A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: The Brown Derby

By Dave Shute

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians and author of Jim’s Gems in The easy Guide, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

THE BROWN DERBY AT DISNEY’S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

By Jim Korkis

There were four Brown Derby restaurants in the Los Angeles area (Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Los Feliz, and Wilshire Boulevard), but only the first one on Wilshire Boulevard was in the shape of a derby hat.

The one most frequented by Walt Disney was the restaurant on Vine Street, a half block south of Hollywood Boulevard, that opened in 1929 and was operated by his friend Bob Cobb who took over in 1934. There is a photo of a smiling Walt and his wife Lillian enjoying a Cobb salad from 1939.

The restaurant was in the center of broadcasting studios, theaters, and movie studios, so it became a popular location for celebrities and for making deals which is why the booths were designed so that people could be easily seen.

The architect was Carl Jules Weyl who later became a Warner Brothers Studio art director. He designed the iconic Rick’s Café in the classic film Casablanca (1942) where Rick (Humphrey Bogart) had an apartment office above the restaurant just like the one designed for owner Bob Cobb above the Hollywood Brown Derby.

It is this version of the famous restaurant that is recreated at Disney Hollywood Studios from a licensing agreement in 1987. The original restaurant was closed in 1985 because of fire and earthquake damage and demolished in 1994. Part of the re-creation includes a private dining room known as the Bamboo Room where today guests can dine with an Imagineer.

After midnight in 1937, Bob Cobb was awakened by the pounding on the door by his friend theater entrepreneur Sid Grauman of Grauman’s Chinese Theater. The restaurant had long been closed for the night. To help sober up his friend before sending him on his way, Cobb went into the kitchen to see what leftovers he could find.

Opening the huge refrigerator, he pulled out a head of lettuce, an avocado, some romaine, watercress, tomatoes, some cold breast of chicken, a hard-boiled egg, chives, cheese, bacon and some old-fashioned French dressing.

He started chopping it up very fine to blend the disparate items together and give it some substance. Reportedly, Grauman had just had some dental work done and could not chew easily.

It did the trick and the next day, Grauman dropped by again during operating hours and ordered a “Cobb Salad”. Other patrons saw it and also ordered it and it became a sensation. Movie mogul Jack Warner often sent his personal chauffeur over to pick up a carton of the salad.

Millions of salads have been sold over the decades and it is the most popular entrée at the Disney version.

Gossip columnist Louella Parsons declared that she was going to avoid the restaurant in order to resist the fattening desserts. In the 1930s, a fad “grapefruit diet” was popular among celebrities to lose weight.

So Cobb told his chef to come up with a dessert grapefruit cake and Parsons never left. However the dessert was made with cream cheese frosting and so was actually higher in calories than the chocolate cake.

The restaurant became famous for its celebrity caricatures that decorated the walls. The earliest ones were drawn originally by Eddie Vitch beginning in 1931 in exchange for free meals. Other artists over the years included Zel, Pancho, Jack Lane (1947-1985) and Bunn.

For Disney fans, a framed photo near the restrooms shows Disney Legend Herb Ryman in 1938 doing a sketch of entertainer George Jessel. One of the caricatures in the lobby is of a mouse-eared Jimmie Dodd of the original Mickey Mouse Club television show. The brass derbies used as lampshades and other memorabilia add to the sense of authenticity of the location.

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Thanks, Jim.

Come back next Friday for even more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, and The Vault of Walt: Volume 4, and his contributions to The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit, all published by Theme Park Press.

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