Nathan Handwerker
{{Short description|Polish-American restaurateur (1892–1974)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Nathan Handwerker
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1892|6|14}}
| birth_place = Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now part of Ukraine)
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1974|3|24|1892|6|14}}
| death_place = Port Charlotte or Sarasota, Florida, United States
| nationality =
| other_names =
| known_for = Nathan's Famous
| occupation = Restaurateur
}}
Nathan Handwerker (June 14, 1892 – March 24, 1974)[https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VSDT-S4W Nathan Handwerker] at the United States Social Security Death Index via FamilySearch.org. Retrieved on July 24, 2015. was the founder of an iconic hot dog stand that evolved into Nathan's Famous restaurants and related Nathan's retail product line. An immigrant from Poland, he and his wife Ida used $300 to start their business on Coney Island in 1916. As of 2016, Nathan's operates over 400 company owned and franchised restaurants in all 50 states and 17 foreign countries, and Nathan's brand products are found in some 45,000 stores across the United States.[http://www.nathansfamous.com/products/hot-dogs Nathan's retail product line]
Biography
Handwerker was born in Galicia,Nathan Handwerker, 2003 interview in {{cite AV media | people = Handwerker, Lloyd, director | year=2015| title = Famous Nathan | medium = film| publisher =Loquat Films}}{{cite news| url=http://www.filmjournal.com/reviews/film-review-famous-nathan| title=Film Review: Famous Nathan| date=July 23, 2015| author-link=Frank Lovece| first=Frank| last=Lovece| work=Film Journal International| access-date=September 15, 2015| quote=...he described his 1892 birth in Galicia, a former kingdom on the present-day site of the Poland and Ukraine border. One of 13 children of an shoemaker, he lived and worked in a bakery in another town for two years beginning at age 11. He later lived with his brother in Belgium, and saved enough for a steerage ticket from Holland to Ellis Island.| archive-date=September 15, 2015| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150915142527/http://www.filmjournal.com/reviews/film-review-famous-nathan| url-status=dead}} a former kingdom and constituent part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the partitioned Poland under the Austrian rule that roughly spanned the contemporary Poland-Ukraine border. One of 13 children of a poor Jewish shoemaker, he immigrated to the United States in 1912. Handwerker found work as a delivery boy and later obtained a job slicing bread rolls at Feltman's German Gardens, a restaurant in Coney Island, Brooklyn. The restaurant sold franks (hot dogs) for 10 cents each.
By one account, Handwerker was encouraged by singing waiters Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Durante to go into business in competition with Feltman's; as United Press International noted in 1974, "There are many stories about Nathan and how the business began, but this is the way he told it..." The company's official history does not mention the encouragement of those two entertainers.{{cite web | url=http://www.nathansfamous.com/story/extended_history | title= Nathan's Famous History | publisher= Nation's Famous official website|access-date= July 24, 2015| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080707110040/http://www.nathansfamous.com/PageFetch/getpage.php?pgid=39 | archive-date= July 7, 2008|url-status=dead}} Nathan and Ida spent their life savings of $300 to begin the business. One story claims that to help build his savings faster, Handwerker's only meals were the hot dogs that he could eat at work for free. In 1916 Handwerker and his new wife, Ida Handwerker, opened a small hot dog stand with a two-foot grill on the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/03/25/archives/handwerker-of-nathans-famous-dies-turned-his-coney-island-hot-dogs.html | title=Handwerker of Nathan's Famous Dies; Turned His Coney Island Hot Dogs Into Food Sought Worldwide | work=The New York Times | date= May 25, 1974| access-date=July 24, 2014}} Abstract of subscription article. Note: Source gives age as 83, although Handwerker in Famous Nathan documentary gives his birth year as 1892, which agrees with June 14, 1892, birth date at the Social Security Death Index. They spiced their hot dogs with Ida's secret recipe and sold them for a nickel.
Handwerker named his previously unnamed hot dog stand Nathan's Hot Dogs in 1921 after Sophie Tucker, then a singer at the nearby Carey Walsh's Cafe, made a hit of the song "Nathan, Nathan, Why You Waitin?"
The food stand developed into the fast food chain Nathan's Famous, spearheaded by his son, Murray Handwerker.{{cite news |first=Reed|last=Abelson|title=Murray Handwerker, 89, Dies; Made Nathan's More Famous |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/nyregion/murray-handwerker-who-made-nathans-more-famous-dies-at-89.html|work=The New York Times| date=May 15, 2011 |access-date=May 22, 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150707071222/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/nyregion/murray-handwerker-who-made-nathans-more-famous-dies-at-89.html?_r=0 | archive-date = July 7, 2015| url-status=live}}{{cite news |title=Murray Handwerker dies at 89; Nathan's Famous owner expanded nationwide |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-passings-20110522,0,3302141.story|work=Los Angeles Times |date=May 22, 2011 |access-date=May 22, 2011| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20150221204219/http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-passings-20110522-story.html | archive-date =February 21, 2015 | url-status=live}}
On March 23, 1974, Nathan Handwerker suffered a heart attack at his home in North Port Charlotte, Florida. He died March 24, 1974, per differing accounts at either St. Joseph's Hospital in Port Charlotte, Florida,{{cite news |title= Inventor of Coney Islands Cut Hot Dogs to Five Cent |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kP9DAAAAIBAJ&sjid=U7AMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2778,5148287&dq=nathan+handwerker&hl=en | agency = United Press International | newspaper = The Daily Sentinel | location = Pomeroy-Middleport, Ohio |date= March 25, 1974|access-date= July 12, 2014}} or at Sarasota General Hospital, in Sarasota, Florida. He was buried at Mt. Lebanon Cemetery in Glendale, Queens, New York.
In 2014, Famous Nathan was released, a feature-length documentary film, created by a grandson of Nathan's, Lloyd Handwerker, telling the family history of Nathan's Famous.{{Cite news|last=Gold|first=Daniel M.|date=2015-07-17|title=Review: 'Famous Nathan' Tells How Nathan Handwerker Built a Hot Dog Empire|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/17/movies/review-famous-nathan-tells-how-nathan-handwerker-built-a-hot-dog-empire.html|access-date=2022-01-18|issn=0362-4331}}
In 2016, the corner of Surf Avenue and Stillwell Avenue was co-named Nathan & Ida Handwerker Way — to honor Nathan and his wife Ida.{{Cite web|last=Spivak •|first=Anna|date=2016-09-27|title=Corner of Surf and Stillwell co-named after Nathan's founders|url=https://brooklynreporter.com/2016/09/corner-surf-stillwell-co-named-nathans-founders/|access-date=2022-01-16|website=The Brooklyn Home Reporter|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|date=2017-09-18|title=Street Signs Honoring Coney Island Luminaries Go Missing|url=https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/blog/news/street-signs-honoring-coney-island-luminaries-go-missing|access-date=2022-01-16|website=Coney Island History Project|language=en}}
References
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External links
- [https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/content/sol-handwerker Sol Handwerker Interview - Nathan's son recounts growing up in the family business - conducted: August 1 2007 by Coney Island History Project]
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Category:American food industry businesspeople
Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent
Category:American restaurateurs
Category:Businesspeople from New York City
Category:Fast-food chain founders
Category:People from Port Charlotte, Florida
Category:Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States