Glamor, Inc.

By Hollywood standards, the famed Brown Derby's 20th anniversary was a quiet celebration. Rita Hayworth and Paul Whiteman posed for pictures. Charlie Chaplin and his fourth bride arrived. Hollywood adolescents gawked, clutching their autograph books, watching at the door of the onetime hamburger stand which has now become four restaurants doing a gross business of $2 million a year.

Most of California's boom-built, improbable, concrete roadside stands of 1923, shaped like coffeepots, lemons, pumpkins, setting hens, hot dogs, were fly-by-night curiosities. But the Brown Derby somehow became the rendezvous of glamor.

Hamburger and Capon. Founder of the Brown Derby was the late Herbert K. Somborn, movie producer, second of Gloria Swanson's four husbands. A coffee-bibber, Somborn wanted 20 cups a day. And he often sighed for his mother's home cooking. A restaurant seemed the only answer. He outlined the idea to his friend, legendary Wit Wilson Mizner. Cracked Mizner: "A restaurant like that would succeed--even if you called it the Brown Derby."*

Menu on opening day, July 19, 1923: hamburger, hot dog, melted cheese sandwich, chili, tamales, hot cakes, coffee, tea, milk, near beer. This week's daily menus, 20 years later, include nine hot entrees chosen from a list of 2,700 dishes, all `a la carte. Most expensive: New York cut steak, $3.25. Least expensive: hamburger, 35-c-. Most exotic (at $2.50): Le Coq Avin (boneless capon sauteed in butter, cognac; cooked in burgundy; served with chicken livers, truffles, mushrooms).

Spongecake & Catsup. The Brown Derby's solvency is due to dapper Robert Howard Cobb, 43, who is often mistaken for Actor William Powell ("I don't think Powell's quite as good an actor as I am"). Bob Cobb has managed the Brown Derby since its opening, is now president and biggest stockholder (cofounders Somborn and Mizner died ten years ago).

Sometimes the Derby has been almost bashed in. Once Cobb found himself $196,000 in the red with $2,400 on hand. He haggled all one night with creditors, got 17 moratorium agreements. Now he says his credit rating is AAA, unlimited.

Cobb has the knack of keeping one eye on a temperamental diner, one on the ledger. As a showman, he is beyond surprise. To one eccentric but steady patron, Bob Cobb's waiters always served, without blinking, a dish of spongecake, smothered in catsup. Says President Cobb, reminiscently: "You can do nearly anything you want with the public."

* In 1919, Gambler Mizner was convicted of operating a gambling house in Mineola, N.Y., was pardoned by Governor Al Smith.

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