Behind famed hot dog contest, a whopper of a legend
Showmen behind Nathan's annual Fourth of July hot dog eating contest have long claimed the tradition began in 1916 as a showdown between patriotic immigrants on the Coney Island boardwalk.
The contest and its backstory were invented in the 1970s by PR men trying to get more attention for Nathan's, which had just become a publicly traded company.
The legend of the hot dog contest conveniently dates to 1916, the same year Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker opened his Coney Island hot dog stand using a $300 loan from two friends.
Joey "Jaws" Chestnut set the world record in 2013 when he polished off 69 dogs in 10 minutes.