Bill Holden gets the Cobb Salad he ordered in the hilarious Brown Derby scene from the I Love Lucy show. The Brown Derby was the birthplace of the Cobb salad invented by owner Robert H. Cobb. The original Cobb salad recipe uses a French Dressing – not blue cheese. Get the Brown Derby Old-fashioned French dressing recipe at the end of this post.
The Cobb Salad was invented by Bob Cobb of the Brown Derby however another house salad the Derby Mixed Green Salad was very popular as a side dish. In the Brown Derby Scene, episode “L.A. At Last!,” Lucy selects a tossed salad from the menu which the waiter explains is a mixed green salad. The Derby Mixed Green Salad recipe can be found in the Brown Derby Cookbook.
Make your own Mixed Green Salad and the Derby Old-fashioned French Dressing to go with it from the original recipes pictured below from The Brown Derby Cookbook.
Derby Mixed Green Salad
Serves 4
1/2 head romaine cut in 1-in pieces
1/2 head (medium size) Lettuce, pulled
1/2 bunch watercress
1/2 head chicory
2 tomatoes,peeled and quartered
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup Brown Derby Old-fashioned French Dressing (see recipe below)
Toss the greens in a large cold salad bowl and mix lightly. Garnish with the tomatoes. Sprinkle chopped celery on top. Just before serving add French Dressing and toss lightly.
Brown Derby Old-Fashioned French Dressing, 1/ 1/2 qts.
This is the French Dressing which became so popular among the stars that the Brown Derby was prevailed upon to bottle it for home use. The cup of water is optional depending upon the degree of oiliness desired in this dressing.
1 cup water
1 cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp. sugar
Juice of 1.2 lemon
2 1/2 tbs.* salt
1 tbs. ground black pepper
1 tbs. Worcestershire Sauce
1 tbs. English mustard
1 bead garlic chopped
1 cup olive oil
3 cups salad oil
(*Uk readers note a US tablespoon = British dessert spoon)
Blend together all ingredients except oils. Then add olive and salad oils and mix well again. Chill. Shake before serving.
This dressing keeps well in the refrigerator. Can be made and stored in a 2 qt. Mason jar.
In the scene pictured above from “I Love Lucy” episode Lucy Meets Charles Boyer we see Ethel speaking to Lucy on the set of Ricardo’s hotel room in Paris. In the background we can see the owl bookends we looked at before in the Ricardo’s living room, later they moved to a shelf in Ethel’s living room when she got Lucy’s old furniture, and now the are in the Paris hotel set. The book title appears to be “An Introduction to French” and a possible candidate for this book is:
In the spisode “Lucy Gets Homesick in Italy”, after climbing the 4 flights up to get to her room in the Italian hotel, dubbed “the bridal suite” Lucy sits down to recuperate.
Next to her is a table with a unique, antique French Brass candlestick sitting there.
(Odd that it seems to be French and not Italian.)
The prisms were taken off and the top part is slightly different, but looks very close to this Girandole, complete with base.
When Lucy promises Ricky in the episode “Lucy Goes to Monte Carlo” that she and Ethel will not go to the Casino, she picks up
a Michelin PARIS guidebook to find a restaurant. Of course she picks “Le Grille” that just HAPPENS to be IN the casino.
While maybe not the exact book, these are very close:
In the I Love Lucy Season 5 episode Paris at Last Lucy sets out to explore Paris and “discovers” an artist whose paintings she hopes will become valuable some day. However Lucy’s meets another kind of artist – a con artist. The painting Lucy buys is a view of Notre Dame Cathedral from the Left Bank. Of course this scene is filmed in the studio, however assuming the “artist” is painting the scene before him, this places Lucy and the artist Charpentier in the vicinity of Quai Saint Michel. The building with the awning to the right of the painting is Hotel Le Notre-Dame SAINT-MICHEL which I recognized immediately because it is where I stayed when I was in Paris a few weeks ago. It is an interesting boutique hotel in a listed Paris building, with interior decor by Christian Lacroix. It’s a great location for exploring the area and we had a view of Notre Dame from the room and a Brasserie on the ground floor under the awning. Just around the corner is the famous Shakespeare & Co bookstore.
Similar Scene by French artist Eugène Galien-Laloue for sale on eBay or download from Wikimedia HERE
Incidentally, Lucy meets the artist in front of the American Express office, a film clip of American Express at 11 Rue Scribe, Paris, is used to establish the scene. This is approx 2 miles away from the Notre Dame location the artist is supposed to be painting.
The American Express building at 11 Rue Scribe, Paris, is now home to a Nespresso Cafe and is no longer an American Express office.
In the Season 5 episode Lucy Meets the Queen the Ricardos and the Mertzes arrive in London, and Lucy and Ethel go to the palace in hopes of seeing the Queen. Ethel is seen referring to a copy of the Britain 1955 edition of Fodor’s Modern Guides – Lucy is hoping to catch a glimpse of the Queen but gets distracted when she tries in vain to make one of the palace guards smile, and as a result she misses her chance when the Queen does come out.
The guide book Ethel refers to is titled Britain 1955 from the Fodor’s Modern Guides series – Fodor’s Modern Guides, Inc was founded in 1949 to provide practical information for tourists, with updated yearly editions . For that era, this was new concept in guides books which became essential for the 1950’s traveler.
Find Fodor’s Modern Guides at amazon
Currently there appears to be a copy at :
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=8649948430
Find Fodor’s Modern Guides on eBay