item 6 - Alan Reyburn interview, 1987 November 16

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Reference code

US NNFIT SC.FITA.3.20.4.9.3.6

Title

Alan Reyburn interview, 1987 November 16

Date(s)

  • 1987 November16 (Creation)

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item

Extent and medium

MPEG file: 30.6 MiB; 22 minutes, 20 seconds; Original Media Format: Cassette.

Context area

Name of creator

Biographical history

Alan Reyburn was the Vice President for restaurant development at Bloomingdale's starting in 1979. Before joining Bloomingdale's, Reyburn oversaw five cruise ships with the British shipping company, Cunard Lines. From Cunard, Reyburn moved into design as part of an international consulting group.

Name of creator

(1919-2012)

Biographical history

Estelle Ellis was born on November 12, 1919 in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating from Hunter College in 1940, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a minor in Journalism, Ellis began a career in publishing. Ellis was crucial in the founding of Seventeen magazine in 1943, assisting Helen Valentine with design and advertising for the magazine. In 1958, Ellis founded Business Image, Incorporated, a creative marketing firm that stressed the importance of market and product positioning. Her company worked primarily with Condé Nast publications but other businesses, such as Yves Saint-Laurent Fragrances, Evan-Picone, AT&T, and Scoville, hired Business Image as well.

Beginning in the mid-1960s, Ellis began working with the Fashion Institute of Technology, creating programs and fundraising campaigns to help with financial support. During the 1990s, Ellis focused on writing, co-authoring At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live With and Care for Their Libraries (1995), At Home with Art: How Art Lovers Live With and Care for Their Treasures (1999), and The Booklover's Repair Kit: First Aid for Home Libraries (2000). Estelle Ellis passed away on July 12, 2012.

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Scope and content

In this interview, Alan Reyburn talks about restuaranteuring in the context of the retail world. Reyburn ran all food operations at Bloomingdale's during the 1980s, including staff restuarants. After briefly describing his past hospitality job working for a cruise line, Reyburn explains that New York City is a restaurant city and the Bloomingdale's client is someone who considers food and dining to be part of the fashionable lifestyle. Reyburn attributes Bloomingdale's Marvin S. Traub for having the total vision that included food operations as part of the Department Store's success. Most notable among Reyburn's projects while at Bloomingdale's was Le Train Bleu, a rooftop restuarant designed to look like the luxury train used by travelers going between Paris and the Mediterranean. Reyburn shares a number of anecdotes about the inception, operation, and overall concept of Le Train Bleu. As Bloomingdale's was one of the few department stores to have its own restuarant at the time, Reyburn explains the challenges specific to running a restaurant within a retail environment. In regards to service, Reyburn believed that good service in the restaurant was even more important to the Bloomingdale's client than good service on the sales floor. Having traveled with Traub for business, Reyburn describes the Bloomingdale's CEO as being indefatigable, an adventurous eater, and keenly aware of his surroundings. He also describes Traub as having more vision than most retailers, seeing a broader picture and having a shorter temper.

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Audio is rather quiet, a lot of "air noise" requiring high colume to be audible

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      Related units of description

      • Legacy audio file ID: AOH48
      • Legacy transcript file ID: T98

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          Archivist's note

          This was originally part of a larger recording that includes the Dennis Garro interview.

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