Frisch’s Big Boy

Frisch's Big Boy - General Sign CoTerry Hopkins‘ dad’s General Sign Company box of photos had these shots of Frisch’s Big Boy’s 3-D rotating sign. (Check out the Garber’s sign in the background.) I guess I never looked closely enough at a Big Boy to notice that he had a slingshot in his back pocket.

When I was a kid, I wondered how those rotating signs kept the electrical cord from getting tangled up. It’s obvious from this that the motor that provided the spin was BENEATH the rotating point.

BUT, how about signs that had lights in the rotating part? Did they get their power from contacts that slipped as they rotated? I’m sure someone is going to come up with an answer that is going to make me feel really foolish. (You can click on the photos to make them larger.)

Did Cape have a Frisch’s?

Frisch's Big Boy - General Sign CoThe building has General Sign Company on it, but the Big Boy is going for a ride in a truck that says Operle Poster Advertising, Paducah, KY, on its side.

I wonder if the Big Boy was headed for Kentucky? I don’t recall any Frisch’s stores in our area.