Well, the jolly roger wasn't used to sell ice cream historically, but it did begin that way for a chain of restaurants that grew into a national concern. The Jolly Roger started small, in a place known as Big Bear Lake, a mountain resort community just shy of 100 hundred miles east of Los Angeles in southern California. Art Salisbury opened a small ice cream stand in 1945 along the lake in the hopes of capturing a good living from tourists and summertime lake goers, anxious to beat the heat and cool off in the San Bernardino mountain community. It would have been, had the lake not dried up in 1946, just in time to wreck the tourist season. Big Bear Lake would come back, but Salisbury's ice cream fortunes were sunk and he was forced to close.
All was not lost, and in 1948, he found another location that was a bit more stable, a beachfront locale that might be viable all year long, with no chance of drying up, Balboa Island in Newport Beach, California, the crown jewel of sunny Orange County, one of southern California's most affluent and exclusive communities. Named The Jolly Roger, it was perfect for this seaside community and the mystery and mysticism that surrounded pirate lore, and the American appetite for legend, specifically buried treasure, parrots, three cornered hats, and...pirates. Salisbury's ice-cream cream shop was a success, and his customers soon began telling him that they wanted more than just dessert or a sweet snack on a hot day. In 1949, the Jolly Roger became a restaurant, in the image of what was to follow. The original Jolly Roger restaurant still stands on Balboa Island, but unaffiliated with its original namesake...
Over the coming decades, Art Salisbury grew this one pirate named and themed location into a growing concern and a veritable culinary empire. Focusing on middle-class, family fare, The Jolly Roger namesake grew to over 40 locations. Predominantly in California, they did expand, notably Hawaii, Nevada and Arizona. In its wake, the Jolly Roger commissioned other restaurants under its corporate flag, particular upscale locations called The Rigger and a coffee shop chain named Bojax. None were as prolific as Jolly Roger though. Perhaps most notable was the motel chain known as The Jolly Roger Inn. Although there was more than one, the most famous was the location across the street from Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
Located on the Southwest corner of Harbor Blvd. and Katella Ave., right across from the Southeast corner of the Disneyland property, The Jolly Roger Inn was one of a string of independently operated motels opened to cater to the Disneyland crowds and suck up some of those magical tourist dollars. Opening in 1961, it was quite nice, offering all the modern amenities, including an in-room television, which was a veritable luxury in the early to mid 1960s.
Of course, there was a Jolly Roger restaurant (or coffee shop) right onsite, as well as a 400 seat convention and banquet space. The theme predated Disney's pirate obsession, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride wouldn't set sail until 1967.
As the 20th century came to a close, so did The Jolly Roger. Restaurants began to close as the kitschy themes restaurant became dated, and the up an coming generation looked for more fine dining options. By the 1990s, the media was all but convinced that the restaurant chain was finished. By 2013, in a last gasp to recover, The Jolly Roger attempted to up-scale a menu that had served them very well for over 50 years, to cater to the filet-mignon and champagne crowd, theorizing that they could make more on a well-to-do young couple of two, than a middle-class family of four. It was to late. The quality of the food had reached bottom levels by the beginning of the 2000s, and one of the most-iconic locations, The Jolly Roger Inn, was a cockroach infested shell of what was once a shining example of mid-century, middle-class opulence was closed and torn down. The last Jolly Roger location, in Oceanside Harbor north of San Diego, closed their doors by 2016.
