C.C. Brown's ice cream parlor, where movie stars ranging from Mary Pickford to Marlon Brando savored hot fudge sundaes, is closing down after decades as a Hollywood landmark.
Touted as the birthplace of hot fudge, the ice cream parlor stands a few doors down from Mann's Chinese Theater in the heart of Hollywood, where thousands of tourists flock every day.Hot fudge fans by the hundreds lined the sidewalk Saturday on Hollywood Boulevard, waiting hours for their last scoop of C.C. Brown's ice cream.
"When I read about it closing, I just started crying," said William Campbell, who has been eating there since he was a boy. "I came here on my wedding day, cruised over here from the church, ate some ice cream and we went on our honeymoon."
Owner Jo Ellen Schumacher, 53, decided to shut it down because she can no longer operate it as a family business. Her husband died two years ago, and her eight grown children have other aspirations.
The ice cream parlor opened in 1906 in downtown Los Angeles. It was moved in 1929 to the Hollywood Boulevard site, where celebrity customers included Joan Crawford, Bob Hope and Jack Lemmon.
Brando was a regular who in the 1970s used to get his sundae and take it out to his limousine, while his family ate inside C.C. Brown's.
"He didn't like to have people gawking at him," said Tim Schu-mach-er, 30.
It joins a growing list of Los Angeles-area landmark eateries that have shut down in recent years, among them the Brown Derby in Hollywood, Chasen's in Beverly Hills and Ship's coffee shops in West Los Angeles and Culver City.
C.C. Brown's ice cream sauces won't disappear though. They'll be available via mail order, the Internet and in a few specialty shops.