"Pie a la Mode" originator? (1936)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   How do I find these things?...It's not totally unknown, but there aren't more than a handful of hits for "Townsend" and "pie a la mode."
   I do not say that the following is correct.   OED has "pie a la mode" from 1903.



      CHARLES W. TOWNSEND
              New York Times  (1857-Current file).       New York, N.Y.: May 21, 1936.                   p. 23 (1 page):
_CHARLES W. TOWNSEND_
_Cambridge, N. Y., Man Credited_
_With Originating Pie a la Mode._
   CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 20 (AP).--Charles Watson Townsend, one-time concert pianist, who, tradition has it, inadvertently originated pie a la mode here fifty-two years ago, died today in Mary McClellan Hospital.  His age was 87.
   As the story goes, he amazed waiters in a local hotel by asking for ice cream on his pie.  He like it so well he ordered it on another occasion in Delmonico's restaurant in New York.  The restaurant then added the dessert to its menu.
   The Hotel Cambridge here specializes in the dish and points out the table at which Townsend was dining when he created it.


(GOOGLE)
http://www.cambridgehotel.com/pie.html
        The History of Pie a la Mode

        (Reprint from Sealtest Magazine)
 With Apple Pie a la Mode holding such a special niche in the taste of the American public, it is appropriate at this time that we turn to historians long enough to record for prosperity the origin of this delectable delicacy of the day.

We have it that the late Professor Charles Watson Townsend, who lived alone in a Main Street apartment during his later years and dined regularly at the Hotel Cambridge, now known as the Cambridge Hotel, was wholly responsible for the blessed business.

One day in the mid 90’s, Professor Townsend was seated for dinner at a table when the late Mrs. Berry Hall observed that he was eating ice cream with his apple pie. Just like that she named it "Pie a la Mode", and we often wondered why, and thereby brought enduring fame to Professor Townsend and the Hotel Cambridge.

Shortly thereafter the Professor visited New York City, taking with him a yen for his favorite dessert new name and all. At the fashionable Delmonico’s he nonchalantly ordered Pie a la Mode and when the waiter stated that he never heard of such a thing the Professor expressed a great astonishment.

"Do you mean to tell me that so famous an eating place as Delmonico’s has never heard of Pie a la Mode, when the Hotel Cambridge, up in the village of Cambridge, NY serves it every day? Call the manager at once, I demand as good service here as I get in Cambridge."

The manager came running, and the Professor repeated his remarks.

"Delmonico’s never intends that any other restaurant shall get ahead of us" said the manager and forthwith ordered that Pie a la Mode be featured on the menu every day. A newspaperman representing the New York Sun was seated at a nearby table and overheard the conversation. The next day the Sun carried a feature story of the incident and it was picked up by many other newspapers. In no time at all, Pie a la Mode became standard on menus all over the country.