description? As if a monument to Dave Thomas were dedicated with "Hot 'n' Juicy like burgers." Or maybe a monument to General Motors with "Buick like" cars.

Here's the solution: Take down the pudgy kid with the Conan O'Brien hair and the Donatella Versace checkerboard patteren clothes. In its place put up a scale replica of the piece that's at the Clay Center.

[The Interpreter]

Talk about missing the point...I wonder when this idgit was last in a Big Boy...and a Shoney's....There is a difference:

http://www.dailymail.com/Business/Georg ... 0909300393

[The Interpreter]

Oh, the irony:

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/loca ... 49&catid=3

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 9908290316

[CoolBreeze]

I see a slight difference here: Shoneys made millions of dollars for the Big Boy Brand, while Abdul is paying nothing to Shoneys for using their old sign. I would think that for Big Boy to be remembered fondly in this area would be great PR. However, if they don't want to be remembered at all, so be it.

[Hoosier Daddy]

I see a slight difference here: Shoneys made millions of dollars for the Big Boy Brand, while Abdul is paying nothing to Shoneys for using their old sign. I would think that for Big Boy to be remembered fondly in this area would be great PR. However, if they don't want to be remembered at all, so be it.

But, with its current lack of standards in any area, Shoney's contaminates the Big Boy name.

[CoolBreeze]

But the current contamination happened after Big Boy was banished. So Big Boy (to at least people under 35) doesn't equate with Shoneys, thank God.

[The Interpreter]

...“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....

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/da ... -monument/

[Hoosier Daddy]

Seems to me like this will be a simple court case. Let Judge Hoosier settle this one:

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f= ... emj6h.3.55

There it is. That's the owner.
The owner decides where and when their intellectual property can be used.

Get out the checkbook, Ms. Schoenbaum. You lost.



NOTE: FRISCH'S RESTAURANTS, INC. of Cincinnati has permission to use the logo in certain counties in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tessessee.

[CoolBreeze]

On several historical websites, you'll discover how Bob Wian in California named his new creation, the Big Boy hamburger. I never get tired of reading it:

One day a chubby youngster walked into Wian’s now flourishing restaurant. “He was about six,” Bob recalled, “and rolls of fat protruded where his shirt and pants were designed to meet. I was so amused by the youngster -- jolly, healthy looking and obviously a lover of good things to eat, I called him Big Boy.” So why not name the new hamburger Big Boy? Wian did. That was the birth of the first double-decker hamburger.

It was so unusual for a young kid that fat to even BE in California (or anywhere else for that matter) that he named a food product after him. Just think, in another time it might have been called "The Big Nunley".

[CoolBreeze]

PROBLEM SOLVED!

The official word is that "most" people HATE the new Clay Center "art" according to TV, Radio, Newspaper.




While "most" people LOVE the "Big Boy" monument recently erected.



SO THE PROBLEM IS EASILY SOLVED!

[fearpeddler]

or people will think shoneys is moving their corporate HQ to charleston....

[DJSHOCKLEY]

This same attitude also explains the dominance of the Democrat Party in West Virginia.

Umm..

Would that be the same Democrat Party that voted for Bush in 04, and 08???

Yeah, ya might have a point there..

[Ace Purple]

Hopefully the Big Boy replica sign will fare better than this Shoney's sign did.

[genlock]

Hopefully the Big Boy replica sign will fare better than this Shoney's sign did.

Looks like Blackbottom (Logan), WV. aka Deskins Addition.