The sign and classic advertising “mascot” for a Big Boy restaurant in Waterford, Michigan. Big Boy was started as Bob's Pantry in 1936 by Bob Wian in Glendale, California. The restaurants, now headquartered near Waterford in Warren, Michigan, became known as "Bob’s” and ”Bob's Drive-Ins.” According to advertising lore, the cheerful mascot was born when a six-year-old boy walked into a Bob’s Pantry restaurant just as its owner discussed creating a mascot. “Hey, Big Boy,” the child is said to have exclaimed, and the name stuck. Photo by Carol Highsmith, 2019.