I must confess that I do love me a Brown Derby photograph I haven’t seen before, but especially the original one* at Wilshire and Alexandria, and especially-especially if its in color — we can get a sense of exactly what shade brown it was. We can also catch a glimpse of the old Chapman Park Hotel in the background. But most of all I love the woman in the powder blue suit. I can hear her husband say, “Go on, Jean, pose out front and I’ll take your picture. It ain’t every day we get to eat at the famous Brown Derby.” I say, “Lucky Jean!”

* – by “original one” I mean the first one. And by “first one” I mean the first one in the chain. It actual original Brown Derby opened in 1926, facing due south at 3427 Wilshire between Mariposa & Alexandria. The one shown here opened in 1937, the hat-shaped Brown Derby moved half a block east of its original location, to 3377 Wilshire, oriented to the northeast corner of Alexandria Ave.