🚀 go-pugleaf

M. Fuss <mrfuss@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:84j2su$22g$1@nntp5.atl.mindspring.net...
> eyespots@pacbell.net (Matt Kelly) wrote:
>
> >The former Brown Derby on Los Feliz Blvd at Hillhurst has been re-opened
> >for several years as the Derby.  It's pretty much ground zero for the
> >swing dance revival in Los Angeles.  Even on weeknights a line winds
> >around the corner waiting to get in to watch the nightly live bands or
> >take free dance lessons in the banquet room.
>
> I don't believe that location was ever a Brown Derby. It was Michael's
> for decades before the current owners arrived, and was originally
> built as "The Hat," unrelated to the Brown Derby. I lived in Los Feliz
> for 20 years, and this is what the "old timers" told me. I think I
> have a history of Los Feliz somewhere and will try to confirm this.
>
> Marshall Fuss


Actually, it was built in 1926 as "Willard's Chicken Inn" by none other than
Cecil B. DeMille.  It was a Brown Derby from 1940 to 1960, then Michael's
until this date in 1992, then it became The Derby.

see  http://www.the-derby.com/

I would have loved to have seen it in its Willard's incarnation.