Taco Bell Boy Story

Taco Bell Boy was found on eBay and purchased by franchisees Mark Peterson and Krystal Burge as a piece of Taco Bell memorabilia for display at the Restaurant Support Center.

When Krystal heard about a Taco Bell Boy available on eBay, she recalled the small plaster statue, about a foot high, that she had painted as a child. Her father had found the brand’s mascot at a hobby shop and thought it would make a nice gift for a friend of his who was a Taco Bell franchisee. Krystal was about ten years old at the time and, at her father’s request, she carefully applied layer upon layer of paint to the little statuette, waiting patiently for each color to dry before applying the next. It was the perfect gift and soon became a conversation piece. Now a franchisee of Taco Bell herself, imagine Krystal’s delight at the thought of finding one of the little sombrero-clad boys that brought back such fond childhood memories! It seemed too ironic and she hoped to be the winning bidder!

A brief search of eBay brought up what appeared to be an exact duplicate, (though faded and worn), of the painted plaster boy that she recalled, but good grief! One look at the posted price brought sticker shock! Wondering how Taco Bell Boy became such a rare and collectible treasure, she called for her friend and accounting manager, Pat Simpson, to come take a look. Pat leaned over the computer screen and said, “What the hell are you going to do with a seven foot statue?!”

Reading the full description, Krystal learned that this wasn’t the little plaster boy she had painted, but its full-sized counterpart, nearly eight feet tall and 107 pounds of fiberglass circa 1960, but she was smitten! A fierce on-line bidding war with another Taco Bell franchisee ensued, but a nostalgic Krystal knew that Taco Bell Boy belonged at the Restaurant Support Center in Kingman. On June 21, 2009, upon instructions from the winning bidder, Taco Bell Boy was carefully wrapped, strapped, crated and shipped via truck from St. Petersburg, Florida to Kingman, Arizona. The truck driver, Scott Black, realized that the cargo he was carrying was fragile and precious, so instead of drop-loading and changing trucks half way across the country, he decided to keep Taco Bell Boy on his truck and drive all the way through to Kingman. He arrived safely with the highly prized cargo intact on July 21, 2009. We appreciate his commitment very much! It took three hours to unload Taco Bell Boy and get him into the building because he was packaged with such care.

After Taco Bell Boy was settled in his new home, we set about trying to learn more about him. The seller was contacted and asked for any information he could provide. He told us that the sculpture belonged to his brother, who found it in the attic of the home he purchased from Harry Buseman in the 1980’s. Turns out that Harry Buseman was the largest Taco Bell franchisee in Florida. Mr. Buseman passed away in 2002, but his account of working directly with Glen Bell to introduce the brand in Florida is great reading in the book Taco Titan, The Glen Bell Story. One of the most exciting pieces of information we found in the book is a photo of Glen Bell in the backyard at his house in St. Petersburg, Florida. The photo shows Glen Bell with a very large pair of water skis and Taco Bell Boy! According to the book, Glen Bell and Harry Buseman put Taco Bell Boy on water skis and towed him through St. Petersburg’s inland waterways. In the book, Glen Bell is quoted as saying, “It stopped traffic! … it was a great publicity stunt.” With his water skiing days behind him, Taco Bell Boy was put in the attic and sold with the house when Harry Buseman retired. The seller said that upon finding the sculpture, his brother had used it as a lawn, (or beach), ornament. The house is located on the beach and Taco Bell Boy had become a celebrity of sorts with one of the tour boat companies in Florida who would point him out to the tourists enjoying the cruise. Since age and salt water was taking its toll, it was decided to list the sculpture for sale on eBay.

Structurally, Taco Bell Boy was in remarkably good shape except for a large crack in one foot, possibly sustained while water skiing. A fiberglass repairman was hired to sand him down, patch him up and repaint him. Scott Runyan did an excellent job of restoring Taco Bell Boy to tip-top condition. After Scott completed his work, sign painter Maria Hough came in and did a bit of detail work, including putting the finishing touches on Taco Bell Boy’s sombrero.

As the restoration work progressed, we kept trying to uncover more history about how and when the brand’s mascot came into being. The best source of information continued to be the Taco Titan book. From it, we learned that the Taco Bell Boy started out as a logo that was used in advertisements. The sculpture is a 3-D image of the logo. The book also contains several photos of Taco Bell Boy out in front of early-day restaurants, like the photo of the first Taco Bell opened in Downey, California in 1962. The mascot’s outstretched arm was to welcome customers to the taco stand. We contacted the Downey Historical Society but they didn’t have any additional information. They did, however, ask that we share our photos of Taco Bell Boy with them, which we were happy to do. We also wrote a letter to Glen Bell himself to see if he could shed additional light on Taco Bell Boy. Shortly after mailing the letter, we received a call from Kathleen Flynn, Glen Bell’s daughter. Her father told her that he thought there were between 20 and 30 of the sculptures made beginning in 1962 through 1965, and that he knew of only one other remaining besides ours. Wow! Now we know that Krystal’s fond childhood memory resulted in our obtaining a piece of Taco Bell nostalgia that truly is something to be treasured!

Mark Peterson and Krystal Burge have been in the Taco Bell business for more than 25 years. Like Glen Bell, they started with one restaurant and have grown to 77 restaurants today. They are well respected business entrepreneurs who believe in putting family, employees and community first.