Ernest Lessing "Ernie" Byfield (November 3, 1889 – 10 February 1950) was a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

ier and

restaurateur A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspec ...

from the 1930s through the 1950s in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Byfield operated the Hotel Sherman Co., including the

Ambassador East The Ambassador Chicago, known for many decades as the Ambassador East, is a historic hotel in Chicago, established in 1926. In their heyday, both the hotel and its iconic restaurant, The Pump Room, were frequented by celebrities. Location The h ...

and

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

, the

Sherman House Hotel The Sherman House was a hotel in Chicago, Illinois that operated from 1837 until 1973, with four iterations standing at the same site at the northwest corner of Randolph Street and Clark Street (Chicago), Clark Street. Long one of the city's major ...

, the

Fort Dearborn Fort Dearborn was a United States fort built in 1803 beside the Chicago River, in what is now Chicago, Illinois. It was constructed by troops under Captain John Whistler and named in honor of Henry Dearborn, then United States Secretary of War. ...

and the

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

hotels and

The Pump Room The Pump Room was a restaurant established on October 1, 1938 by Ernie Byfield. It closed in 2017, then reopened under different names. It is located in the Ambassador Chicago hotel, formerly known as the Ambassador East, on the northeast corne ...

and College Inn restaurants.

Biography

Byfield was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

on November 3, 1889.Chicago Jewish History: "Ernest Byfield: The Pump Room and The Pageant" by William Roth
September 2006 His father, Joseph, the son of innkeepers in Hungary, immigrated to Chicago in 1867 as a teen and changed the family name from Beifeld to Byfield. His father worked for Marshall Field & Company and then went into business with his brother. Byfield is most famous as the creator and owner of

, a restaurant and bar frequented by the luminaries of the stage and screen from the 1930s to the present. The Pump Room was the preferred stopping-off point for celebrities changing trains in Chicago while travelling between

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Stage and screen stars of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s would be invited to join Byfield in ''Booth 1'' at the restaurant and would often boast to their friends that they had "lunched with Ernie" while they were in Chicago. The Pump Room has been described as the most famous restaurant in Chicago and was known for bringing theatrics to the restaurant business. The number of

flambé :''Flambé is also a type of ceramic glaze.'' Flambé (, , ; also spelled flambe) is a cooking procedure in which alcohol is added to a hot pan to create a burst of flames. The word means "flamed" in French. Flambéing is often associated with t ...

dishes served by his restaurant, The Pump Room, was noted and started a trend in the post-war United States.

Personal life and death

Byfield was married three times. His first wife was Gladys Rosenthal who was also Jewish; she was the daughter of Benjamin J. Rosenthal, the founder of the Chicago Mail Order Company (later known as Aldens). They had two sons: Hugh and Ernest, Jr before divorcing in 1928. His second wife was Kathryn "Kitty" Priest Rand, a

gentile Gentile () is a word that usually means "someone who is not a Jew". Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, sometimes use the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is generally used as a synonym for ...

; they had one child, Jean, and soon after divorced (she would later marry film producer-director

Mervyn LeRoy Mervyn LeRoy (; October 15, 1900 – September 13, 1987) was an American film director and producer. In his youth he played juvenile roles in vaudeville and silent film comedies. During the 1930s, LeRoy was one of the two great practitioners of ...

).Los Angeles Times: "Kathryn LeRoy; Philanthropist, Civic Leader"
February 08, 1996 He died on February 10, 1950. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall attended the funeral as did Chicago mayor

Martin Kennelly Martin Henry Kennelly (August 11, 1887 – November 29, 1961) was an American politician and businessman. He served as the 47th Mayor of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois from April 15, 1947 until April 20, 1955. Kennelly was a member of the Democr ...

. His third wife was beauty salon owner Adele Sharpe Thomas, a

who was thirty years younger; they remained married until his death.

Footnotes

References

* "The Fabulous Pump Room: I, II, III, IV," Lucius Beebe, ''Gourmet'', October, 1963. * * "10 Great Places to Drink in a Historic Bar's Ambiance," Tim Dillon, ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'', December 26, 2003. * "Pump Room Wins Back Coveted Fourth Diamond," ''Chicago Sun Times'', April 27, 2004.

External links

The Pump Room
{{DEFAULTSORT:Byfield, Ernie American hoteliers Businesspeople from Chicago American restaurateurs American Jews 1889 births 1950 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople