John Schumacher; Ran Famed Ice Cream Parlor
John Schumacher, the chemist who owned and operated Hollywood’s legendary C. C. Brown’s ice cream parlor for more than three decades, has died. He was 69.
Schumacher, who lived in Calabasas, died Monday in Valley Presbyterian Hospital, said his son Ted.
Ted Schumacher said the family--Schumacher’s wife, Jo Ellen, and his eight children--will continue to operate the shop, closing only today for the funeral.
The main attraction of C. C. Brown’s, according to Schumacher, has always been its hot fudge sundaes with the sauce served in a ceramic pitcher. The sundaes are ordered by three-quarters of the customers.
“The hot fudge sauce is a secret formula. We haven’t changed it since 1906,” John Schumacher told The Times in 1987. “Really, it’s like melted candy.”
Ted Schumacher said his father was in the kitchen--dressed in his trademark white shirt, white slacks, white socks and white shoes--making the sauce, sandwiches and candy until illness forced him to stop about a month ago.
The old-fashioned ice cream parlor, which has withstood competition from a modern Haagen-Dazs shop near Mann’s Chinese Theater, was created by Clarence Clifton Brown in 1906. Brown, an Ohio candy maker who brought his marble table and other tools west in a covered wagon, set up shop at 7th and Hill streets. The parlor moved to its present site at 7007 Hollywood Blvd. in 1928, complete with its original dark booths, horsehair upholstery and metal serving dishes to keep the ice cream cold.
Schumacher, who always wanted to be in business for himself, started buying into C. C. Brown’s in 1946 and finally acquired it from Brown’s son, Cliff, in 1963.
The new proprietor was so determined to maintain the colorful business as generations remembered it that he did not even change prices until 1981.
Partly because of Schumacher’s secret fudge sauce, C. C. Brown’s was one of only 24 ice cream stores in the nation recommended in David Hoffman’s whimsical guidebook, “The Joy of Pigging Out.”
“We get all kinds in here,” Schumacher said. “We have dieters who come in and break down. We have people who come in and eat here every day--and they don’t look fat, no matter what.”
The shop has served ice cream aficionados from Mickey Cohen to Ronald Reagan, Clark Gable to Michael J. Fox. After Reagan was shot in Washington, staunch Republican Schumacher sent him a get-well package of fudge. The President’s thank-you letter was quickly taped to the shop’s display counter.
Schumacher’s wife dipped the sundaes and his eight children from two marriages grew up in the place, doing their homework in the booths and helping to serve customers.
In addition to his wife and Ted, Schumacher is survived by his children David, Kim, John, Tim, Joseph, Heather and Heidi, and six grandchildren.
Funeral services are to be held today at 11 a.m. at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills.
