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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QSR Magazine reports that Nathan’s Famous will donate 100,000 hot dogs on July 4 to the Food Bank For New York City. The 2006 donation was 10,000 hot dogs.

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• Beautiful Brian has expected entrants for next weekend’s contests in New York
• Cameron McKirdy has videos of the Las Vegas qualifier, including his reversal
• Don Lerman is selling his dentures for $1,000
• Article about Big Goomba pizza challenge attempt in South Carolina
• Jill Stoler and Will Millender of “Fat March” to exercise together
• Hungry Sisters report on the Hog Happenin eating contests
• Japanese article about Brooklyn Pizza contest – 2ch thread

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(From Badlands Booker) A segment from Holiday Foods: Fourth of July: Hot Dogs which culminates in a hot dog eating contest between Eric “Badlands” Booker and Famous Fat Dave can be seen on the History Channel’s website. Ryan Nerz also makes an appearance.

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• Podcast of Crazy Legs Conti promoting the Hot Dog Safari (Crazy Legs Conti’s appearance begins around the 32 minute mark)
• Spectator report from the Carnegie Deli pickle contest
• Gallery from the Philadelphia Nathan’s qualifier
• Joey Chestnut’s hometown, Vallejo, is bankrupt
• Jill Stoler apologizes to Beautiful Brian Nation
• MLE game not coming out this week according to joystiq
• Tomoko Miyake promotes Tobu Department Store’s new buffet (blog entry)

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The New York Daily News reports that 2005 and 2006 Brooklyn pizza champion Will Millender, who appeared on the weight loss reality show “Fat March”, will attempt to regain his title today from the 2007 winner Salvatore Carbone. Millender’s current weight is listed at 375 pounds.

update Results from WCBS

1. Salvatore Carbone just over 15 slices
2. Will Millender 12.25 slices

update #2 Jill Stoler attended the contest as a spectator and NY1 has an article with video Joel Podelsky was third.

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• Article about some local competitors in the Tempe qualifier: David Cohn, Adam Muñoz & Lindsay Veylupek
• Hall Hunt’s predictions for today’s qualifiers
• Article about the McKirdy brothers, which says their next contest will be the Chinook Winds rib contest on July 11
• The Brooklyn pizza contest is tomorrow
• Picture of Karen “Seedsucker” Clark on the Washington Post web site
• Pictures from “Furious” Pete’s Italian Challenge
• English article about Gal Sone’s movie debut

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BTrauman has uploaded videos of today’s pickle eating contest at the Carnegie Deli in its entirety. The results from that event:

1. Arnie Chapman
2. Mike Hoffman
3. Richard Leavy
4. Jill Stoler

update NY1 has a brief article about the contest

update #2 Jill Stoler has a blog entry about the contest. Jill emailed the original results and a picture of the scoresheet which can be viewed after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry »

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The blog for the Village Voice has an entry about this afternoon’s watermelon eating contest at Rockefeller Center between Tim Janus and Crazy Legs Conti. Conti won the six minute contest by one bite. After the first contest completed, Conti and Janus had a virtual watermelon eating contest by playing the Major League Eating video game. The blog entry closes with an announcement that an article about Tim Janus and Crazy Legs Conti will appear in the Village Voice this summer.

IFOCE.com also has a report about the event.

update AppScout has a blog entry about the event with pictures and videos, including a recording of the performances of Beautiful Brian and Badlands Booker.

update #2 Serious Eats has a gallery and MTV has a blog entry.

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Crazy Legs Conti was interviewed by Midtown Lunch to promote his midtown lunch today at a watermelon eating contest at Rockefeller center:

Place you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch: Back to sushi – I relied on Midtown Lunch to give me the rundown on how fast the conveyer belt moved at Sakae Sushi (not fast enough for me) and the crowd at the Todai buffet. Regarding Todai, pickle eating champ Beautiful Brian Seiken is planning an outing to Todai’s plentiful buffet. You need a sizable guy like Beautiful Brian to anchor himself front and center at the sushi bar, then other NYC gurgiators like Nasty Nate Biller and me can form a wedge and really get behind the sneeze guard to take the buffet down. If the head chef isn’t crying into the steam table in an hour, we haven’t done justice to Midtown Lunch!

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A press release on gonintendo.com announces that a watermelon eating contest between Tim Janus and Crazy Legs Conti will take place at the Nintendo World Store at Rockefeller Center in New York City on May 20.

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“Footlong”, a documentary about the impact of hot dogs on American culture, can be viewed on revver.com. There are two segments about the 1998 Nathan’s hot dog contest in which Hirofumi Nakajima defended his title by beating Ed Krachie: Segment #1, Segment #2 The second segment ends with a prediction that one day the 30 HDB mark will be broken.

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• April 21 Trenton, NJ New Britain, CT Hot dog eating contest for college students at minor league baseball game. First prize is a flat screen TV.
• Japanese curry eating challenge at Kenka restaurant in NYC. Curry & T shirt are free if eaten in under 20 minutes.
• Food Battle Stadium contest for women only. Gal Sone makes a guest appearance
• St. Louis tater tot eating contest video
• Cartoon of oyster eating contest
• Goliath pizza eating contest for teams of 5 in Midgeville, GA
• Melon eating contest between two elephants Saturday in Columbus, OH

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A group from roadfood.com toured New York City hot dog restaurants and took a picture of the Nathan’s Wall of Fame which reveals that the champions from 1984 to 1987 have been dropped to make for space for future winners. Removing these listings eliminates whatever inaccuracies they might have contained, but discrepancies are still present between the remaining entries and newspaper archives.

Maureen Dowd, now a famous columnist, wrote the article about the 1984 contest. She does not mention the winner’s name.

We will see if the truncation of the champions listing will foreshadow modifications to the picture section of the Wall of Fame.

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AICE News reports that the even-year Carnegie Deli pickle eating contest will take place on May 21.

PressConnects.com reports that Joe LaRue will attempt to defend his pancake eating title in Marathon, NY on April 5.

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The following request was made by a documentary filmmaker:

Dear Eaters,

A New York based production company is seeking someone from the NY City region who wants to be the star of their own show. We are currently exploring the idea of creating an independent film tracking the journey of an unheralded eater whose goal is to reach the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest on July 4th. The all-access filming would stretch from pre-qualifiers, to the qualifying round, which could be at Shea Stadium, and through to the final in Coney Island. The key is that the subject must be funny, fat and interesting to watch. Interested? Sell us on why it should be you that we follow. Please send your e-mail and a photo and contact details to kannerr@aol.com

Spread the word, and good luck!

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• Another video of Kenny & Ziggy’s Matzoh Ball Eating contest
• Video from the 2003 matzoh ball eating contest held at Ben’s Deli
• Acme Oyster contest returning in 2008?
• Commenter reports that winner of Des Moines bacon eating contest, Manni, is a gym owner
• Benefit Saturday to preserve Coney Island as an amusement district
• Hall Hunt has a report on his appearance at the Rays Fan Festival
• Collegiate Nationals eating contest mentioned in USA Today

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An advertisement Crazy Legs Conti did for Daisy May’s Barbecue in New York City can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQn-S1yNDuc The commercial has run on local cable according to the video description.

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The New York Daily News has an article about redevelopment plans for Coney Island:

Buried deep in the plans is a provision that says of the 50 blocks being rezoned in Coney Island, only the block that contains Nathan’s – at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Aves. – and one block immediately west would be rezoned for towers.

That means the two-story building, which has drawn millions of hot dog lovers since 1916, could expand to 14 stories – or more – when detailed plans are approved next year.

“Nathan’s would be given more opportunities for development on its property, which could lead to any one of a number of scenarios, including the expansion of Nathan’s or its redevelopment as a new building,” City Planning spokeswoman Rachaele Raynoff confirmed.

Curbed suggests that Nathan’s redevelopment plans include a competitive eating venue.

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Tomoko Miyake reports that she, Takuya Yamamoto and Taku Izumi arrived in New York City and went to a Japanese buffet. Tomoko appreciated the lack of a time limit as Japanese buffets usually have. She will be doing a film session on Friday.

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Krystal Square Off finalists offer advice on how to eat as much as possible in as short a period of time as possible in USAToday.com
The Hollywood Reporter on Super Bowl halftime viewing options
Giant sushi roll eating contest for teams of Japanese female college students
Blog entry & gallery by recent Quick Chek sub winner
Picture of Sonya Thomas & fan at Washington Capitals game
NY Daily News on Brooklyn vegan wing eating contest
Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane attempts 7 pound breakfast burrito challenge (Female burrito finishers receive free food for life)
Don “Moses” Lerman is upset about not being named a jalapeno judge
Krystal Super Bowl photo contest

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(From “Pig Skin”) A pig skin eating contest will be held at Hawaiian Tropic Zone in Times Square on Thursday at noon to promote the “Ham & Eggs” contest that will be televised on Spike TV during the Super Bowl halftime show. The total purse is $5000. Registration for 8 slots will open tonight at approximately 10pm.

update a press release is available. Tim “Eater X” Janus will compete, former NFL punter Sean Landeta will serve as guest judge and the contest will be six minutes long.

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The following request for a competitive eater host was emailed to me today:

I came across your site when I was doing research online- I was wondering if you know of a competitive eater that would be interested in hosting our mini contest at halftime of our superbowl party at The Village Pourhouse in NYC. It is a great crowd!
Thanks

Samantha Messinger
Public Relations
133 West 25th Street ste. 7w
New York, NY 10001
212.228.4200 x 8006
samantha AT yourpartyplanning.com

The contest involves sliders and the prize is a $250 bar tab and there is a $75 admission fee according to the Pourhouse website.

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SuperVegan has a blog entry and gallery from Wednesday’s vegan Buffalo wing eating contest in Brooklyn. Dan McGinley (17 or 18 vegan wings) won the contest. Marc and Corey (no last names) came in second and third.

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