“Famous Nathan: A Family Saga of Coney Island, the American Dream, and the Search for the Perfect Hot Dog” a book by Lloyd Handwerker, a grandson of Nathan Handwerker, the founder of Nathan’s famous was released yesterday. Lloyd Handwerker will give a talk about the book tonight at Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn.

In the book, Lloyd Handwerker corroborates the claim made by Mortimer Matz in a 2010 New York Times interview that the 1916 origin story for Nathan’s is a fabrication.

(image from page 5 of the book)
update Jun 23Daily Beast has an article about the book with this paragraph about the contest:

So, what would Nathan have thought about the modern-day popularity of the hot dog eating contest? Lloyd was a bit hesitant when I asked him. “Some of the old timers are disgusted by it,” he admitted. While he wasn’t sure if his grandfather would have agreed with them, he “couldn’t deny the advertising impact on the company.” But on the other-hand “he hated waste” and each night he even inspected the garbage to see what people weren’t finishing.

PermalinkComments (15)

With one qualifier left, here are the winners of the previous competitions:

Wild Card Leaders

PermalinkComments (8)

update June 20 Full results Part 1 | Part 2

Read the rest of this entry »

PermalinkComments (34)

Here are the top debut Nathan’s hot dog performances based on announced results, which is an incomplete body of information. It appears Darron Breeden’s 28 is the top performance for someone who had not previously been mentioned on eatfeats since this website was started in 2005.

Read the rest of this entry »

PermalinkComments (16)

update June 14 Debbie has videos Part 1 | Part 2

update June 13 The Virginia-Pilot has a gallery and video
Robbie Hickman has a facebook gallery

update
1) Gideon Oji 33
2) Steve Hendry 31, new wild card leader update tied with Yasir Salem for wild card lead
3) Darron Breeden 28 (record for total unknown?)

1W) BeeJay Alexander 16.5

Steve Hendry, Gideon Oji and BeeJay Alexander are expected to compete.

PermalinkComments (99)

With three qualifiers left here is the current field for the 2016 Nathan’s finals:
Men

Women

Presumably previous champions Joey Chestnut and Sonya Thomas will receive byes

Nathan’s 2015 Top 10 yet to qualify:
Tim Janus (retired), Erik Denmark, Yasir Salem, Pablo Martinez
Daniella Gioia, BeeJay Alexander, Carlene LeFevre

Men’s wild card leaders

Women’s wild card leaders

PermalinkComments (1)

update Pocono Record has a contest report

Full Results Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
1) Badlands Booker 23.75
2) Kevin Ambs 23.33
3) George Chiger 19.5
4) Jim Reeves 18
5T) Michael Deitz 13
5T) Ryan Siciliano 13
7) Bill Myers 12.75
8) Tom Serpico 6

1W) Larell Marie Mele 12
2w) Tess Siciliano 8

update It appears Eric “Badlands” Booker narrowly won the men’s contest

Larell Marie Mele won the women’s contest, which puts Carlene LeFevre back in the wild card lead.

Larell Marie Mele, Jim Reeves and Bill Myers are expected to do 2 qualifiers in less than 24 hours. “Badlands” Booker is another listed entrant. A victory by Larell Marie would restore the women’s wild card lead to Carlene LeFevre.

PermalinkComments (57)

Syracuse.com has an article and video about the qualifier

Ryan Siciliano has the winners from today’s Nathan’s qualifier in Syracuse. Larell Marie Mele says she took the women’s wild card lead. Results part 2

1) Geoff Esper 34.5
2) Yasir Salem 31, takes men’s wild card lead
3) Jim Reeves 23
4) Ryan Siciliano 16
5) Steven Dorgo 15
6) Bill Myers 14.5
7) Jesse Kanula 13
8) Don 8
9T) Kevin Belbey 7
9T) Derek 7

1W) Meredith Boxberger 21
2W) Larell Marie Mele 14.5, takes women’s wild card lead

PermalinkComments (2)

The Village Voice has an article about Famous Nathan, a book about the history of the hot dog restaurant that will be released June 21 co-authored by Lloyd Handwerker, a grandson of the company founder. The book is a companion to the 2014 documentary by the same name and will include a debunking of the 1916 contest origin myth. Another book Nathan’s Famous: The First 100 Years of America’s Favorite Frankfurter Company by William Handwerker, who is also a grandson of the founder, was released on May 10.

PermalinkComments (1)

In the 1970s, Nathan’s held Coney Island hot dog eating contests throughout the summer. Here is the account of the 1978 Memorial Day contest from the Google News Archive. (note the 1917 contest origin year).

PermalinkComments (3)

update May 31 Charlotte Agenda has a contest report with a full roster

update May 29 The Sporting News has a contest report. The men’s top 3
1) David Schuster 21.5
2) Ronnie Hartman 18.5
3) Damien Boykin 16

Native New Yorker Elizabeth Petra was the sole woman, perhaps the female Carolinians boycotted due to the HB2 transgender bathroom law 😉

WCCB has a gallery

Steve Shuster won the men’s division with 21 and Elizabeth Petra took the women’s with 6

Ronnie Hartman ad Corey Fanguy are the expected ranked eaters. Rich Shea says a female will make her debut.

Mitchell Johnson and Anthony V. Taddeo did a podcast about the contest

SpeedStreetAutograph is claiming Michael Alvarez is a “semifinalist” who “rocked” last year’s qualifier despite a total of 11 hot dogs.

PermalinkComments (27)

The ESPN schedule for July 4, 2016 lists the first showing of the Nathan’s finals at 3 pm. This will be a three hour tape-delay if the competition has its traditional noon start time, as the countdown counter on nathansfamous.com implies. There will also be three reruns on ESPN2. The July 4 web-streaming schedule for ESPN3.com, which shows the women’s division, is not yet available.

It appears that both ESPN and ESPN2 will be broadcasting tennis from Wimbledon while the Nathan’s finals competitions take place.

PermalinkComments (3)

Here is a list of everyone who has competed in every Nathan’s finals since 2011 and the year of the start of their finals streak.

2003 Sonya Thomas
2005 Joey Chestnut
2005 Tim Janus
2006 Erik Denmark
2007 Juliet Lee
2008 Eric “Badlands” Booker update Booker missed the 2011 finals
2011 Michelle Lesco
2011 Larell Marie Mele
2011 Adrian Morgan
2011 Matt Stonie

PermalinkComments (6)