Mortimer Matz: Nathan’s hot dog contest 1916 start a fabrication
The New York Times has an interview with Mortimer Matz, who was Max Rosey’s partner in promoting the Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest in the 1970’s. Matz says that there is no basis for the claimed origin of the contest during World War I:
We said this was an annual tradition since 1916. In Coney Island pitchman style, we made it up.
After being contacted by the New York Times, a Nathan’s spokesman said the company had no evidence of pre-1970s competitions. (A Nathan’s contest held in 1967 in honor of the 100 year anniversary of the creation of the hot dog was reported by the UPI. Walter Paul reportedly won the contest by eating 127 hot dogs in an hour).
Matz also says that Nathan’s turned down the opportunity to be the sponsor for the New York City Marathon in 1976.
update Aug 20 Gothamist has a blog entry about Matz’ admission. Matz is featured in a 1979 New York Magazine article about press agents. The article does not bring up Matz’ work for Nathan’s, but the restaurant is mentioned in Godfather author Mario Puzo’s cover story about Coney Island.
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Anonymous said
August 19, 2010 @ 9:45 am
Wow, that is an interesting article. Nathans is still pretty tight with the pursestrings.
anonymous said
August 19, 2010 @ 11:32 am
Thats good to know. All this time George Shea has been feeding us a line of shit!
get with it said
August 19, 2010 @ 1:27 pm
What you didn’t know he was a shit shovler!?
Anonymous said
August 19, 2010 @ 1:33 pm
Duh.
Anonymous said
August 19, 2010 @ 10:59 pm
SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN??? SUMMARY FOR SOME OF US SLOW PEOPLE
Anonymous said
August 20, 2010 @ 9:14 am
The details aren’t important except for anyone who really cares about them. It doesn’t mean much in terms of what is happening in competitive eating past, present and future except that everything is how you spin it. The Shea Brothers are very worthy successors to Max Rosey and Mortimer Matz. What kind of deals they can make depend very much on the sponsors willingness to be persuaded that what they spend will bring in the publicity and then the numbers $$$.
For MLE, the two K’s upset the hotdog/hamburger Karts this year, Kobayashi and Krystals. The top at Nathans is stingy. They have been in the past and present, missing big opportunities. Sheas are going to have to work harder and reinvent some things. They aren’t the enemy. They are businessmen and PR guys. Giving to Food Banks, contributing to charities, sending people to entertain troops is good business and humane.
So when you write again……..
SUMMARY FOR SOME OF US SLOW PEOPLE (you are not slow…….)
If you are a fan, keep reading here and keep watching.
Nathans is stingy, Sheas can be stubborn, sometimes against their best interests.
If you are an eater, your options have greatly enlarged.
Rob from the UK said
August 20, 2010 @ 10:18 am
Damn, a guy ate 127 hot dogs in an hour. Is that even possible? I guess they must have been smaller back then, or he threw up and continued eating, or they got the number wrong, or who knows.