It’s not every day that I find a color shot of a Brown Derby restaurant from back in the day, so this one is a bit of a treat. This one is the Beverly Hills Brown Derby at the corner of Wilshire Blvd and Rodeo Dr in 1955. The shot is fairly grainy, so I’m guessing this was a postcard or perhaps a still from movie. Either way, I’ll take it because it reminds me that the big derby-shaped sign on top of the building was an eye-catching red color. And the scaffolding it sits atop is almost as tall as the building itself. Apparently, the busiest night of the week for this location was Thursday, which was the traditional maid’s night off.
Roughly the same angle in March 2021:
I never made it into any of the other Brown Derbys although I did see them from the street. However, I did go into this one for a meal several times in the 1970’s. It seemed such an LA institution that it would always be there.
Nothing’s forever in LA, bay-bee!
Sadly true!
Is the domed silo on the corner an homage to the derby? Like the other dome in the Wilshire strip mall? Are there more domes?!
I seriously doubt that. I think it’s just an architectural feature.