Talk:Brown Derby

Untitled

um, there's a brown derby in Disney MGM Studios. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.151.247.98 (talk • contribs) 01:49, 19 June 2005 (UTC)

which one's which

This article needs to be rewritten or at least cleaned up. Half way through, all four restaurants are just referred to as "The Derby". It gets confusing as to which one is closed, moved, remodeled as a night club, and closed again. This was written by someone who already knows the history of the restaurants and so they jump from one to the other; the article was not proofred by an outsider. Perhaps a separate section for each one that clearly explains its history from creation to the current day.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Kwyjibear (talk • contribs) 20:32, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Clarification and an update is definitely needed. I noticed the owners of The Derby posted a message on their web site, telling people they're not in danger of being shut down. JMarkievicz2 23:42, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

The problem starts with the third paragraph. Beginning with the word "it," which seems to refer to the Cobb salad discussed in paragraph two, but which must reference the restaurant itself, the remainder of paragraph three is ambiguous as to whether its information applies to the subject of the article or to the restaurant in Malverne, New York. Altgeld (talk) 17:49, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

How can I help? My name is Susan Murphy and my father, Ray Murphy, was the 3rd owner of the original Brown Derby in Malverne, NY. — Preceding unsigned comment added by SuzyMurphy (talk • contribs) 23:23, 12 November 2018 (UTC)

What about the Brown Derby chain?

This article doesn't mention the Brown Derby chain restaurants throughout the United States as well as the Brown Derby Roadhouses. Buzda 06:55, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Would guess if all I knew of the place was from this article that the one which used to be just west of downtown Nashville, Tennessee was just an unauthorized copyright/trademark violator. 72.105.5.135 (talk) 21:44, 11 September 2018 (UTC)

Inconsistent with Cobb Salad Article

The description of the origins of the Cobb Salad in this article differ from the description given in the Cobb Salad article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.134.79.183 (talk • contribs) 16:13, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Fire

Was there ever a fire at any of the Brown Derbys? Punette (talk) 04:44, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

There was a fire at the Hollywood location in the late 80s, a vacant building. The restaurant had been closed a number of years at that time. In the early 90s, the building was torn down and replaced with a parking lot. Currently, the entire block is under construction for a multi-use development. Nita&j (talk) 13:17, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

There was a fire at the original Brown Derby in Malverne, NY in the mid-1970's. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.57.216.162 (talk) 22:46, 12 November 2018 (UTC)

"Buzz"?

This sentence is vague and confusing, who is "Buzz"? "The shell of the Brown Derby was restored and placed on top of the strip mall that took its spot at 3377 Wilshire Boulevard. It is now painted orange and home to Buzz." Cs302b (talk) 23:05, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Image problem

File:LABrownDerbyLocationsImage-7.jpg has been tagged with an OTRS (permission from copyright holder) pending for months. If anyone has info which can resolve this, please do so. Otherwise, this image may be deleted. -- Infrogmation (talk) 02:58, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Major rewrite

I've given this article a major rewrite, mainly to clarify the fact that there was not one but several restaurants, which are often confused with one another. It's very much a bare bones edit - a stronger and clearer structure designed to be built upon by others.

Most information was either clarified, added to or rejuggled, but I took out the following points, either because I couldn't source them, they were unclear, or they appeared to qualify as unnecessary or dubious trivia. If you can source them and find an appropriate place for them in the article, be my guest:

• The largest collection of photos of the Brown Derby restaurants is on the Bruce Torrence Hollywood Historical Collection.

• It was named after the Brown Derby Restaurant located in Malverne, Long Island, New York, which operated as a popular vaudeville hang-out. It had been owned by Frank Britton Wenzel,who sold it to Ralph Talgo, who owned it since the 1960s. Ralph's wife, Anita, sold it to Ray & Virginia Murphy in 1980. Ray gave up management shortly before his passing on Thanksgiving of 1999. The building was rented briefly to Steve Van Gelder as the LI outpost of his Queens-based restaurant, "Cooking With Jazz". This restaurant closed in 2001. The Brown Derby was then owned by Ray and Virginia Murphy's children Susan and Robert, who subsequently turned it into a now-thriving apartment building, Derby Commons. Construction went from 2004 until 2007, adding a second floor to the building.

• It was the first restaurant to serve chiffon cake, a soon-to-be famous recipe invented by insurance salesman Harry Baker and later picked up by Betty Crocker.

• 'Brown Derby' is also the name of a dessert served by the British fast food franchise Wimpy. It consisted of a ball of ice cream, and a warmed chocolate doughnut.

• 'Earl Foss' Brown Derby' is also the name of a country band in Madison, WI www.myspace.com/brownderby

• In the book The Neddiad by Daniel Pinkwater, Neddie and his family move from Chicago to Hollywood soley to eat at The Brown Derby. The move leads to a series of adventures involving a jellybean, a sacred turtle, and a girl named Yggdrasil.

• In 2008, restaurateur Robert Mallozzi purchased the rights to the restaurant and opened a Brown Derby in Albany, New York. Ravenclaw (talk) 16:44, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

Grammar!

Apostrophes do not belong in decades...ie 1930s, not 1930's. They are used for contractions and possessives only. Have we attended first grade? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.189.7.60 (talk • contribs) 05:06, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

I was taught the second way --- 1930's --- up through college in the late 1970s. 2600:8800:22C:F700:C23F:D5FF:FEC4:D51D (talk) 03:16, 12 September 2021 (UTC)

Check that last paragraph

The info from the "Gerves Brown Derby" section is not sourced AT ALL and some of it reads like promotional material. ("The Girves family was able to build the successful business by being innovative, staying current with business practices, and recognizing that the demands and tastes of their customers changed with time"). Not a bad start to an article but needs cleaning up, clearer language, and more definitive sourcing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.97.64.78 (talk) 01:49, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Food

Aside from mention of the Cobb salad, there's no discussion of the cuisine served here. Since Hollywood stars ate here, I assume it was fairly expensive food, but what types of items? 184.0.134.96 (talk) 13:46, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

Food

Aside from mention of the Cobb salad, there's no discussion of the cuisine served here. Since Hollywood stars ate here, I assume it was fairly expensive food, but what types of items? 184.0.134.96 (talk) 13:46, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

Los Feliz Brown Derby

The article claims the Los Feliz Brown Derby is still operating. This does not appear to be true, and Yelp claims the site has closed. 50.11.221.142 (talk) 21:19, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

"Brown Derby (company)"

The usage and primary topic of "Brown Derby (company)" is under discussion, see talk:Brown Derby (company) -- 65.94.43.89 (talk) 06:33, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

Hollywood Brown Derby photo

The first photo shown for the Hollywood Brown Derby is another shot of the Wilshire restaurant. You can tell it is the same as the first photo on the page, with minor changes such as the color of the top sign. — ★Parsa ☞ talk 22:56, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Brown Derby. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100707121811/http://blog.zagat.com:80/then-and-now-11-wretched-restaurant-reinventions to http://blog.zagat.com/then-and-now-11-wretched-restaurant-reinventions#more-64575
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20141101193125/http://www.ciclavia.org/files/ciclavia_arch_guide_062313_web-9809.pdf to http://www.ciclavia.org/files/ciclavia_arch_guide_062313_web-9809.pdf

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 12:41, 9 November 2016 (UTC)

Extinct or extant?

The first paragraph is inexcusably confusing:

The Brown Derby was the name of a chain of restaurants in Los Angeles, California. The first and most famous of these was shaped like a man's derby hat, an iconic image that became synonymous with the Golden Age of Hollywood. . . . There are five Brown Derby restaurants in five Ohio locations of Middleburg Heights, Canton, Lyndhurst, Medina and Streetsboro that are still in business today.

So we have "was" and "are" describing the same chain. Opening sentence indicates it no longer exists, but the "are" indicates it does. I'm sure there's an explanation (I have a guess, but that's irrelevant), but this does the reader a major disservice. Unschool 14:12, 10 May 2017 (UTC)

.

Differences with Brown Derby and Girves Brown Derby

Both are however restaurants but if unrelated, we need to fdigure that part out. One of the Ohio Brown Derby stores claimed to have offered the Hollywood style food (Maybe their was a license agreement or some sort). We need to note that as many people think Brown Derby and Girves Brown Derby are the same to them as they both are restaurants. -- unsigned

Good question. The Brown Derby restaurants that use to exists in Hollywood and surrounding area of Los Angeles were last owned by Walter P. Scharfe who had purchased the chain from Robert H. Cobb's widow. Before he closed his last restaurant, Scharfe had signed license agreements with the Walt Disney Company and MGM Grand, Inc. to open Brown Derby restaurants in their theme parks and resorts, most of which are/were outside of California.

Since Cobb and his partners had never operated Brown Derby restaurants outside of the state of California, they apparently did not apply for nationwide trademark protection on their restaurant and products (i.e., Cobb's salad). Due to that apparent oversight, many unrelated companies (one based in Ohio, one based in New York, plus dozens of others) appeared to use the Brown Derby name in different states. In 2008, at least three different companies had filed lawsuits over trademark protection of the Brown Derby name. The following year, the Ohio company filed a lawsuit in Florida to prevent Disney from opening a restaurant using the Brown Derby name in their Florida theme park. It would be nice if someone could find the actual judicial rulings in both cases since Disney obviously won.

I agree that a separate section (with citations) will be needed to be added about the lawsuits and trademark issues that would help distinguish the original Brown Derby from Girves Brown Derby and all of the other Brown Derbies. (BTW, don't forget to add your signatures to your comments.) -- 68.50.32.85 (talk) 03:59, 4 December 2017 (UTC)