September 1936
Some Wait For Fame And some Wait On Tables
"Nick' Formerly Headwaiter At The Brown Derby, Recalls His Experiences Serving The Stars.
As told to Muriel Babcock
ALL head waiters have nervous indigestion—particularly those who work in Hollywood. But that's natural. By the time you take an order for a rare steak without any seasoning and a glass of grapefruit juice, for Suzie Blotz, one for raw vegetable salad with non-fattening mineral oil dressing forSadie Glutz, rush through a couple of lobsters for Gary Cooper, and get Papa and Mama Tourist satisfied with a 40-cent plate of scrambled eggs, you don't care much about eating. You have indigestion from trying to keep other people's digestions working well.
People are always asking me what movie stars like to eat. Why, I don't know. They are just like everybody else with their food preferences. Some like cold, some hot food. Jean Harlow likes sour cream and cottage cheese salads and always a glass of claret wine with a meal. James Cagney likes sea food salads, while Pat O'Brien enjoys stews and Irish bacon and eggs.
Marlene Dietrich has an appetite like a man. She eats hearty things such as veal cutlets, pot roasts and the like.
Herbert Marshall is not only most particular about the way his food is served, but he orders a meal beautifully. At the same moment this fastidious gentleman who has his tea every afternoon at three o'clock, is partial to our American sardines and rye bread for luncheon or a late snack.
Shirley Temple is my sweetheart! Isn't she everybody's? She adores mocha cake and her mother won't let her eat it! On St. Valentine's Day, I took a cake that we had baked especially for her in the Fox-20th Century kitchens, to her in her dressing room, but her mother refused to let her eat it.
"Could I just stick my finger in the cake?" Shirley whispered to me. I said, "Of course." So I stood with my back to Mrs. Temple so she couldn't see, and Shirley too kher little finger, plunged it deep into the cake and licked it off. She was as happy and probably happier inside her tummy, than if she'd eaten as much as she wanted.
With suggestions from the headwaiter, most people can make up their minds what they want to eat within a very few minutes. But two who used to take their time were Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., when they were first married. They would talk sweet nothings to each other for a half to a whole hour before they even looked at the menu. That was at the Brown Derby. Later, I waited on Miss Crawford and Mr. Franchot Tone. While these, too, were romantic luncheons, there was no such delay about ordering, and one day I witnessed a very amusing battle between the two of them over food. Joan, as many other famous women I could name, always likes to give something from her plate to her companion. She never seems to have enjoyed her luncheon until she has done this. But one day, Mr. Tone rebelled strenuously against tasting her proverbial lamb chop and green salad, and Joan was very hurt. He was sweet but firm about it, and right there I decided to bet on Mr. Tone as being the guy that would wear the pants in that family!
I never hurry anybody away from their eating. Sometimes in the Vine Street Derby, I used to go crazy. Sightseers would come in early, order twenty-five or fifty cents worth of food, and spend four hours at a table just gaping at movie stars although I needed their space for important, working picture people who were standing in line at the door. But I never hurried them. I don't think it is a good idea to rush anybody out of a restaurant or to make them feel, no matter what the circumstances, that they are being rushed. A person should take plenty of time to eat his food and to digest it.
Janet Gaynor eats very sensibly. For lunch she enjoys , a green salad best of all. I always fix her a special one of green vegetables, chopped up while meat of chicken, chopped eggs, and a mixed dressing. It is delicious really. She doesn't care for desserts. Yes, some of our women stars, despite the stories you hear of lamb chop and pineapple starvation diets, love their desserts. Sally Blane is one. She has a passion for cheese cake. At anytime, at any meal, she can be persuaded to eat a generous piece.
You would never know Constance and Joan Bennett were sisters from the way they eat. Connie likes cold cuts and hearty steaks and is also partial to chopped up tenderloin made-to-order in stew fashion with fresh tomatoes, fresh mushrooms, and a Sherry wine sauce. Joan Bennett likes delicate sea food, salads and tea!
Wally Beery, for a big man, is very fussy about his food. His favorite luncheon dish is a green salad with a sour French dressing. With this he takes about lour cups of coffee. Tom Mix, on the other hand, likes corn beef and cabbage and drinks only beer. The Countess dj I rasso usually eats lamb chops and mushrooms. Kay Francis and Carole Lombard are loud of pineapple salads. Charlie Chaplin likes cherry-stone clams. I'll never forget how annoyed Mr. Chaplin was on one occasion when he had to eat caviar because we didn't have enough cherry-stone clams. Most people would have been thrilled at the idea of caviar, but not Charlie!
Contrary to what many people think, waiters would rather serve someone who is fussy about their food than someone who doesn't care what is set before them. They appreciate a knowledge of good, well-cooked food, and thev appreciate discrimination in ordering. They really don't mind people who are on special diets for they know those people will be thoughtful in ordering and appreciate what is set before them.
Speaking of diets, if you are working Under high pressure and have trouble digesting your food, I would suggest that you stav away from rich dressings and bread and butter. You should eat raw vegetable salads, boiled chicken, boiled vegetables, even boiled potatoes. You might eat a saddle of lamb once a week or a steak, but keep your meat intake light.
Everywhere you go in Hollywood now, they have a non-fattening mineral oil dressing, and very good it is for anybody who wants to retain the girlish figure. Who do you suppose figured that out? Louella Parsons, the famous movie columnist. She used to bring me the oil in a bottle to the Derby, and then I would mix a dressing for her especially. Other people saw her having it and began to ask for it, and so we named it the Louella Parsons non-fattening salad dressing, and if you'd like to use it on your own salads, here's the way you mix it: Lemon, mineral oil, a dash of Worcestershire, salt and pepper, and a little dry English mustard. You can put in a little catsup, if you wish.
Men stars, on the whole, eat more sub-stantially than the women. I suppose this is because they don't have to— or at any rate most of them won't— worry about their figures.
Irvin Cobb likes stews, almost any kind, and is very fond of Irish bacon. Will Rogers was never fussy about his food. He always liked what he called a Henry King cocktail, half tomato juice and half clam juice, and then he would take anything else on the menu I recommended.
Warner Baxter likes chili, and how he can cook it himself! John Boles likes roast beef and our chef's salad of lettuce, tomato, lobster, shrimp, and chopped egg. Eddie Cantor likes corn beef and cabbage and Freddie March is very fond of pigs knuckles.
Norma Shearer eats out rarely, but on her return from Europe with Irving Thalberg, the two of them ate their first meal with me at the Beverly Brown Derby. I thought to myself, "They've been away from
home and eating very rich food. I will suggest something simple." So I suggested steaks, baked potatoes, and a green salad, and they said that was fine, and what is more, ate everything set before them.
I remember the famous day when Miss Marlene Dietrich appeared at the Derby wearing a gray man's suit. I was very surprised, in fact, completely knocked off my feet, but a good headwaiter never shows what he feels so I just bowed and said, "Come right in, Miss Dietrich." I gave her the very first table, one that I had always reserved for David Burton, the director. When he came in, I said, "You will excuse me, Mr. Burton, I've given your table to someone else. See— I thought it was you!"
We used to enforce a "you-can't-come-in- without-your-coat" rule at the Derby. I kept two or three coats around for men who came in in their shirt sleeves, that is, men I knew. Anybody else, I would just say, "I am sorry, we do not serve gentlemen who are not dressed."
Once Al Jolson and Harry Cohn came in, both in their shirt sleeves, and when I tried to offer them coats, they got very mad and walked out. On the other hand, Lyle Talbot almost walked out IN the coat I loaned him. He said he wanted to keep it as a souvenir. Wally Beery used to come in, coat on his arm, see me, and like a naughty small boy about to be reprimanded, say, "All right, all right, Nick, I'll put it on!"
In a job like mine, you have to be a master diplomat. In Hollywood, people want to be placed, not where they can see, but where they can be seen. They not only want to be seen but to see each other and
to be able to holler back and forth to one another. I've always prided myself in putting my people where they belong. When I was head waiter at the Brown Derby, I was adamant in placing stars on one side of the room and executives on the other, and agents away from both groups!
The saddest I have felt was the day Mary Pickford confided to Louella Parsons, over the luncheon table at the Derby, that she was going to divorce Douglas Fairbanks. Miss Pickford was in tears and so was Miss Parsons. As I realized what was going on, I let no one wait on them but myself. What did they eat? Salads, if I remember rightly, Miss Pickford had a sour cream and cottage cheese salad with Miss Parsons' special mineral oil dressing, and Miss Parsons had a cold slaw salad. I wouldn't say these were the right things either for' the two woe begone women they were!
The late Lilyan Tashman was one of the most particular guests, yet Miss Tashman was one of our best customers. She and Eddie Lowe loved caviar and thought nothing of sitting down and eating $25 worth before starting out on their real meal.
Gary Cooper has a passion for lobster. He once ate four at a sitting. Douglas Fairbanks' favorite dish is little pancakes and sausages.
Are the tips good in Hollywood? About five years ago when I just went to the Derby I used to average four or five hundred dollars in tips every month, but I don't think any Hollywood headwaiter has seen that much in a long time. I guess maybe people could again afford to tip generously, but it is the spirit of the times to give less. Some people don't tip at all. Some always do. Douglas Fairbanks used to give me $10 every now and then, and Tom Mix always $5.
One day five years ago, I found a one hundred dollar bill in my back pocket. I knew it was a tip, but I knew it was far too much. Somebody had made a mistake. I thought carefully. I remembered all the people who had given me money that day. You see, I never looked at the bills as they were handed to me. I just put them in my pocket. There were two twos, two fives, one ten, and then this $100 tucked away in the pocket this day. I had a sudden' hunch. Mrs. Evalyn Walsh McLean, the famous Washington newspaper publisher who recently wrote "Father Struck It Rich," had been a guest, and it was highly possible she had been the unwitting donor of the large sum. So the late Wilson Mizner, who was one of my bosses, called her up.
"Did you lose $100 today?" he asked. She said, "Yes." He said, "Nick at the Derby has it for you."
She was a very rich lady. When I gave it back to her, she said, "No, we will split. I must say you are the most honest restaurant man I have ever seen. You take .I50."
Two nights later, she came in again and tipped me the other $50, to my great astonishment!
Many sad and many important things have happened in my restaurant booths. We cannot help but know about them because we cannot help but hear conversations. Naturally, discreetness is our watchword, and I have forgotten more things than I remember.
September 1936