In 1978, Burger Chef was right with the nations zeitgeist, selling their burgers and fries with a side-order of Star Wars. They were among the first companies to do so and ran a commercials advertising the facts.
We were not frequenters of Burger Chef (they were hard to come by in our neck of the woods), but I swear I had one of these posters on my wall as a kid. Perhaps one of my parents picked it up for their Star Wars crazed kid.
My favorite is this one because of the kid with the Sand Speeder at the start. He is either lost in dream of far off Tantooine or more likely is really really bored. How dare you kid! Show some respect!
Is that Violet Beauregarde in the first commercial? The girl behind the counter?
I did not catch that, but it does look like Denise Nickerson.
From the IMDB page: “TV commercial for Burger Chef (Star Wars poster), 1977″ That is awesome! Great eye, Nathan!
Burger Chef! Thanks for reminding me that place existed!
Where does Burger Chef exist? I don’t think they had them in NY when I was growing up, and they don’t have them in Phoenix.
I can’t imagine what a full set of posters and happy meal boxes would go for in today’s collector market. I say this because these collectibles seemed to be ahead of the curve, and that usually counts for something.
Sadly they are all gone. They started in the midwest and and spread out. A lot of them would go on to become Hardees. In 1996 the last one went away.
Those posters appear to be the same design as the ones Burger King had BITD, and that apparently informed the design of their SW collector’s glasses (my full collection of which my fiancee accidentally threw in the trash during a move a few years ago :( I never let her forget that). I’d never heard of Burger Chef before now – we didn’t have them up here in NY. I thought maybe – due to the similarity in posters and chain name – there was some relationship between the two chains. Guess not, though. Too bad they didn’t get this far north – the food on their menu looks like it was tasty. (And Hardees – mmmmm. Haven’t eaten there since 1980, but I loved their burgers. They’re still around, right?)
Hardees still exists — I drove by one this morning. Not bad food, but for me it lacks the cachet of Burger Chef.
Since Burger Chef was sold to Hardees the recipes belong to that company. Hardees occasionally brings back the Big Shef burger.
I also got those posters at Burger King. Were these companies related?