See Part I: 1964 - 1967/8 Happy Charlie
Happy Charlie's is closed and very soon after the building that's now The Sidewalk Cafe at 27101 Euclid Avenue becomes a Roy Rogers! Below is an ad from December 18, 1968 announcing the new Euclid location.
Roy Rogers, the restaurant, is sort of a thing of lore to me. I've heard of them but I've never seen one. I remember being very young and being in the Beef Corral that's now where the Arby's sits on Vine Street, but that about sums up my experiences with fast food roast beef. It's interesting there used to be one within a couple miles of my house... well, a couple miles and 47 years...
Here they are in January 1969 advertising jobs... but unlike Happy Charlie who went looking for gals, they wanted men only plz.
Thanks to a May 21, 1969 ad I get confirmation, through my research, that the [current] Mr. Chicken in Willoughby was also converted to a Roy Rogers.
10-28-1970 because roast beef special.
You know Roy Rogers is still alive and well, right? Here's the last ad I could find where this location, the Willoughby location, and all others are still branded Roy Rogers:
It's from April 4, 1971.
The question I have is, was Happy Charlie a conception by Marriott, the company behind Roy Rogers? Or did they simply purchase a small, failing idea? Let's ask the architecture...
27101 Euclid Ave., Euclid, Ohio. Roy Rogers 1968 - 1971.
See Part III: 1971 - 1973 Love's Restaurants
See Part IV: 1973 - 1982 Famous Recipe Chicken
See Part V: 1982 - 1989 Mr. Chicken
Happy Charlie's is closed and very soon after the building that's now The Sidewalk Cafe at 27101 Euclid Avenue becomes a Roy Rogers! Below is an ad from December 18, 1968 announcing the new Euclid location.
Here they are in January 1969 advertising jobs... but unlike Happy Charlie who went looking for gals, they wanted men only plz.
The question I have is, was Happy Charlie a conception by Marriott, the company behind Roy Rogers? Or did they simply purchase a small, failing idea? Let's ask the architecture...
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| 27101 Euclid Ave., Euclid |
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| 35901 Euclid Ave., Willoughby |
*5235 Northfield Rd., Bedford Hts, Ohio is now a Lube Stop*
*17439 Lorain Ave., Cleveland, Ohio is now a parking lot*
*1227 W. Main St., Kent, Ohio is now a U-Haul parking lot*
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| 4048 Lincoln Way East, Massillon |
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| 24 West Ave., Tallmadge |
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| 9031 Mentor Ave., Mentor |
*3104 Cleveland Avenue Northwest, Canton, Ohio is a newly built KFC*
All the buildings have the same sloping roofs, do the others look close enough to the Willoughby and Euclid locations? There are other Roy Rogers restaurants, or former locations, outside of Ohio that look a lot like Willoughby and Euclid.
27101 Euclid Ave., Euclid, Ohio. Roy Rogers 1968 - 1971.
See Part III: 1971 - 1973 Love's Restaurants
See Part IV: 1973 - 1982 Famous Recipe Chicken
See Part V: 1982 - 1989 Mr. Chicken
Love your blog but I've never had the opportunity to post until now.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit of a Marriott historian. I've studied the company a lot and I've never heard of a Happy Charlie's. More than likely, the owner of Happy Charlie opted to become a franchisee of Roy Rogers. After all, the manager of Charlie's, formerly worked at Manners. By 1968, Manners was a franchisee of Big boy - owned by who else by Marriott. That's a weird twist but that might be why they chose to go with Roy's.
The Tallmadge and Masillion locations are clearly Roy's built from the ground up. That architecture is what Roy's used for decades. The original Roy's look was to mimic a chuck wagon. The Willoughby and Euclid locales are clear converts from being something besides Roy's. You're right that many of the surviving Roy's use a similar look but most of those were converts from Hot Shoppes or Hardee's. They were never built to be Roy's.