Scenes of L.A. during WWII: The Brown Derby

Exterior of Hollywood Brown Derby Restaurant, showing awning

This appears to be the Hollywood Brown Derby at 1620-28 North Vine Street. The building originally had been designed for legendary director Cecil B. DeMille. This structure was demolished in 1994.

There were three Brown Derby Restaurants in Los Angeles during World War II. The original, hat-shaped Brown Derby Restaurant was built at the intersection of Wilshire and Alexandria in the mid-1920s: http://www.wilshirecenter.com/wilshire_corridor_history.htm. The trademark dome of the original Brown Derby evidently now adorns the roof of a strip mall that has been built on its site:
http://www.seeing-stars.com/ImagePages/BrownDerbyPhoto.shtml. A photo of the original Brown Derby is in the University of Southern California archives:
http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/arc/libraries/regional/zoombrownderby.html.

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