The Cattleman Explained

The Cattleman
Defunct:c. 1989
Location:Manhattan, New York City
Industry:Steakhouse
Key People:Larry Ellman (owner)

The Cattleman[1] was a steakhouse in New York City founded in 1959 by restaurateur Larry Ellman. During its heyday, The Cattleman attracted media attention as an early example of a theme restaurant, and it became the inspirational basis for the musical Pump Boys and Dinettes.

History

In his twenties, Larry Ellman became the New York distributor for Automatique, a Danish firm that manufactured Wittenborg brand food-vending machines "similar in appearance and operation to the Automat."[2] Proceeds from the sale of his business enabled him to pursue his first restaurant venture.[3] The Cattleman opened at Lexington Avenue and East 47th Street[4] in Manhattan, New York City, in 1959, with sales reaching $450,000 that year. By 1967, The Cattleman had relocated to 5 East 45th Street[5] (the Fred F. French Building at 551 Fifth Avenue), with sales of over $4,000,000 a year at the 400-seat restaurant.[3]

By 1972 at the latest, Ellman had additionally opened The Cattleman West at 154 West 51st Street, at Seventh Avenue.[6] The restaurants closed circa 1989.

Starting in 1961, Ellman introduced sing-along sessions every evening from 9 p.m. until 2 a.m., led by Bill Farrell.[4] As The New York Times described in 1967:

In 1964, publisher James Warren held the launch party for Creepy, the first horror-comics magazine of Warren Publishing, at The Cattleman.[7] By at least 1968, the restaurant offered "free stagecoach rides around the city" on Saturday and Sunday from 5 to 9:30 p.m.[8]

A history of New York dining, On the Town in New York (1998), called the restaurant a "riotously successful steakhouse".[9] In 1961, The Theatre magazine said it was "one of the best dining emporiums in New York."[10]

Ellman announced in 1997 that he and partners Edward Buyes and William Opper planned to recreate The Cattleman at 1241 Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains, New York, in November of that year.[11]

Ellman's son, Kevin Ellman, played drums and percussion in singer-songwriter Todd Rundgren's 1973-1986 band Utopia, leaving it in 1975.[12]

In media

In 1967, Grosset & Dunlap published the cookbook The Cattleman's Steak Book: Best Beef Recipes, a collaboration of the staff of Cattleman Restaurant, food writer Carol Truax, and writer S. Omar Barker.[13] Ellman wrote the foreword.[14] Playboy magazine printed the recipe for a house cocktail, the Cattleman's Cooler, "[f]rom the Cattleman, a Manhattan dining spot that calls itself an adult Western restaurant."[15]

The musical Pump Boys and Dinettes (1981) was created by two friends who worked at The Cattleman, dramatizing their experiences there.[16] It started as a two-man act there, and then expanded.[17] As Jim Wann, the show's principal author and composer recalled in 2010,

The restaurant was known for the radio slogan "Where you can get your steak rare and entertainment well done."[18]

The 1966 remake of the Western film Stagecoach did part of its publicity at The Cattleman, photographing some of its stars atop a stagecoach there.[19]

A passage in Rupert Holmes' novel Where the Truth Lies involves the restaurant: "In Manhattan, theme restaurants were blooming like plastic flowers in winter. ... The Cattleman had set the stage, or rather the stagecoach, for such funhouse eateries, supposedly patterned after a Kansas City steer palace. ..."[20]

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: [Display advertisement] . . June 23, 1980 . 86. Retrieved on October 6, 2012.
  2. . January 17, 1953 . Wittenborg Sets Units for Union News Operation . 97. Retrieved on | October 6, 2012.
  3. News: Ellman to Receive Longchamps Post . . August 29, 1967 . March 19, 2012 . Larry Ellman, 41-year-old president of the Cattleman.....
  4. News: Cattleman's Patrons Are Encouraged to Join in Old-Fashioned Harmonizing . Arthur . Gelb . . March 9, 1961 . March 19, 2012.
  5. News: Ellman Will Head Longchamps Chain . . October 18, 1967 . May 20, 2016 . Mr. Ellman, who is also the owner of the Cattleman restaurant on East 45th Street.....
  6. News: [Cattleman advertisement] . . October 16, 1972 . 5. Retrieved on | October 6, 2012.
  7. News: The James Warren Interview . . 4 . Spring 1999 . . https://web.archive.org/web/20100105094740/http://twomorrows.com/comicbookartist/articles/04warren.html . January 5, 2010 . live.
  8. News: [Classified advertisement] . . May 27, 1968 . 8. Retrieved on October 5, 2012.
  9. Book: Batterberry, Mic . Psychology Press . 1998 . 304 . On the Town in New York: The Landmark History of Eating, Drinking, and Entertainments from the American Revolution to the Food Revolution . Meanwhile, a new giant had lumbered onto the scene. Larry Ellman, owner of the Cattleman, a riotously successful steakhouse, purchased the Longchamps chain, and partially metamorphosed it into his new bonanza, the Steak and Brew.. Retrieved on October 4, 2012.
  10. Book: The Theatre: A Magazine of Drama, Comedy, Music . 3 . 1961 . 33 . Atlas Pub. Co. . October 4, 2012.
  11. News: Food Notes (Correction Appended) . Florence . Fabricant . . August 20, 1997 . October 6, 2012.
  12. Rundgren said, "Kevin decided that, as much as he was into music, he was going to leave it all behind to manage Beefsteak Charlie's for his dad, Larry Ellman, who owned the Cattleman's Restaurants [sic], a relatively upscale steak chain [sic]." Book: Myers, Paul . A Wizard, A True Star: Todd Rundgren in the Studio . Jawbone Press . 2010 . 978-1906002336 . 132. Retrieved on October 5, 2012.
  13. Book: Colorado Magazine . 45-46 . 1968 . 184 . State Historical Society of Colorado, State Museum . October 4, 2012.
  14. Per bibliography in Book: Dykes, Jeff . Fifty Great Western Illustrators . 1975 . Northland Press . 978-0873581141 .
  15. News: . July 1981.
  16. News: . . September 14, 2006 . Country goes pop in musical at Cabaret.(Entertainment) . October 4, 2012.
  17. News: MSMT pumped up for season opener . https://web.archive.org/web/20140629120647/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-95393629.html . dead . June 29, 2014 . . . Bob . Keyes . June 10, 2004 . October 4, 2012.
  18. Book: Glasser, Selma . The complete guide to prize contests, sweepstakes, and how to win them . ix . 1980 . F. Fell Publishers . 9780811903271 . October 4, 2012.
  19. News: Big Push Set for 'Stagecoach' . . 235 . 86 . 1966 . Quigley Publishing Company . The quartet is seen atop a stagecoach in front of the Cattleman Restaurant in New York where a formal announcement of the promotion was made to the press following a steak and eggs breakfast..
  20. Book: Holmes, Rupert . Where the Truth Lies . 157 . Rupert Holmes . . 2004 . 978-0812972238 .

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