I’ve been taking a tour around the fantastic site Coney Island History. This week’s image comes from the site and focuses on Nathan Handwerker’s famous hotdog stand.Nathan’s started out hawking the five cent hog dog, but people weren’t so sure about paying such a cheap price for a hot dog and were willing to visit other Coney Island food establishments and pay higher prices.
At one point Mr. Handwerker resorted to hiring derelicts to sit at his counter and eat free hot dogs thinking the crowd would draw more people. It didn’t. Finally, he dressed ten of the homeless men as doctors and advertised, “If doctors eat our hot dogs, you know they’re good!” The general public finally started visiting his stand.
By 1955, Nathan Handwerker had sold his one hundred millionth hot dog.
Check out a great article regarding Coney Island’s food vendors here.
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This was such a cool picture! I was at Coney Island in April and thought about what it was like in its heyday. Here is the picture I took while I was there: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23240330@N03/2615973293/in/set-72157607464658810/
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