In 1936, Glendale resident Bob Wian sold his cherished DeSoto Roadster and used the proceeds to fund a miniscule hamburger stand that he named Bob's Pantry.

As the apocryphal story goes, Wian not only created the world's first double-deck burger, but renamed his burger stand "Big Boy" after a rotund six-year-old named Richard Woodruff who was subsequently sketched as a freckled caricature by Warner Bros. animation artist Ben Washam for the company's signature logo.

"Woodruff was a rotund young boy who had a curious pompadour hairstyle and would help Wian out with chores in exchange for free food," recalled an article in Nation's Restaurant News, a weekly business-to-business magazine that has a circulation of more than 60,000, according to PRNewswire. This character would also eventually be featured in the comic book, The Adventures of Big Boy, produced as a promotional giveaway for children visiting the restaurant. (Meanwhile, Woodruff presumably continued to be a ravenous carnivore, as he grew into a 300-pound adult. He died at age 54 in 1986.) 

Northeast Los Angeles holds a hallowed place in the history of the American burger, but the details are contentious. Prior to opening his own place, Bob Wian had worked behind the counter at Sternberger's, 6138 N. Figueroa St. in Highland Park, a diner operated by Lionel C. Sternberger (1907-1964) who is often credited with inventing the cheeseburger at his father's restaurant, the Rite Spot, located just across the Arroyo. (In researching his book, Hamburger Heaven, author Jeffrey Tennyson interviewed former restaurant employees who confirmed that the Rite Spot is where the cheeseburger debuted—although it was called the "cheese hamburger.")  

A 1937 article in Pacific Coast Record, which covered the restaurant industry, recounted how Sternberger rejuvenated a newly purchased roadside burger stand, the former Hinky Dick, at 1500 W. Colorado Blvd., located on historic Route 66 just across the Eagle Rock border near the present-day Stoney Point Bar & Grill, by tossing a piece of cheese on his burger. He later expanded the Rite Spot and opened locations in Highland Park and Glendale.  

The Bob's Big Boy in Eagle Rock was smaller than the restaurant's other locations in nearby Pasadena, but it attracted a loyal constituency of burger aficionados. Adjacent to it was a miniature golf course that longtime local residents recall fondly, even when it fell into disrepair. By the mid-'70s the golf course was razed and Bob's Big Boy was gone. A downsized Bob's Big Boy Jr. opened in Eagle Rock Plaza, while a succession of imitators named "Jass," "Kenny's," and "Jenny's" occupied the site of the original restaurant.  

The location of the original Bob's Big Boy is now Panang, a Thai restaurant that, somewhat strangely, also serves sushi. It is still possible to observe the sweeping contours of the building's structure that echoes Southern California's recent past with its iconic "Googie" architectural style.