When I was in high school and college a great pastime was cruising the local Bob’s Big Boy restaurant on Friday and Saturday nights. You would get in line on Van Nuys Blvd. then turn into Bob’s and make the decision to veer to the left to park and eat in the drive-in portion of Bob’s, or veer right and exit through the parking lot area and start over again.
These are the two cars I owned during those years.
1953 Ford
This car was stock, with minor modification that included a floor shift that I installed, black Naugahyde upholstery that I purchased and bright red paint. It looked cool, but that was it.
1955 Oldsmobile
This Olds, was what people called a “sleeper” back in the day. It looked stock, but definitely wasn’t. It had a police interceptor engine with three carburetors and a racing transmission. It was extremely fast.
If you look closely at the wind-wing near the rear-view mirror you will notice someone taking my photo with a Kodak Brownie camera. Her name is Georgia and I married her in 1963. That was one of the best decisions I every made. We have 3 daughters and six grandchildren.
About twenty years ago I found an original ’55 Olds in a Eureka CA garage that looked like this and recreated the ’55 Olds of my youth, with a slight color change. The one has has an even more powerful engine and would leave my original ’55 Olds in its dust.
Here is the Bob’s I used to cruise along with a menu and photo of my typical order: A “Big Boy” with an order of french fries and side of blue cheese, plus a cherry coke. Notice the prices back then.
We had a lot of fun back then, so the video below brings back many fond memories.
Enjoy.
Click Photo Below For Recipes
Most of the action in the 1947 car-hop training film takes place at the iconic Bob’s drive-in at 900 E. Colorado in Glendale.
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fdriveinmenu%2Fvideos%2F1190915117651372%2F&width=800&show_text=false&appId=377758488983850&height=600
The industrial film follows Eve Kennedy, a young stenographer with “too much pep,” as she embarks on a new career serving up Big Boy combos. We also meet dapper Bob Wian—the founder of Bob’s Big Boy—in his early 30s, sporting lapels as broad as the wings on as a P-38 and a hyper-Brylcreem pompadour that rivals his fiberglass mascot.
