Bob Cobb

Bob Cobb (1899-1970) embodied the American Dream. Rising from humble beginnings, he revolutionized both the restaurant industry and baseball entertainment in Los Angeles, California. His journey from a Montana boarding house to ownership of both the Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant and the Pacific Coast League’s Hollywood Stars exemplified how vision, determination, and an unwavering commitment to customer service could transform the way fans experience a ballgame.

Robert Howard Cobb was born in Moberly, Missouri, on February 8, 1899. His parents were Charles Ackley Cobb and Martha (née Wilhight), known as “Mattie.” He had one sibling: a sister named Shellie.1 Young Bob was raised in Billings, Montana, where his family moved when he was one year old. Charles Cobb became a cattle rancher.2 Bob learned the fundamentals of hospitality at his mother’s boarding house. Throughout his youth, he was “as much at home on the back of a horse flinging a lariat as he was wielding a spatula.”3 Thus Cobb developed the versatility – and love of cowboys – that would later serve him well in Hollywood.

A devastating fire at Montana Sash and Door Company in 1916 left Cobb without a job. At the age of 17, he set off for the City of Angels to find work and a new beginning. He was drawn less to the glamour of Hollywood but more to the large city population that offered a higher chance of landing employment.4 Cobb was not picky. He quickly found work as a messenger. He sold tickets to glass-bottom boat tours on Catalina Island. After gaining the trust of his employers, he developed his financial prowess as a bookkeeper.

In 1920, Cobb landed a job as a checker in the dining room of Lankershim Hotel, where he studied his customers’ likes and dislikes. He picked up additional income cooking burgers at a popular stand, which caught the attention of Hollywood restaurateur Herb Somborn in 1925. This meeting changed the trajectory of his career.

Somborn was a multimillionaire following a successful career as a shoe manufacturer, real estate investor, movie producer, and one of the industry’s first film distributors. A friend had once told him, “If you know anything about food, you can sell it out of a hat.”5 Somborn took this advice literally and hired an architect to design a building in the shape of a hat. Inside he opened a diner called the Brown Derby. The menu consisted of five items. A neon sign that hung outside encouraged Angelenos walking down Wilshire Boulevard to “Eat in the Hat.”

Impressed with Cobb’s skills as a grill cook, Somborn hired him as a utility player in the restaurant: head waiter, bookkeeper, and buyer. Cobb’s ambition drove him to open his own restaurant just before the Great Depression. After “Nickabob” quickly went under, he was hired back at the Brown Derby as a dishwasher. With the restaurant failing, Cobb was promoted to general manager to turn things around, which he did. He became vice president of the Brown Derby Corporation and opened another restaurant in Hollywood.6

The new location was the opposite of the gimmicky hat-shaped eatery. It was a fine dining experience that quickly attracted entertainment executives and actors like Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers. The biggest stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age were regular patrons of a restaurant that emphasized quality and class. Serving the city’s elite laid the foundation of Cobb’s hospitality. Later on, as a team owner, he showed fans at the ballpark the same level of respect as he did celebrities. No matter who you were, you deserved a world-class experience.

His creativity in the kitchen led to the invention of the famous Cobb Salad in 1937. The ingredients are laid out on a plate in neat rows: chopped romaine lettuce, tomato, bacon, chicken breast, a hard-boiled egg, avocado, chives, blue cheese, and red wine vinaigrette. Assembled impromptu late one night, it became a sensation among his restaurant’s guests, demonstrating Cobb’s knack for knowing what customers wanted before they did. Movie mogul Jack Warner regularly dispatched his chauffeur to pick up cartons of the salad.

Baseball had always been Cobb’s passion. In 1939, he leveraged his connections through both the Brown Derby and his marriage to actress Gail Patrick to achieve a lifelong dream of owning a baseball team. On December 16, 1936, he and Patrick had eloped in Tijuana, Mexico.7 They were regulars at red carpet premieres and horse races. A Los Angeles newspaper columnist labeled them “Hollywood’s Ideal Couple.”8

Among their friends were Bing Crosby, Clark Gable, and Henry Fonda, who would attend backyard swim parties and the Cobbs’ annual Christmas celebration. When the Hollywood Brown Derby added a private banquet room to the restaurant, they hosted a lavish debut party with dozens of famous guests – many of whom would later become Stars co-owners.

At this party, Cobb began to rally Hollywood’s aristocrats to purchase the struggling Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League. The team had become a laughingstock, so poor they once forfeited a game because someone forgot to load uniforms onto the team train.9 But where others saw failure, Cobb saw a chance to leave his mark on the game he loved.

With co-owner Victor Ford Collins, he transformed baseball ownership by forming the Hollywood Baseball Association, selling small stakes to entertainment industry figures, and creating what might be considered baseball’s first community-owned franchise. As part of this effort, Cobb spent an entire day on the phone with his movie star friends, asking them to join him in buying a baseball team. He lined up 18 of the 20 investors in one afternoon.

“No one was permitted to invest any big money,” wrote the Los Angeles Times, which described the Hollywood Stars as “a civic thing … plainly and simply, a Chamber of Commerce activity on the part of a group of people who want their little corner of the world to be better than all other corners.”10

Cobb understood that baseball could be both sport and entertainment. Long before modern innovators like Jesse Cole of the Savannah Bananas, Cobb recognized that fans came to the ballpark for more than just the game. Gilmore Field opened on May 2, 1939,11 with Gail “Ma” Patrick throwing out the first pitch.12 Comedian Joe E. Brown caught Gail Patrick’s first pitch as actress Jane Withers tried to hit it.13  At the ballpark, Cobb created an experience that merged Hollywood glamour with America’s pastime. The ballpark featured ladies’ lounges rivaling the finest theater powder rooms, a VIP lounge offering pregame entertainment and cocktails, and ushers dressed in gold-buttoned blazers who were trained in customer service like fine restaurant staff.14

His innovations made a lasting impact on baseball operations. The Stars pioneered various things that fans and players today take for granted:

• Television broadcasts (1939) – becoming the first team outside of New York City to televise games and the first minor-league team to do so,
• Batting helmets (1949),
• Lightweight uniforms (1950) – most notably played in short pants, and
• Between-innings infield grooming.15

Night baseball was new to the minor leagues at this time. Stadium lights had only been introduced in major league baseball in 1935. Cobb and the Stars other owners were determined to have a majority of Hollywood games played at night. General Electric provided reflective lights that enhanced the illumination of the field. Eight towers were installed at Gilmore Field that featured over 200 lights.

Cobb hired the food service company Jacobs Brothers to oversee the concessions and souvenir sales at Gilmore Field. Danny Goodman was assigned to handle the operation. Goodman went on to become a legendary stadium entertainment executive for the Los Angeles Dodgers. But at the time, he was instructed to take advantage of buying large quantities of hot dogs and other traditional menu items at low, bulk prices. This did not sit well with Cobb, who prided himself on top-quality food and service for his customers.

Cobb was infuriated to see what he called “Chinese peanuts and sleazy hot dogs on papier-mâché buns.” He insisted on premium concessions, battling with Goodman to serve high-quality hot dogs cooked on charcoal heaters and served on fresh milk buns. He kept prices low, selling the classed-up frankfurters for just a dime. The peanuts at Gilmore Field were piping hot and sold in jumbo containers.16

The coffee operation was particularly efficient. After brewing, it was served in large thermos containers that kept the drink hot for fans. They were offered real cream and sugar with their purchase. To ensure consistent quality, checkers were instructed to call back the coffee vendors every 20 minutes to replace their product with a freshly brewed batch.17 Cobb also expected exceptional hospitality from his staff. He stressed cleanliness and uniformity. There were strict appearance rules around employee hair and clothing.18

He advocated strongly for televising home games, understanding that broadcast exposure would build fan interest rather than hurt attendance. As early as 1953, Cobb envisioned an ultramodern ballpark featuring cabanas, restaurants, and private clubs – amenities that would become standard in modern stadiums decades later. Today’s Dodger Stadium Premium offerings, including the Stadium Club, Dugout Club, Champions Lounge, and the Tommy Lasorda-themed speakeasy, reflect Cobb’s prescient vision of baseball as upscale entertainment.

Bob Cobb, center, enjoys a game at Gilmore Field with California governor Earl Warren, left. Actor Bill Frawley is seated behind them. (Courtesy of the Cobb family)

Cobb’s acumen as a baseball executive was perhaps best exemplified in his complex relationship with Branch Rickey, the Hall of Fame president of multiple franchises who created the modern farm system. Initially skeptical of Rickey, whom he called “slick” in view of past player dealings when Rickey led the St. Louis Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers, Cobb nonetheless recognized the value in Rickey’s innovations. Inspired by Rickey’s farm system concept, Cobb helped establish the California League as a developmental circuit for the Pacific Coast League.

Their business relationship evolved in 194819 when Cobb negotiated with Rickey and his son, Branch Jr., a 20-year working agreement for the Stars to be a minor-league affiliate of the Dodgers. The partnership proved so successful that when Rickey became a shareholder in the Stars, he arranged for the team to become a Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate from 1951-52 and again from 1954-57. Rickey was the Pirates’ GM from 1950 to 1955.

What began as a cautious business relationship developed into a close friendship. The two men often traveled together on duck hunting expeditions to remote areas of Montana, where Cobb had spent his youth. In 1957, Rickey (after parting ways with the Pirates) became chairman of the board of the Stars.20 Rickey credited Cobb with getting him a job in 1962 as a senior consultant with the St. Louis Cardinals – via Cobb’s relationship with Cardinals president August Busch Jr.21

Cobb took on the role of Stars president and GM in March 1953. Beyond his role with the Stars, Cobb was a significant voice in Pacific Coast League politics during a pivotal era. As the American population shifted south and west in the late 1940s, the PCL saw an opportunity to establish itself as a third major league – in addition to the MLB’s National and American Leagues. The league had legitimate credentials – 57 players on 1948 major-league rosters had come from PCL teams, and the league was attracting high-caliber managers, including several former big-league skippers.

In a 1948 interview with H.G. Salsinger of the Detroit News, Cobb framed the difference between major and minor leagues simply as “size of parks, attendance, prices of admission and players’ salaries. That’s about all.” However, he also pointed out the PCL’s unique position, noting, “We are classed with [the American Association and International League], but we outdraw both. What is more, we pay higher salaries than either.”22

When PCL president Pants Rowland proposed making the PCL a “Pacific Major League”23 that would rank above Triple-A but below the majors, Cobb expressed skepticism about the plan. He notably stated, “There is no way we can build up to major league caliber if the majors are permitted to come out here each year and take the cream of the players we develop.” This quote encapsulated the fundamental challenge facing the PCL in its quest for major-league status.24

When the Dodgers announced their move to Los Angeles for the 1958 season, Cobb demonstrated his characteristic grace and civic mindedness. It’s notable that in 1955 Cobb advocated that Gilmore Field be located in Chavez Ravine. Rebuffed by the voters of Los Angeles,25 he later pitched the site to Walter O’Malley – owner of the then-Brooklyn Dodgers – who fell in love with the idea. When O’Malley came to Los Angeles in 1957 on a fact-finding mission, he insisted on meeting with Cobb before he met with the politicians.

Cobb negotiated with the Pacific Coast League about where the Stars could move, with Long Beach as serious contender and the only California locality that bid for the Stars.26 In the end, Cobb sold the team to investors from Salt Lake City for a price he felt was far too low. Rather than be bitter over the Stars’ forced relocation, he became an enthusiastic Dodger supporter, working to secure passage of Proposition B that enabled Dodger Stadium’s construction. The Brown Derby even sponsored a congratulatory advertisement in the Los Angeles Times when the franchise won its first championship in Los Angeles in 1959.

According to Cobb’s obituary in The Sporting News, he also helped attract the Los Angeles Angels expansion franchise and served on that club’s advisory board.27 Only the second part of that statement is accurate. Cobb was, however, close friends with the Angels original owner, Gene Autry. In addition to his advisory board role, he was also an Angels box seat holder until his passing.

Cobb’s impact on baseball extended far beyond Los Angeles. The California League has since sent more than 2,700 players to the major leagues, including 14 Hall of Famers. In a gesture connecting his past to baseball’s future, he founded the Billings Mustangs, bringing professional baseball to his childhood home in Montana. The Mustangs’ home ballpark from 1947 to 2007 was named Cobb Field.28

Beyond his business acumen, Cobb was known for his genuine warmth and sincerity. Despite ranking third in a newspaper poll of best-dressed men in Los Angeles, he remained approachable and authentic. He remembered details about regular customers, celebrated their special occasions, and treated everyone – from movie stars to casual fans – with equal respect.

Cobb passed away from cancer on March 21, 1970. He was 71. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.29 Survivors included his second wife, Sally Wright, whom he married in 1945. Sally’s obituary in 1998 noted that the former model held what was believed to be the first fashion show on a baseball diamond as the Stars conducted a benefit for the Assistance League of Southern California.30

Cobb and Gail Patrick had separated in 1940; their divorce became final in November 1941.31 Patrick testified that Cobb was “moody and morose…frequently told her he didn’t wish to stay married, and that the marriage couldn’t possibly last.”32 When he remarried, Bob became stepfather to Sally’s daughter Peggy; they had a very warm relationship.33

At the time of his death, Cobb was about to receive a special civic award from the Los Angeles-Anaheim chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association34. It would have been a fitting tribute to a man who had done so much to elevate both dining and baseball in Los Angeles. Though the Brown Derby’s emblematic hat-shaped building and Gilmore Field are now just memories, Cobb’s vision of baseball as sophisticated entertainment continues to shape the fan experience today.

Every major league park now offers the kind of upscale amenities and entertainment options that Cobb pioneered at Gilmore Field. The sophisticated concessions, luxury seating areas, and focus on fan experience that characterize modern baseball all trace their lineage to Cobb’s innovations with the Hollywood Stars.

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Bill Lamb, and fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo.

Sources

As is evident from the Notes, Dan Taylor’s book – Lights, Camera, Fastball: How the Hollywood Stars Changed Baseball (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021) – formed the foundation of this biography.

Along with the other works cited in the Notes, the authors also relied on the following.

Online

www.geni.com

www.findagrave.com

Articles

Stephen M. Daniels, “The Hollywood Stars,” Baseball Research Journal, Society for American Baseball Research, 1980.

Notes

1 Dan Taylor, Lights, Camera, Fastball: How the Hollywood Stars Changed Baseball  (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021), 2.

2 J.G. Taylor Spink, “Caterer Cobb Garnishes the Game with New Ideas,” The Sporting News, December 28, 1939: 4.

3 Taylor, Lights, Camera, Fastball, 2.

4 Taylor, Lights, Camera, Fastball, 2-3.

5 Taylor, Lights, Camera, Fastball, 4.

6 Taylor, Lights, Camera, Fastball, 15.

7 “Gail Patrick to Ask Divorce,” Cumberland (Maryland) Evening Times, October 29, 1940: 1.

8 Taylor, Lights, Camera, Fastball, 20.

9 Taylor, Lights, Camera, Fastball, 35.

10 Stephen M. Daniels, “The Hollywood Stars,” Baseball Research Journal, Society for American Baseball Research, 1980. Original citation not presently available.

11 On the same day that Gilmore Field opened, Lou Gehrig’s streak of 2,130 consecutive games played ended.

12 Maryann Hudson, “It Was More Than a Minor Pastime,” Los Angeles Times, October 19, 1990: 199.

13 Read Kendall, “Movie Celebrities Attend Opening of Gilmore Field,” Los Angeles Times, May 3, 1939: 42.

14“Hollywood Stars in Their Own New Home.” The Sporting News, May 11, 1939: 14.

15 Taylor, Lights, Camera, Fastball, 224.

16 Taylor, Lights, Camera, Fastball, 61.

17 Taylor, Lights, Camera, Fastball, 61.

18 Taylor, Lights, Camera, Fastball, 63.

19 Al Wolf, “Dodgers Sign Working Agreement with Stars,” Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1948: 49.

20 Taylor, Lights, Camera, Fastball, 325.

21 “Rickey Set for New Job,” Monrovia (California) News-Post, December 20, 1962: 8.

22 Paul J. Zingg and Mark D. Medeiros, Runs, Hits, and an Era: The Pacific Coast League, 1903-58 (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1994), 127.

23 “Prexy Pants Rowland Says PCL May Tack a ‘Major’ to its Name,” Chico (California) Enterprise-Record, January 7, 1948: 9.

24 Steven P. Gietschier, Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2023), 413.

25 “Between the Lines,” Sacramento Bee, August 23, 1955: 26.

26 Daniels, “The Hollywood Stars,” above.

27 “Obituaries,” The Sporting News, April 4, 1970: 32.

28 Sarah R. Ingber, Davy Andrews, and Roger Cormier, “Too Far From Town: Billings Mustangs,” Baseball Prospectus, April 28, 2020 (www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/58523/too-far-from-town-billings-mustangs/).

29 “Robert H. Cobb (1899-1970) – Find a Grave…” Findagrave.com, 2020, www.findagrave.com/memorial/8583/robert_h-cobb. Accessed 3 Apr. 2025.

30 Myrna Oliver, “Sally Cobb; Co-Wrote Book on Brown Derby,” Los Angeles Times, September 24, 1998: B6.

31 “Gail Patrick Granted Final Divorce Decree,” McAllen (Texas) Daily Press, November 24, 1941: 4.

32 “Movie Actress Awarded Divorce,” Clovis (New Mexico) News-Journal, November 14, 1940: 8.

33 Peggy Cobb Walsh obituary, Los Angeles Times, March 20, 2003: 36.

34 “Baseball Awards to Fregosi,” Palm Springs (California) Desert Sun, April 3, 1970: 15.