“Ephemera” scan added to Kuntzman article
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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anonymoustache said
June 13, 2008 @ 12:58 am
I guess only 10 contestants should be allowed to eat too.
beautifulbrian said
June 13, 2008 @ 6:36 am
Kevin Sinclair competed in the civil service contest in 2004. It was something to witness. He arrived with his entire family who brought the press clipping with them to prove that he was the kid from the ’78 contest. He is a nyc police officer and a real good guy but he ate more hot dogs when he was 10yrs old than he ate at the 2004 contest. At least i can boast that i did beat a one time Nathans champ that afternoon.
North Pole said (Registered April 28, 2008)
June 13, 2008 @ 8:31 am
They are going to make the contest what ever length they want, with as many contestants as they want, so it doesn’t really matter what anyone finds about old contests.