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....
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