The History of the Hot Dog
There are several different theories about the origin of the hot dog.Traditionally, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, is credited with originating the frankfurter. In 1987, the city celebrated the 500th birthday of the hot dog in that city.
However several other reports show that the claim to the Hot Dog by Frankfurt is in dispute.
- A butcher in Coburg, Germany claims he created the popular "little dog" in the 1600s
- Vienna (Wien), Austria, points to the term "wiener" to prove their claim as the hot dog birthplace.
- Another report points to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904. A concessionaire sold wieners as plain sausages, and provided customers with white gloves for easier eating. After the gloves were not returned, he consulted a baker who designed the "hot dog bun" to protect eaters' fingers.
Another story that riles serious hot dog historians is how the term "hot dog" came about.
- Some say a cartoonist named Tad Dorgan gave the hot dog its name. He wanted to sketch New York vendors selling dachshund sausages and yelling "Get your dachshund sausages while they're red hot!" Dorgan was unsure how to spell "dachshund," so he simply wrote beneath it "Hot Dog!" and the name stuck.
- Another credible story comes from Barry Popick, a prominent Hot Dog historian at Roosevelt University. He claims the word began appearing in college magazines in the 1890s. Yale students kept referring to wagons selling hot sausages in buns outside their dorms as "dog wagons." One of the popular stands was even dubbed "The Kennel Club." It didn't take long for the use of the word "dog" to become "hot dog."
- Some say the word was coined in 1901 at the New York Polo Grounds on a cold April day. Vendors were hawking hot dogs from portable hot water tanks shouting "They're red hot! Get your dachshund sausages while they're red hot!" Soon they just started shouting “Get your Hot Dogs here.”