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Charles Feltman (1841–1910) was a German-American restaurateur who is one possible claimant to be inventor of the hot dog.

From pushcart to restaurant mogul

Feltman was born in 1841 in Germany and emigrated to America in 1856, at the age of fifteen. He was familiar with the frankfurter, named for Frankfurt-am-Main in his native land. Feltman's operation began operating a pushcart pie wagon at the Coney Island beach in 1867, selling food to beachgoers. In 1867 he came up with the idea of inserting a Frankfurt sausage popular in his home of Germany in a specially-made elongated roll which could conveniently be held and eaten on the street or at the beach. Feltman called his 1867 creation the Coney Island red hot, and it was soon the eating rage.

Henry Collins Brown, a New York historian, explained its attraction: "It could be carried on the march, eaten on the sands between baths, consumed on a carousel, used as a baby's nipple to quiet an obstreperous infant, and had other economic appeals to the summer pleasure seeker".

However, it took some time for the public to decide what to call Feltman's creation. Frankfurter, sausage, Coney Island red hot; none of them really captured the public's imagination. Coney Island chicken and weenie (from the Austrian wienerwurst) both had their proponents. But it was popular uncertainty about exactly what kind of meat was in these casings that ultimately determined that it would be called "hot dog".

in 1870, Feltman leased land and began building his restaurant complex. Feltman's Oceanside Pavilion became the largest and most extravagant restaurant complex in the world. It achieved its heyday in the 1920s, serving nearly 5,250,000 people a year, being a large restaurant complex with several restaurants, two bars, a beer garden, a famous carousel, and other attractions, and offering many types of food beyond hot dogs.

Nathan Handwerker was working at Feltman's as a roll slicer when he quit to found rival Nathan's. Handwerker undersold Feltman (hot dogs for ten cents instead of five) and ran a more downscale operation than Feltman's, but eventually Nathan's became the most successful and iconic Coney Island hot dog purveyor and a nationwide brand which thrived into the 21st century.

Family and business after his death

Feltman died in 1910 (he is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York) after which his family ran the business. Feltman's sons Charles L. Feltman and Alfred F. Feltman and grandson Charles A. Feltman, who had been operating the restaurant, sold the operation in 1946 to Alvan Kallman and others. The restaurant closed in 1954. The land was later used to construct the now-derelict Astroland amusement park which opened in 1962 and closed in 2008. The last remnant of Feltman's – the building that had housed the kitchen – was demolished in 2010.

Charle's Feltman's grandson Charles A. Feltman invented the Shooting Star Tommy Gun, a pneumatic BB machine gun used in fair and amusement park stalls for many decades and continuing well into the 21st century (the device is used by players to shoot out all traces of a red star on a paper target). Shooting Star Games was founded by Charles A. Feltman and continues to manufacture the device in the 21st century.

Coney Island Tours founder Michael Quinn revived the Feltman's of Coney Island brand with a line of packaged hot dogs and a location called Feltman's Kitchen in the East Village. In 2017 Quinn has opened a Feltman's of Coney Island back at the original address of 1000 Surf Ave.

References

1. ^ Dana Schulz (June 20, 2016). "Before Nathan's There Was Feltman's: The History of the Coney Island Hot Dog". 6sqft. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
2. ^ Scott Lynch (August 23, 2010). "Behind This Tiny Window Is NYC's Best Hot Dog". Gothamist. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
3. Nell Casey (April 14, 2015). "Hot Dog Creator Feltman's May Return To Coney Island". Gothamist. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |urlhttp://gothamist.com/2015/04/14/feltmans_coney_island_returns.php= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
4. UPI (United Press International) (March 25, 1974). "Inventor of Coney Island Cut Hot Dogs to Five Cents". The Daily Sentinel. Middleport-Pomoroy, Ohio. p. 7. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
5. "The Mausoleum that the Hot Dog Built". Gravely Speaking. September 12, 2013. Retrieved November 11, 2016.
6. Richman, Jeffrey I (1998). Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery: New York's Buried Treasure. Green Wood Cemetery. pp. 104–05. ISBN 978-0966343502.
7. "Alvan E. Kallman, 62, Dies". New York Times. September 4, 1964. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
8. "Feltman Family Sells Famous Coney Resort". Brooklyn Eagle. Brooklyn. April 29, 1946. p. 3. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
9. "Amusement pneumatic machine gun – United States Patent 2801624". Free Patents Online. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
10. "Shooting Star". Shooting Star website. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
11. Scott Lynch (August 23, 2016). "Behind This Tiny Window Is NYC's Best Hot Dog". Gothamist. Retrieved March 31, 2017.

• 1841 births
• 1910 deaths
• Hot dogs
• People from Brooklyn
• German emigrants to the United States