Ponder, for a moment, the bloated icon we call Big Boy.
Red-and-white checked overalls, soft-serve ice cream swirl of hair and a smile so innocent it's unsettling.The guy behind the hamburger-hoisting symbol, however, couldn't be more unlike his creation. Svelte Manfred Bernhard, 79, has a diamond stud earring, a gray ponytail, a waterfront pad in West Palm Beach and a knack for nailing pop culture icons.
"A young apprentice artist did the original design," he says, as we wander past his father's paintings, which fill his Flagler Drive apartment. "The idea was fine, but it wasn't executed very well. Big Boy had this moronic expression, and his T-shirt was hanging out.
"He was holding up a hamburger with a bite already taken out of it, and I said, `Nobody wants to order that.' It was sloppy. The restaurant needed a corporate image it could be proud of."
Robert Wian, who started the restaurant chain - which began in Glendale, Calif., as a 12-seat diner called Bob's Pantry in the '50s - asked Bernhard to help. Corporate icon in place, Wian created franchises that included the name of each outlet's owner (i.e., Azar's Big Boy Restaurant), and the chain took off. Marriott bought the biz in the '60s and then sold it to Elias Brothers in '83.
Stay with me, people. It's a tad confusing, I know.
Although Bernhard's pudgy symbol stood firm for 42 years, Elias thought it was time for Big Boy to get real. So Bernhard is bye-bye, and a new artist - who's worked for MTV, Nickelodeon and the Muppets - has made Big Boy slightly trimmer and technologically hip. Big Boy nouveau, debuting this month, has a cell phone, computer and fab new friends. And galpal Dolly will have a career, probably interviewing celebrities.
The woman is advised to stay off my turf.
"It's the end of an era, yes," says publisher Bernhard, dubbed "King of the Giveaways" in comic book circles.
Each month, Bernhard produced about 800,000 copies of "The Adventures of Big Boy," the longest-running comic book published continuously by the same creator. It was, and still is, given out gratis by Big Boy franchises throughout the Midwest and California.
Bernhard's last issue, No. 466, was distributed in August. He retained rights to his comic book interpretations, but the restaurant chain owns Big Boy himself. The copyrighted image - on shirts, toys and caps - earns more than $2.5 million a year.
Elias put the comic book concept on the block, and Bernhard was one of the bidders. He lost out to Craig Yoe.
"The underlying theme has always been - and I hope will continue to be - for kids to do the right thing," says Bernhard, who has six kids and has been married for 21 years to Gwyn Bernhard, president of the Palm Beach County chapter of the Florida Motion Picture and Television Association.