George Rector
878-1947was a restaurateur, raconteur and food authority who wrote several cookbooks in the 1920s and '30s. He appeared on radio on the
Columbia Broadcasting System
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
in ''Dine with George Rector''
["George Rector, 69, Noted Host, Dead]
, ''New York Times'', November 27, 1947, p. 31 and played himself in at least one movie, ''
Every Day's a Holiday'' (1937), with
Mae West
Mae West (born Mary Jane West; August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy ...
.
In the introduction to his 1939 book, ''Home on the Range'', Rector described himself as "a sort of food representative at large", as well as an "author of several books, of a series of ''
Saturday Evening Post'' articles, and of a column published by 22 newspapers—been filmed—talked to the national radio audience".
Biography
Rector was born in Chicago, where his father—Charles E. Rector—ran Rector's Oyster House. He claimed his father took him out of
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
where he was studying law, and sent him to Paris to learn how to make a sauce for filet of sole. Doubt has been cast on parts of this story.
Rector and his father ran several restaurants in New York State and Chicago. In ''Home on the Range'', he wrote that he got his start in the business peeling potatoes and cleaning chickens in his father's kitchens.
At Rector's on Broadway in New York City, he and his father were known for serving celebrities of the 1910s. George Rector's ''New York Times'' obituary stated Rector's was "a leading resort of the theatrical, financial and social worlds of those days".
The restaurant closed with the coming of prohibition.
Rector's Broadway location gained fame in a 1909 Broadway musical, ''
The Girl from Rector's
''The Girl from Rector's'' is a play written by Paul M. Potter. The play is a sex farce involving several couples in a tangle of adulterous affairs, and was considered indecent by many critics, as well as some government officials who censored p ...
''. The girl was fictional.
Rector also operated
Frontier House
''Frontier House'' is a historical reality television series that originally aired on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States from April 29 to May 3, 2002. The series followed three family groups that agreed to live as homest ...
in Lewiston, New York, which is now on the Register of Historic Places.
Rector died at Doctors Hospital, in New York City, November 26, 1947, at the age of 69.
His widow, Mabelle Rector, died in their Stamford, Connecticut, home less than two months later at the age of 56.
"Mrs. Rector Found Dead
, ''New York Times'', January 13, 1948, p. 52
See also
*Hotel Claridge
The Hotel Claridge was a 16-story building on Times Square in Manhattan, New York City, at the southeast corner of Broadway and 44th Street. Originally known as the Hotel Rector, it was built of brick in the Beaux-arts style in 1910–1911. Th ...
References
Bibliography
Books by George Rector:
* ''The Girl from Rector's'', Doubleday, Page & Company, 1927;
* ''The Rector Cook Book'', Chicago, Ill. Rector Pub. Co., 1928;
* ''A la Rector'', Copyright The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, 1933;
* ''Dine at Home with Rector'', E.P. Dutton & Co, Inc 1937 (Kirkus Reviews, Apr 01, 1937, Furnas, J. C.);
* ''Dining in New York with Rector'', Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1939 (Kirkus Reviews, Jun 15, 1939)
* ''Home at the Range'', Rector Publishing 1939
Book about George Rector:
* ''Rector's Naughty '90s Cookbook'', by Alexander Kirkland assisted by Muriel Shaffer, Doubleday, 1949, (Kirkus Reviews, Jun 15, 1949 - Kirkland, Alexander, and Kirkus Reviews, Nov 01, 1949 - Kirkland, Alexander)
External links
A 1996 New York Times Dining article using George Rector as a literary device to show changes in the city's restaurant world, in a review of a sushi bar.
Collection of mid-twentieth century advertising featuring George Rector
from The TJS Labs Gallery of Graphic Design.
* "Rector's", New York City, 1899–1919, ''The American Menu''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rector, George
1947 deaths
Writers from Chicago
American food writers
American restaurateurs
1870s births