YOUR COLLECTION CAN BECOME YOUR LEGACY

Personal collections often form valuable additions to your Museum's archives. They can form the basis for important insights and exhibits for the public and scholars about what life has been like in the San Fernando Valley over the years and what might become of us in the future.

Don't let the articles you've carefully collected over the years end up as someone else's quick sale on e-bay or worse yet an addition to a "blue bin."

Contact your Museum's Director of Acquisitions, Gary Fredburg right away. He'll help you with a formal "deed of gift" or suggestions about tax deductions. Give Gary a telephone call today: His Museum number is 818-347-9665.

BOB'S BIG BOY BECAME A NATIONAL ICON

BUILDING A GREAT MUSEUM FOR THE SAN FERNANDO VALLEY

Two years before the establishment of the Little Brown Church in Studio City, Bob Wian owner of Bob's Pantry in Glendale created a new hamburger sandwich that changed the eating preferences of an entire generation of Americans....... it was the Bob's Big Boy! So symbolic of being a California teenager,  that the image of the chubby Big Boy became an national icon.

Today, Bob's Big Boy memorabilia are highly collected treasures, This shelf that I saw in a recent visit to a Lake Balboa home is but one example.

LEARNING FROM A BOB'S BIG BOY MATCHBOOK COVER

CHERISHING OUR VALLEY          2013

As cigarette smoking has all disappeared for most San Fernando Valley residents, those free little matchbooks have gone the way of ice age animals. The Museum of the San Fernando Valley collects matchbook covers, not only as colorful reminders of a bygone era, but for the information they can relate. This cover tells the locations of Bob's restaurants in greater Los Angeles; Van Nuys, Burbank Toluca Lake, Glendale, Eagle Rock and Pasadena.

Bob's "Home of the Big Boy" - matchbook - Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg 2013.  (click on images to enlarge them)

Appx. 5 million patrons
250 tons of hamburger
22,500 gallons of mayonnaise
250,000 buns
650 tons of potatoes

"TASTE OF HISTORY" - MONTHLY SPEAKER SERIES AT THE WESTFIELD FASHION SQUARE

Presents 

"Taste of History"

in conjunction with 

Do any of these restaurants bring back fond memories?

Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor

Otto's Pink Pig 

If so, please join us on Thursday, June 28th at Westfield Fashion Square's NEW Dining Terrace area for the kick-off event with featured presenter and Valley afficionado Tommy Gelinas of Valley Relics!

  

Westfield Fashion Square
New Dining Terrance (2nd Floor)

Featured Presenter: Tommy Gelinas, Founder & Curator, Valley Relics will speak on history of restaurants and food of the San Fernando Valley   

Date: Thursday, June 28, 2012

Time:    6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Program

             7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Q&A & Socializing

Where: Westfield Fashion Square

             14006 Riverside Drive

             Sherman Oaks, CA 91423

             www.westfield.com/fashionsquare

Location of Event:  2nd Floor in NEW Dining Terrace - southwest location; not in main food court area, but in dining area opposite of food court

Cost:    FREE!   

RSVP: 1-818-347-9665 or email at events@theMuseumSFV.org

Please leave name, email address and phone number

Parking: Ample parking at Westfield Fashion Square  

Tommy Gelinas Bio:   

Valley Relics is a personal collection of rare photos, yearbooks, documents, postcards, toys, photo negatives, vintage signs, books, antiques and artifacts from the 1800s to present, from the San Fernando Valley. The collection is currently housed in North Hollywood, CA. Tommy Gelinas, founder and curator of Valley Relics. He is a valley native who was born in Burbank. Through dedication and perseverance, his collection is one of the largest and most diverse pertaining to San Fernando Valley history and culture.

Tommy is also an astute businessman and owner of The Print Lab. He is also one cool, hip guy and a wonderful storyteller.

Program Overview: History of restaurants and food in the San Fernando Valley. Tommy will be dishing up some delectable stories about many of the funky, quirky and traditional restaurants of the San Fernando Valley over the last 50 or so years.

Copper Penny

Bob's Big Boy

Your long-term memory will serve you well as restaurants and experiences at these restaurants will be instantly recalled which will place you back in time, most likely, a fond time during your upbringing. He will have you drooling about past dining experiences and have you laughing about the good times.     

  

WE WANT TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCES TOO!

We will capture (with your approval) one or two memorable experiences of you hanging out and eating at a restaurant in the valley. 

  

Artifacts such as menus, matchbooks, ashtrays, postcards, a screen presentation and a Q&A period will be offered.

Extras:  A few prizes will be raffled at end of program too! 

Please spread the word - this will be a special event!

  

Contacts:

For more information, please contact Michel Stevens, The Museum of the San Fernando Valley at (818) 347-9665 or michel.stevens@themuseumsfv.org;  www.TheMuseumSFV.org.

  

Westfield Fashion Square contact:  Juliet Mothershed, Director of Marketing; jmothershed@us.westfield.com; www.westfield.com/fashionsquare

  

Valley Relics - www.valleyrelics.net 

BOB'S BIG BOY

2010 THE YEAR OF VALLEY ADVENTURES


One of the great icons of life in the San Fernando Valley is the image of the chubby little fellow called Bob's Big Boy. Here, at the Glendale restaurant adjacent to Toluca Lake, the Big Boy brand is reinforced on a cement trash container. Photo by Gerald Fecht for the Archives of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley 2010.

Share your Valley memories with the San Fernando Valley Memory Bank. 1 (818) 347-9665

GLENDALE CENTRE THEATRE PLAYBILL

Glendale Centre Theatre Playbill - date unknown - gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg - 2008
From vintage playbills, such as this one for "Halfway to Heaven" we learn the names of the performers in the production. Ads, such as the back cover "After the Show - It's Bob's Home of the Big Boy" featuring all seven of the company's locations.

You can help your Museum pay our bills by contributing: old photographs, postcards, letters, military and sports souvenirs, and political buttons etc.

BOB'S BIG BOY, VINTAGE CARS -WHAT A GREAT VALLEY TO GROW UP IN.

Bob's Big Boy Matchbook Cover - Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg - 2008
Bob's Big Boy Restaurants in Burbank, Van Nuys, Glendale and Canoga Park were essential elements of teen-age life in the San Fernando Valley in the 1950s and '60s. In 1993 Bob's on Van Nuys Boulevard was demolished marking an end to the great cruising adventure of decades.
Gary Fredburg, vice president of your Museum, calls attention to the story in today's Daily News (March 27, 2008) entitled "Hot Cars, Double Deckers Top Bob's Big Boy Menu". A Burbank resident and car lover, Gary believes that automobiles and coffee shops are important part of San Fernando Valley history and culture.
Vintage Postcard - Panoramic View of Burbank, California.
Gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley by Gary Fredburg 2008
The view looks north toward Bob Hope Airport then called the Lockheed Airport. The cars and clothing styles on the car might give us an idea of the card's date of printing.