Yesterday’s MLE trivia contest on twitter incorrectly claimed that the easternmost Nathan’s qualifier took place in Beijing, China (longitude 116° East). Rhonda Evans received no response to her mention of the qualfiers held in Tokyo (long. 139° E) won by Nobuyki “The Giant” Shirota in 2004 and Kenji Oguni in 2005 & 06.

The Japanese contests may not actually be the easternmost Nathan’s qualifiers. A 2009 hot dog eating contest held in Fiji (long. 178° E) claimed the winner would receive a trip to New York City to compete in the finals if s/he ate more than 50 hot dogs.

Jim Mullen, supposedly the first winner of the Nathan’s contest in 1916, was the answer to one of the questions which contradicts Mortimer Matz, Nathan’s promoter before the Sheas, claim to have fabricated the Nathan’s contest origin story in a 2010 New York Times interview.

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Footlong is a documentary (full movie) about “the social impact of the hot dog on American Culture” that opens with coverage of the 1998 Nathan’s finals (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3) including interviews with George Shea, Gersh Kuntzman, Ed Krachie, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa and defending champion Hirofumi Nakajima along with brief snippets of the 1998 Nathan’s qualifier held in Windows on the World on top of the World Trade Center.

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A graph in last year’s broadcast of the Nathan’s finals listed Llamas as the top Nathan’s performer in the 1980’s with a total near 20 hot dogs. This is based on a Wikipedia fabrication claiming that Luis Llamas from Mexico won the 1983 contest with a total of 19.5 hot dogs.

According to an Associated Press article, the winner in 1983 was Emil Gomez with a total of 10.5 hot dogs.

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In a seven-part article for the Dallas Observer, Patrick Michels uses Nathan Biller’s career as a starting point to explore the history of the IFOCE/MLE and competitive eating in general. While quite thorough, the article does not mention the cancellation of the Krystal Square Off or the admission by Mortimer Matz, Nathan’s promoter in the 1970’s, that the 1916 “origin story” of the Coney Island contest was a fabrication.

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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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Gersh Kuntzman has a column about the updating of the “Wall of Fame” at the Coney Island Nathan’s. A summary of the changes:

• In: Joey Chestnut, Pat Bertoletti, Tim Janus, Juliet Lee, Tim Brown, Crazy Legs Conti
• Out: Eric “Badlands” Booker, Cookie Jarvis, Don Lerman, Charles Hardy, Kevin Lipsitz, Ed Krachie, “Kid” Cary DeGrosa, songwriter Amos Wengler.
• Staying: Takeru Kobayashi, Sonya Thomas
• Neither in nor out: “Notorious” Bob Shoudt (current #2 IFOCE ranking)

George Shea is quoted:

“The question is this: Do you listen to Lady Gaga or The Who?” Shea asked. “The bottom line is that it’s a ‘Wall of Fame.’ None of the people you mentioned, plus Don ‘Moses’ Lerman, ‘Krazy’ Kevin Lipsitz or Ed ‘Cookie’ Jarvis, have fame anymore. The guys on that wall now have eclipsed all of them.”

Badlands Booker ate 38.5 hot dogs in a Nathan’s qualifier last month. Three of the new entrants (Juliet Lee, Tim Brown, Crazy Legs Conti) have never eaten that much.

A picture of the old Wall of Fame

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The Google News Archive has an article from 1969 about hot dog consumption during the first meeting between the Jets and Colts in Super Bowl III containing Nathan’s president Murray Handwerker’s response to Ralph Nader’s allegations of poor meat quality in hot dogs:

Nader has done some great things for safety in automobiles. I believe he said he would give up driving in cars. I get the impression he now intends to give up eating in New York.

The next thing you know he will no longer wear clothes because of defective labeling, and that could result in his total exposure.

The article also mentions Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Cook Book.

Trivia Time The Jets’ linebacker coach in Super Bowl III was Buddy Ryan, father of current head coach Rex Ryan, a possible entrant in the 2010 Nathan’s finals.

The Colts’ head coach in Super Bowl III was Don Shula, who would later lead the Miami Dolphins to an undefeated season and found a chain of steak houses offering a 48 ounce steak challenge which has been completed almost 35,000 times.

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(Via Liz K) The Riverfront Times has a blog entry about making a recipe from the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Cookbook from 1968:

Hot Dog Salad Dressing. For six servings, grind eight hot dogs with one-half teaspoon dry mustard, two tablespoons milk, one tablespoon pickle relish and one-third cup of mayo. Think about that for a second. That’s 1.3 hot dogs per salad serving. This is nothing more than a ploy to sell hot dogs.

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The segment from Holiday Foods about the Fourth of July hot dog eating contest held at Nathan’s Famous in Coney Island can be viewed on the History Channel’s website. The clip contains a short contest between Eric “Badlands” Booker and Famous Fat Dave which Ryan Nerz provides commentary for.

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(From NoLandGrab) A competitive eating hall of fame is one of three suggestions offered by the Atlantic Yards Report to the Imagine Coney initiative. The hall of fame would include a restaurant that would offer an eating challenge.

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According to the official history, the Nathan’s record before Frank Dellarossa ate 21 HDB in 1991 was 18.5 HDB by one armed carnival worker Peter Washburn in 1959. This mark is not mentioned in any article in the Google News archive about a pre-1991 contest.

• 1986 Record holder is listed as Walter Paul, who ate 17 in 1978. Walter Paul is the reported winner of a 1967 contest.
• 1986 title match – Record is mentioned as 13.5, set several years before
• 1982 – record is mentioned as 14 by Jim Mattner, who served as contest judge. (No article about a contest won by Mattner is present in the news archive)

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A listing of Nathan’s winners obtained from online news archives follows.

Some notes about the contests:

• 1986 title match, Hiroaki Tominaga was the first reported Japanese competitor in a Nathan’s contest. At 6 feet, 6 inches and 264 pounds, he is considerably larger than Nobuyuki “the Giant” Shirota. While in New York City, he competed in the Empire State Building staircase race and finished last.
• 1984 Birgit Felden is the only reported female winner of a July 4 contest. She is now a business professor unless there are multiple Birgit Feldens from Cologne.
• 1981 It was not clear from the contest report if the duration was 5 minutes or the winner stopped eating after that time and had a large enough margin to win.
• 1978 Co-champion Kevin Sinclair was 10 years old
• 1974 Atlantic City – this is the first reported contest outside Coney Island. The runner-up, Carmen Cordero, might be the winner of the first two Wing Bowls.
• 1972 Labor Day – After her victory, Melody Andorfer said “I’m determined not to let those male chauvinist pigs dominate us any longer.” She would model swimsuits in articles about Coney Island in 1973 and 1974.
• 1967 – this contest was held to commemorate the centennial of the hot dog. It is difficult to believe that Walter Paul ate 127 hot dogs in an hour, but that is what is in the news archive.

The following contests are mentioned in the news archives, but no winners were reported for them:

The 1973 labor day weekend contest was changed to a corn on the cob contest due to a lack of meat. The unnamed winner ate 4 ears in less than 3 minutes.

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The Palm Beach Post (via the Google News archive) reported that some local officials would serve as judges in the 1997 Nathan’s qualifier held in Boca Raton, Florida:

In Boca Raton, a hot dog capital of another ilk, the orgy begins Saturday at noon at Nathan’s in Boca Village Town Square (pick up entry forms there). No weenies among the judges either. The strong-willed group includes Boca Vice Mayor Steve Abrams, Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore

Theresa LePore would go on to receive greater notoriety as the designer of the “butterfly ballot” used in Palm Beach County in the controversial 2000 election.

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Gersh Kuntzman’s article about the reduction of Nathan’s contests by 2 minutes has been updated with an image of the document that established the original contest duration at 10 minutes according to George Shea.

The New York Times (via the Google archive) reports that the 1978 Memorial Day contest in which Kevin Sinclair, then 10 years old, tied for first was 6.5 minutes long:

[May 30, 1978] … swimming pools for the season. .fit Nathan’s Famous in Concy Island. 4-foot 9-inch 75-pound Kevin Sinc lair, of Brooklyn, 10 years old, tied an IS-. … for first place in the hot-dog-eat ing contest, a field of 28 contestants to get down 10 hot dogs, with buns, in six-and-one-half minutes. …
From Many of Holidayless New Yorkers Made Yesterday… – New York Times ($$)

update The New York Times City Room has a blog entry about the contest length

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(from anon comment) Gersh Kuntzman has an article for the Brooklyn Papers about the shortening of Nathan’s qualifiers by 2 minutes which states that the July 4 finals will be 10 minutes as well. An anonymous eater repeats Rhonda Evans’ conjecture that the purpose of the reduction was to minimize the chances of a reversal. The article closes with a mention of the 3.5 minute contests in the 1970s.

Gothamist and Eater.com have posts about the article

update June 11 Serious eats has a blog entry about the shortening with quotes from Ryan Nerz

The Sheas say that a 1986 article from the New York Times was responsible for the truncation.

The note said the change for the upcoming July 4 contest comes after the discovery of a trove of “numerous old items and ephemera” near the Nathan’s stand at the historic corner of Surf and Stillwell avenues in Coney Island.

“It was in the form of random notes and contest-related scribblings that were apparently unearthed at Nathan’s,” said George Shea, chairman of Major League Eating.

“We put together a team of experts to determine its validity and then, through the use of what I believe scholars call ‘a Google search,’ we discovered a New York Times article from 1986 that referred to the contest as taking 10 minutes.”

Major League Eating President Richard Shea said the Times article was particularly compelling evidence that the contest’s traditional length was actually 10 minutes, not the 12 minutes that have been the standard for at least two decades.

That link first appeared on eatfeats in March 2007

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