In the 1970s, Nathan’s held hot dog contests at times other than the fourth of July. The winner of the 1972 Labor Day weekend contest was Melody Andorfer, who ate 12 hot dogs & buns in 5 minutes. The AP did an article on her victory which was printed by several newspapers in the Google News archive:

Nathan’s 23rd annual hot dog eating contest separated the women from the boys at Coney Island Saturday. The woman went to the top. “I can’t believe I ate that all” said the winner, a 105-pound brunette, after she finished 12 seven-inch hot dogs in five minutes, rolls and all. Eighteen-year-old Melody Andorfer, of Astoria, Queens, who belongs to the National Organization for Women and several other liberation groups, drank three large colas with her male runner-up after she beat seven other women and eight men in the contest. Then she had a sandwich for lunch. The runner-up, 260-pound Gary Silverman, 19, Brooklyn, asked the winner for a date after he managed to devour 10 hot dogs during the event. Miss Andorfer, who said she did not feel queasy after the contest, asserted she had ham and eggs, coffee, and orange juice for breakfast. Asked why she entered The contest, Miss Andorfer said, “I’m determined not to let those male chauvinist pigs dominate us any longer.”

No other reports of Ms. Andorfer defending her title or entering another contest can be found online. (A 1973 Coney Island Labor Day weekend hot dog contest was converted to a corn contest due to lack of beef):

Throngs of people flocked to Coney Island on Saturday and some of them found they beat the heat only to encounter another problem: the beef shortage. Because of the lack of beef, a hot dog eating contest was turned into a corn-on-the-cob eating contest. The winner downed four ears of corn in less than three minutes.

After her victory, Melody Andofer does appear on the front pages of two newspaper modeling swimwear at Coney Island:

Charleston Daily Mail Thursday, July 05, 1973

PATRIOTIC DISPLAY- Melodie Andorfer displays a stars and stripes bikini Wednesday at New York’s Coney Island. She was one of thousands who migrated to the beaches on the Independence Day holiday.

The Chronicle Telegram June 1, 1974, Elyria, Ohio

Displaying the Colors One of Melody Andorfer’s lesser known attributes is her ability as a seamstress. Here she models a swim suit she put together for the opening of Coney Island, New York’s summer playground.

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The list of expected entrants in today’s Jacksonville Krystal qualifier has been posted. Ranked eaters expected to participate are Hall Hunt (9), Juliet Lee(10), Tim Brown(15) and Richard Foley(50). Bryan Miller has been

Elizabeth Canady set the women’s 2 minute record to qualify by eating 13 Krystals in 2 minutes. The Lee/Canady pairing will probably be the first notable matchup between females in IFOCE history that does not involve Sonya Thomas.

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portclintonnewsherald.com reports that Tony Groch, a 68 year old from Toledo, won a pierogi-eating contest at the third annual Perch, Peach, Polka and Pierogi Festival by eating 22 pierogies in 2 minutes. The victory is his fourth pierogi contest win. An article about a 2004 victory for Groch is online.

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On beautifulbrian.com

Sonya takes Buffalo doubleheader with back to back victories in Wings and Buffet Bowl update top 4 results have been posted now

1. Sonya Thomas
2. Humble Bob Shoudth
3. Joe LaRue
4. “Buffalo” Jim Reeves

update BuffaloNews.com has an article mentioning Sonya’s victory. Jeremy Cuevas, of Thibodaux, LA, won the amateur wing contest by eating 2.72 pounds of wings in six minutes. Buffalowing.com has a video of the last two minutes of the buffet bowl.

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The wing eating contest to be held on September 15 at the Smoke on the Water Festival in Arkansas which AICE news reported was canceled is still listed on the festival’s website schedule.

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From megamunch.blogspot.com

A Taste of Hamburg-er Festival Hamburger Eating Competition, Hamburg, PA

1) Ian Hickman, 13 burgers in 8 minutes
2) Carey “The Powerhouse” Poehlmann 9 burgers
3) Brian Yoder, 7.5 burgers
4) Dave Shoffner, 5.5 burgers
4) Two unnamed eaters, 5.5 burgers

ReadingEagle.com has an article about the contest.

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From BeautifulBrian.com via “Farooq”

Buffalo Wing Festival results
1) Sonya Thomas 5.16 lbs, first Buffalo victory since 2004
2) Chip Simpson 4.77 lbs. angry at weighing
3) Brad Sciullo
4) Humble Bob Shoudt

Sonya will be competing in the Buffalo Buffet Bowl tomorrow for the first time

Yahoo news has an article and some pictures of the contest

update BuffaloNews.com has an article and gallery of the contest Chip Simpson’s total increased from 4.77 lb to 4.33 lb after he received a recount.

From IFOCE.com & City of Lewisville

BBQ sandwich eating contest, Beach, Boogie and BBQ Festival, Myrtle Beach, SC, 10 minutes
1) Joey Chestnut: 45 Sandwiches, almost doubles Sonya’s 2003 record
2) Pat Bertoletti: 43.5 Sandwiches, led for most of contest
3) Juliet Lee: 22.5 Sandwiches
4) Patrick Vandam: 20 Sandwiches
5) Todd Hennessey: 12.25 Sandwiches
6) Bill Roth: 10.5 Sandwiches

City of Lewisville World Tamale Eating Championship, Lewisville, TX, 12 minutes
1) Tim “Eater X” Janus, 71 tamales, new record
2) Rich LeFevre, 51 tamales, competing w/ injured tooth
3) Mongo Marquez, 27 tamales
4) Timm Dilling, 24, Garland, Texas, first contest
5) Jeff Bennett, 21

DallasNews.com has an article about the contest

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A video of Wednesday’s rib eating contest at the Nugget casino can be viewed at http://youtube.com/watch?v=5yvUXCOMFIc
(embedded video available after jump)
Read the rest of this entry »

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The Juneau Empire reports that a pel’meni eating contest will be held in Juneau, Alaska on September 7. Dale Boone set the IFOCE pel’meni record by eating 274 of the Russian dumplings in 6 minutes.

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(From The Sicilian) This year’s Waffle House waffle eating contest will be held at the Texas State Fair in Dallas on October 7. Registration opens September 4.

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From a Rhonda Evans comment

At 1:00 P.M (C.S.T). on Saturday will be the World Tamale Eating Championship. The total purse is $3,000. “Eater X” will defend his title. Other entrants will include Rich LeFevre (may the tooth be in him), Marco Marquez, Pat Bruss, and Wild Bill Myers.

At 2:00 P.M. on Saturday will be the BBQ Sandwich Eating Championship. The total purse is $5,000. Expected to participate are Joey Chestnutt, Pat Bertoletti, Hall Hunt, Juliet Lee and Arturo Rios.

At 6:00 P.M. on Saturday will be the annual Buffalo Wing Championship from Dunn Tire Park, Buffalo, NY. I’m certain that Chip Simpson, the defending champ from last year will be there, and I would imagine that Sonya Thomas will be there also, since she has been present every year. I would also expect “Humble” Bob to attend if he doesn’t do BBQ Sandwiches. That should be a really good matchup between Chip and Sonya. Both have two or more wins apiece in chicken wings. (Sonya won the event in 2004.) The total purse is $2,550.

The assumption that Chip and Sonya will be in Buffalo is correct according to this press release

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Jacksonville.com has an article about Hall Hunt, who will compete in the Jacksonville Krystal Square Off qualifier on Labor Day.

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The gazette.net article about the Three Brothers pizza contest has been revised with more information about Juliet Lee and a picture of husband Joey competing in the amateur pizza eating contest.

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The Kent County Times has an article about the pumpkin contest in Rhode Island between mixed gender pairs from the United States and Japan which describes the origin of the event:

Emi Umeda, who works with the production crew, said the name of the show translates to “Anything is possible,” and she said the point of the show is to take a topic, find who’s best in the world at it and challenge them to a contest against Japan.

One of the topics is a pumpkin-eating contest, she said, which will pit two professional American eaters against two professional Japanese eaters, making their way through five different pumpkin dishes.

In order to get started, the show wanted to find who held the record for growing the largest pumpkin in the world, which happened to be Coventry resident Ron Wallace, who owns a farm at 860 Plainfield Pike.

The American female made her competitive debut according to the article:

The Japanese contestants are Tomoko Miyake and Nobuyuki Shirota and the American contestants are “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti of Wallingford, Conn., and Elizabeth “Rubber Gut” Kennedy from Florida.

“This is my first time doing this,” Kennedy said. “I made some inquiries on the Internet just out of curiosity and interest and they gave me a call.”

The article verifies reports of a US victory:

Since it may be difficult for American viewers to tune into the show to see the results, St. Jean said the American team ended up easily outpacing the team from Japan.

update BigPumpkins.com has some pictures of the contest (bottom of page) One of the pictures is captioned:

At the Wallaces on August 21, 2007, Gentleman Joe, urges his teamate to down more Pumpkin Lobster and Pumpkin pizza. She ate an entire Large Pumpkin Pizza and 2 lb Pumpkin Lobster in 3 minutes. But that was just the appetizer.

update #2 The BigPumpkins.com message board has some threads about the contest: Thread 1, Thread 2, Thread 3

update #3 Dec 26, 2007 The quoted article spelled Elizabeth’s last name incorrectly. The correct spelling is Canady.

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The Spartan, the newspaper of San Jose State University, has a long article about Joey Chestnut, who will be in Myrtle Beach this weekend:

Even when he’s not participating in an eating contest, Chestnut’s plate is always full.

For 38-to-40 hours a week, Chestnut works as a project engineer for Gonsalves & Stronck Construction, a San Carlos-based company.

His class load, though only six units this semester, includes a construction law and a fluid dynamics course.

Yesterday, he competed in a barbecue ribs competition in Reno, and Saturday he will fly to Myrtle Beach, S.C. to see how many pulled pork sandwiches he can fit down his gullet.

“It’s tough,” Chestnut says. “School’s taken a little bit of a hit – more than I’ve wanted it to. I’m a part-time student almost since the start. I pay for everything myself.”

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From a Laura Flynn comment

1. Joey Chestnut (about 7 lb.)
2. Pat Bertoletti (about 6 lb.)
3. Rich LeFevre (lost tooth during contest)
4. Jason Erb
5. Erik Denmark

update rgj.com has an article about the contest.

update #2 full results are now posted on IFOCE.com

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(From Rhonda Evans) The press release for the 2nd Annual World Rib Eating Competition says that Joey Chestnut, Pat Bertoletti, Chip Simpson, Rich LeFevre and Erik Denmark. Results will be posted on the Nugget Rib Cookoff’s web page.

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Muskogee Phoenix reports that Oklahoman Mike Yoss won a hot wing eating contest in Baltimore yesterday, defeating former NFL defensive lineman William “Refrigerator” Perry and three other qualifiers.

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From The Hangman – Gallerys of last year’s Jacksonville Krystal Square Off qualifer can be viewed at http://photos.jacksonville.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=168132 The Hangman says that he and Hall Hunt will compete in this years qualifier.

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A black & white cookie eating contest will be held at the Jerome Avenue & Gun-Hill Festival in the Bronx on September 29. This craigslist posting has more information.

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Gazette.net has a writeup of the August 18 Three Brothers Pizza contest held in Greenbelt, MD. Jeff Blachly, of Gambrills, MD won the amateur contest with nine slices.

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New York led has a good photograph of the audience at this year’s Nathan’s finals at http://www.flickr.com/photos/new-yorkled/719179402/ You can see some people wearing hot dog hats (probably Don Lerman & friends)

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From a Bubba Yarbrough email:

Here are the results of the La Costena pepper eating
contest held in Atlanta 8-26-07 3:00 pm.
The contest was supposed to be 1 minute but in reality
it was the first to 20 large jalepeno Peppers.

The Prize was $500.00 dollars.

1st Loren “Bubba” Yarbrough
2nd Super Paul Barlow
3rd Larry “The Legend” McNeil
Dale Boone DQ for disorderly conduct after loss

beautifulbrian.com has a report about the contest which says Boone attempted to recruit the IFOCE members into AICE after the contest.

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Metromix has a gallery of the August 18 tofu eating contest in Los Angeles. One of the pictures is captioned:

Danny Meza ultimately came in third behind the winner Jim Donahue who Hoover-sucked his tofu in 16 seconds. Still, he won a half-day fishing trip (2nd place received a 3/4-day trip) which is not bad at all.

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The Star Telegram has an article about an eating contest between 10 people in the all you can eat section of the Texas Rangers ballpark.

Megamunch has a report about his and Carey Poehlmann’s attempt to do the “9 inning challenge” by eating an amount of hot dogs corresponding to the current inning number.

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