Eat in the Hat

Original hat-shaped Brown Derby on Wilshire


Brown Derby's Hollywood location

Just in time for the fight to save the Derby in Los Feliz -- once home to the fourth Black Derby -- the L.A. Times' L.A. Then and Now column tackles the history of the one-time Hollywood institution:

The Brown Derby undertaking began with a dare. Wisecracking screenwriter Wilson Mizner said to movie producer Herbert Somborn, who was Gloria Swanson's second husband: "If you know anything about food, you can sell it out of a hat."

Shortly thereafter, in 1926, Somborn, Mizner and theater owner Sid Grauman built the first Brown Derby and called it the Little Hat. But Mizner said it was big enough to accommodate the swelled heads of many a personality. Early patrons included Will Rogers, Mary Pickford and Rudolph Valentino.

A decade later, the Derby moved half a block away into the hat-shaped building, topped by its neon-lighted slogan, "Eat in the hat." Derby-shaped light fixtures hovered over round tables and booths, attracting the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Jean Harlow and John and Lionel Barrymore...

By the time (later owner Robert) Cobb died in 1970, the restaurants were shadows of their former selves. The Brown Derby Corp. was sold in 1975, and the original hat-shaped Derby closed in 1980. Six years later, the hat and brim landed as an unrecognizable bulge atop a mini-mall on its former site. The Beverly Hills Derby closed in 1982; the Hollywood Derby followed in 1985. A comeback was attempted in Pasadena in 1986 but failed. The Hollywood restaurant was demolished in 1994.

Kevin at LA Observed actually noted that reporter Cecilia Rasmussen got it wrong: There were actually five Brown Derbys, not four.

Meanwhile, I would have noted that the "Brown Derby" name lives on -- sorta.

Patterned (down to the logo) after the original Brown Derby, Orlando's "The Hollywood Brown Derby" attempts to re-create the legendary haunt, down to the Cobb salad and Grapefruit Cake. The restaurant is at Walt Disney World's Disney-MGM Studios.

"The Hollywood Brown Derby" was also located at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas until last year.