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Our
Little Town
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NOTICE:
In June 2003, a special, print version of this page, as it then
was, beautifully
framed, was presented by your webmaster on behalf of our class and
the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce to Nathan's Oceanside,
and is now hanging
permanently at that location. Click here for details
and photos. |
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__________________
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This
song's cooler than that Perry Como hot dog song, isn't it?
(To hear a possible alternative song selection, click
here.)
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A
Tribute to and Brief History of
our own
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Nathan's Famous |
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Roadside Rest |
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(You can't get
this stuff
anywhere else, folks!
)
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As
most visitors to this site will surely agree, the
de facto
center of
our little town in the late
1950s and before, at least socially, was not the
town triangle, but most certainly it was a little further south on Long Beach Road at Weidner
Avenue. For many, many people, whether they were local residents or not,
the famous
Roadside Rest
(which became
Roadside Rest
in 1959)
provided them with some of the
fondest memories they have of
Oceanside. |
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The
beginning |
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Since the 1920s, the
Roadside Rest
was a huge part of
our little town's history and culture, its most famous business and its most recognized
landmark. More than anything else (except maybe the
Shrine of St. Anthony, the world famous underground Catholic church built in
1928 and destroyed by fire in 1960), the Roadside Rest
put our little town "on the map." And for the many of us who came to Oceanside in the
early to mid-1950s from Brooklyn, going to
was like taking a nostalgic trip back home.
The Roadside Rest
was originally
founded in 1921 as a fruit and vegetable stand with a $300
investment by Leon Shor (who later operated four popular Long
Island restaurants under the name, "Shor's") and his
brother-in-law, Murray Hadfield. Nassau
County was mostly farms then. According
to a 1976 article by popular 
columnist, Jack Altschul, Long Beach Road was "a
dusty, two-lane thoroughfare that connected Long Beach and
Rockville Centre," and "Oceanside was a
clamdigger's hamlet in between and hardly a location one would
project as the site of a bonanza."
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But
the Roadside Rest
soon became primarily a hot dog stand and one of the countless imitators (mentioned in the
Denver
Post article, below) of
Famous, a
Coney
Island landmark since 1916.
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Leon
Shor↑
↑Murray Hadfield
Circa 1922-'24 |
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Of
course, we know that the
original
Famous,
in Coney Island practically invented, and
virtually single-handedly popularized, the
American hot dog on a bun with
mustard and sauerkraut and for
only a nickel!! |
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↑ |
The Handwerkers:
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↑ |
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Nathan Murray
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(a
toddler) |
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Coney Island, New
York, circa 1923 |
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Click
here for more on the history of
Nathan's in Coney Island and the company, Nathan's
Famous, Inc. |
As Jack Altschul also wrote in
that 1976 article about
the
Roadside Rest, "A year or two after they located
on Long Beach Road, the partners decided to install a small grill
for frankfurters and a spigot or two to dispense drinks. They had
noticed a marked increase in automobile traffic to Long Beach and
counted on a few of the beach-bound travelers to stop at their
stand for refreshments. The demand for the all-beef
frankfurters was to so far surpass their expectations that they
spent much of the decade enlarging their premises ... [to] a
one block-square piece of property, with a counter exceeding 100
feet in length and an 80-foot bar in a wood-paneled dining room
off the street." |
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The Roadside Rest
building that we knew was constructed circa 1929, and it
was a rather beautiful example of stucco-covered Spanish
architecture that was highly unusual for our part of the country in its time or
ever. It was of a style more likely to have been found in Florida or
California, but not New York. In fact, it clearly was one
of the two most beautiful
structures ever built in
our little town. (The other was
our high school, as it was originally in 1955-'63, before the first expansion construction
destroyed its stately front entrance.)
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The west and south
sides, circa early 1930s
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In the mid-late '30s and
early '40s, the
Roadside Rest,
which called itself "Long Island's famous family
rendezvous," was very popular for its frankfurters and seafood (seafood was not introduced
by
in Coney Island until
1946) and
its outdoor entertainment (live band music and dancing) featured
all year 'round on its "garden terrace" or
"open-air pavilion."
According to an
account written in 1974 by another
reporter, Dennis Weintraub,
"The small place grew from hot dogs and hamburgers to the heights
of a well-known supper club and peaked, says Morton Shor,
around 1940. ... It featured the legendary big bands led by Tommy Dorsey,
Benny Goodman, Eddy Duchin, and Lionel Hampton. There were nightly
[radio] broadcasts of the bands' concerts and dancing under the stars."
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As
told directly to this reporter in 2004 by Morton (Morty) Shor, son of
Roadside Rest co-founder, Leon Shor, "It was a grand and glorious era,
a wondrous time that gave me many,
many fond memories. In fact, not a week goes by today when I
don't meet someone who speaks fondly of his or her memories of
that place."
Click here for Morty
Shor's unique perspective on the early history of the Roadside Rest,
obtained in an exclusive interview of the 81-year old Shor
conducted for this website on January 4, 2004.
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The Roadside Rest
garden terrace featured Harry James' orchestra, Gene Krupa and many Dixieland
bands, too. In the summer, it
attracted many people who drove there from Brooklyn and
Queens (probably in their very first cars) to
escape the hot and crowded city, or stopped on their way home from
a day at
Long Beach or Jones
Beach. |
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Promotional picture postcards of
Roadside Rest in its prime, circa 1930s-'40s (one above
and three below) |
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The
decline
However, beginning in early 1942, World War II brought
gasoline rations with highly curtailed pleasure
driving and the demise of the big
swing bands (all the
young musicians were drafted, as were half of most |
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young dancing couples), and by the mid-'40s and
early '50s, there were no longer any big bands,
nor was there other live music or dancing
offered any more at the Roadside Rest.
Next door, however, there
was an area with amusement rides for little kids called "Kiddieland
Park."
The "Kiddieland Park"
carousel at Murray Handwerker's Roadside Rest,
1957.
Oceanside Beacon
photo
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Text
printed on the back of the above
card:
LONG
ISLAND'S FAMOUS RENDEZVOUS
THE ROADSIDE REST'S
gay, romantic atmosphere,
fascinating dance music, and
delicious food, well served,
constitute it as one of the
outstanding places for
pleasure-lovers. Here you may
dine and dance in The Garden
Terrace, a veritable paradise under
the stars or in the splendor of the
Old English Tavern.
Parking for over 2,500 cars.
Open all year. This bright
spot caters to the millions. |
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But with the introduction of air conditioning (in
movie theatres and later in homes) and TV, and the growing traffic congestion
between NY and LI, the old
Roadside Rest
had lost its popularity, it had become run down, and it
actually closed briefly.
Enter
Murray Handwerker.
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"Dad,
people are moving out of Brooklyn to the suburbs, and our
customers, too." |
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Murray
Handwerker,
from a Newsday
interview,
June 11, 1976 |
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The
transformation
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Murray
tried to convince his father, Nathan (the
Nathan of
Famous), to risk taking his hot dog emporium beyond the close boundaries of his comfort zone
of over 40 years
Coney Island,
New York. Nathan, however, was unwilling to do it. So,
through a corporation he controlled, Murray acquired title to the famous Roadside Rest
property in late 1956,
refurbished it and then took over
its management
by himself probably in January 1957.
But as Murray told a New York Times reporter in 1979, when Nathan saw how well his son's new venture was doing,
and he said, "my father
was a little concerned that I might be going away from the
Nathan's store," so he had his company buy it from Murray
in late 1958.1
On Thursday,
June 4, 1959, it opened as
Roadside Rest and became
what it had originally imitated. A number of years later, the old
name was quietly dropped
forever. |
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Ad from the Oceanside Beacon, April
4, 1957 |
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1 |
A
different version is independently told by two of
our classmates who worked at the Roadside Rest at
the time of its transformation to Nathan's.
According to George Kinney and Bill
Livert, under Murray's private ownership, it was
generally known by the employees that the Roadside
Rest was not making money, "nearing bankruptcy,"
in George's words, and Murray's dad had Nathan's Famous,
Inc.
bail him out with the takeover. But in our 2004
interview, Murray Handwerker pretty much stuck to
his 1979 version, emphasizing that his father came
to him primarily to keep Murray in the corporate family. So who
knows?
(Click here for Murray
Handwerker's personal account of the early history of
Nathan's Famous in our little town, as given in an
exclusive interview to 1960 Sailors Association Inc., February 1, 2004.) |
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The 1959 grand opening of
Famous
Roadside
Rest
must have been one the
grandest events ever in
our little town.
Our classmate,
Bill Liebman,
remembers:
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believe I went with Joel [Pravda].
They were giving free franks, but only two
at a time. I think I was happy with
two, but I can't swear for Joel. It
was a mob scene!" |
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A more detailed account by classmate, Dave
Schwarz, follows:
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"I recall the day that
Nathans took over the Roadside Rest;
they gave away free hot dogs without
limit. They imported some guys from the
Brooklyn establishment who had
incredibly fast hands. I remember
marveling at how fast they filled buns
with hot dogs, (and wondered how cooked
the dogs they served were).
"I
was taking drivers ed
at the time, and one of the coaches was
the drivers
ed
teacher.
The whole carload of students voted
unanimously for a student drive which
would take us past
Nathan's,
though it was a morning class. The teacher didnt protest too
much when we pulled up and parked.
We went in and ate our fill.
"At lunch. a bunch of people, me
included, went again and I had another
three, or four, who can remember? After school, we went again, but
I think I could only get down two.
"Where do you think we went for supper
when my dad got home from work?
"It was a few weeks before I could look
again at another hot dog." |
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Ad from Newsday,
June 4, 1959 (You can see at
right that the telephone
no. of our hometown Nathan's, but for
the adoption of a modern numerical
exchange, is the same today as it was on
opening day in 1959, 766-2345.)
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In 1961, the "Kiddieland
Park" area was taken over by Jazzbo, a professional clown
and magician who operated it until 1965, and it was renamed "JazzboLand." Jazzbo appeared
there regularly.
For years before that
(1947-1960), we saw him in our
annual
Memorial
Day parades and other local events usually with his
colorful clown car, a 1930 Model A Ford known as the "Jazzmobile." Do you remember? |
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Edmund A. Tester, Sr. as Jazzbo in the JAZZMOBILE
Click
here for more about Jazzbo. |
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The fare
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 Nathan's
Famous
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Of course, our
also sold hamburgers,
in competition
with the then blossoming, brand new, fast food industry led nationally by  , and on LI, by other hamburger
vendors familiar to us, such as Joseph's, Wetson's (which
acquired
in 1975) and the original fast food hamburger chain (started in
1921),  .
At ,
you had to wait on a different line
for each item you bought, including the drinks (so in that respect, it was NOT
fast food). Every member of your party was assigned a different line to wait
on.
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As told by our classmate and former
employee, Rick Von
Brook:
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"Frog's legs, pizza, clams, oysters
(in season), burgers, franks, shrimp rolls, chow mein on a bun, deli
sandwiches, pea soup, clam chowder, shrimp, soft and hard ice cream and,
of course, their famous fries. Did I leave anything out?2 I
cooked and served most of the above as a part-timer in my HS/college
days. What a great place for a hyper-hormonal teenage guy to work
at. Every gorgeous gal in town passed through going or coming back
from the beach.3 In cooperation with the Oceanside Recreation Department,
they had puppet shows and concerts on the stage in back."
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Well, Rick, some remember knishes,
too. (But who would eat a knish at Nathan's when they had
such great fries, and the best knishes were at Izzy's on the Long
Beach boardwalk?)
And our classmate, Ed Chilton, adds, "Yep.
There was a 4-foot by 3-foot tray of ice,
and on top of the ice were slices of watermelon and
cantaloupe, and fresh fruit, e.g., grapefruit, pineapple
slices, etc."
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3
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Click here for
Long Beach photos
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Like
Rick, for so many of us,
as kids, it was also a great source of part-time jobs.
was open late at night after almost everything else had
closed (except the 24-hour diners, of course), and it quickly became
our
little town's most popular teenage social
hangout. (You could hang
out all night at
and never be asked to buy anything or leave.)
Although, as kids tend to do, we
took it for granted at the time (like
our
school,
our little town and even
our
music), we now realize that our was
really special
and that it was really
ours!
According
to a remarkably accurate statement by that
appears on its expansive historical website,
LI
HISTORY.COM:
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Ad from the Oceanside Beacon, June
4,
and Newsday,
June 5, 1959
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"The huge building with
picnic-style tables became a destination: to go after high-school football
games, after a day at the beach, to celebrate when you first got your
drivers' license, or just to people-watch and meet kids from other towns."
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The north and
west sides, as our Nathan's looked when we were kids.
This photo courtesy of Nathan's Famous Inc.
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The west side, taken in the daytime around the same
time (early '60s) as the photo above |
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In the early 1960s, a roof (photo below) was added over the
garden terrace
to get more use out of it during the cold months, and
for a few years entertainment was offered there again, but then
the bandstand went silent. There were children's puppet
shows, though, and bikers' nights.
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Source:
nathansfamous.com
(date unknown) |
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In
1966 (after opening its third location in Yonkers, New
York,
celebrated its golden anniversary.
In
1971, another attempt at a rebirth of the Roadside
Rest
as an entertainment facility
was made.
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This time, the bandstand featured banjos,
sing-alongs and jazz music, square dancing was
introduced, and the puppet shows and the kiddie park
continued. But, alas, nothing Handwerker could do could
bring back the glory days of the big bands. |
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The destruction
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Nathan's Famous |
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By
1976, the 47-year old structure was deteriorating
and no longer well suited to modern service of fast food, and the
competition was growing. And so, sadly
for us, on
June 10th-11th,
1976, our beloved
Roadside
Rest,
which we all took for granted as kids, was demolished.
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At
left is how our Oceanside Nathan's
looked (the north and west sides), without
awnings, just
days before it was torn down in 1976. |
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A few days later,
under
the headline, "Paved
Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot,"
Jack
Altschul wrote in :
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was like reading the obit of an old friend, the
story about the demolition of Nathan's Famous in
Oceanside to make room for a parking lot." |
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The
north side. Newsday photo, 1976 |
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(Notice how the "FRANKFURTERS
& SEA FOOD"
part
of the sign remained unchanged from the 1930s
until
the end.) |
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It should have been protected as a historic site.
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Nathan's
Famous for Health Food?
In an article dated February
14, 2003, Newsday reported the death of a woman
who was believed quite likely to have been the oldest
woman in the world at age 119 and who
lived most of her life right down the street in Long Beach and then Island
Park. In the
article, her 60 year-old grandson was quoted as saying
"... her favorite place to eat was
Nathan's," where she had lunch every Sunday.
Could hot dogs and fries be
the secret to long life? (Apparently,
82-year old Murray Handwerker thinks so. See his
2004
interview
for www.1960sailors.net.) |
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Substantially all of the contents of our
page, in a beautifully framed, printed edition is now hanging permanently in the Oceanside,
immortalizing the old Roadside Rest along with the Class of 1960. It was presented June 28, 2003,
on our behalf our class with the Oceanside Chamber of
Commerce, who then declared June to be "
Month in Oceanside, New York." Click here for details
and photos.
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Links to
Other Nathan's
Famous Roadside Rest-Related Pages on 1960sailors.net:
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Click here
for our exclusive interview with Morty Shor,
son of Roadside Rest co-founder, Leon Shor.
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Click
here for our exclusive interview with the
man who brought
to Oceanside, Murray
Handwerker, son of
founder, Nathan Handwerker.
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Click
here for details and photos of the Class
of 1960's tribute presentation to,
June 2003, and links to related pages, including
an article from the
Oceanside Chamber of Commerce
Newsletter about our class'
tribute presentation and
a letter of thanks to our class
from
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Click
here for photos of your classmates at the "new"
Oceanside
taken the day before our 40-year
reunion in July 2000.
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Below is a photograph taken
circa 1959
of the original, but expanded, Coney Island
(not nearly as pretty as ours but nevertheless, quite a place). Notice the sign containing
the large clock just to the right of center, and
the one just to the right of that (also see
close-ups, below); they are both promoting its then
brand new second location in our little town Oceanside.
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Graphic artistry for above close-ups by
our classmate, Ed
Chilton
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Other
Links:
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Click here for more on the
history of
Nathan's in Coney Island and the company, Nathan's Famous, Inc.
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Click here for
more information on the
history of our little town.
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Click on the Beacon masthead below
for more historical material from the
1957-1960 pages of
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The ash tray and tumbler
illustrated below were acquired in eBay auctions in 2003. Both are from sometime between 1959 and
1965, when there
were still only two Nathan's locations, Coney Island and Oceanside.
(The familiar green waxed paper drink cups shown above are also from the early
days of Oceanside when there were only two Nathan's.) Most likely, the ash tray was used at the Oceanside location since there was
only a very small dining room with limited
seating at Coney Island, and probably for a short time only. According to
Murray
Handwerker, the tumbler was given
away to as a souvenir to promote
the 1959 grand opening of Oceanside but never actually used at the restaurants.
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The
following was excerpted from an
article by J. Sebastian Sinisi
in the Denver Post, November 15,1999.
Nathan's Famous
______________ "Nathan's is entwined in the folklore of New York
City and, more specifically, Coney Island. So much so that the video version of
Roger Kahn's 'Boys of Summer' about the fabled baseball Brooklyn Dodgers
in the '50s begins with narrator and comedian
Sid Caeser [sic]
standing in front of
the Nathan's at Coney Island, eating a hot dog.
"The hot dog didn't appear in America until the St.
Louis World's Fair of 1904. A dozen years later, entrepreneur Nathan Handwerker
opened the first Nathan's hot dog stand on Coney Island's Surf Avenue, a block
from the beach.
"Handwerker was a potato-peeler at Feltman's, a
white-tablecloth eatery a few blocks away. Feltman's sold hot dogs for 10 cents;
a stiff price at the time.
"As explained by Nathan's President and Chief
Executive Officer Wayne Norbitz - a 25-year company veteran who himself started
work behind a Nathan's counter
Handwerker borrowed $300 from a Feltman's piano
player and a singing waiter. Their names were Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Durante.
Both went on to bigger things in vaudeville, radio and TV.
"Using a
'secret-spice' formula developed by
his wife, Ida, Handwerker sold an all-beef hot dog whose unique taste depended
on just the right amount of garlic.
"Selling hot dogs for a nickel, Handwerker
'got worried,' said Norbitz. 'He thought people might think they were an
inferior product. So he hired actors to pose as doctors
walking around in
white coats and stethoscopes eating his hot dogs. So they had to be
good.'
"Nathan Handwerker's hot dogs were a hit and spawned
many imitators. Four years later, when New York subway lines reached Coney
Island in 1920 with a large station across Surf Avenue from Nathan's, success
was assured.
"The subway links launched Coney
Island's golden age that peaked just after World War II before decline set in
the 1950s and early '60s. The original Nathan's grew until it took up an entire block, but a
second location didn't open until 1955
at
Oceanside, Long Island.
By the mid-'60s, winds
of change New York's middle classes now avoided Coney Island
dictated branch
locations elsewhere: in Manhattan, Brooklyn and on Long Island.
"Nathan Handwerker's two grandsons sold their
interest in the company in 1987 and, 'In 1993, Nathan's really started
growing from a strictly local operation with about a dozen restaurants,' said
Norbitz." ...
more
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Editor's note:
There are certain inaccuracies with regard to dates in this paragraph. As documented
conclusively above (with the Newsday ad from opening day), Nathan's took over the Oceanside Roadside Rest
on June 4, 1959, and not in 1955.
In fact, 1960sailors.net is the only place on the worldwide web
(including Nathan's Famous' own website) that mentions the event
and does not place it incorrectly in 1955, as do placemats used in
the restaurants. There is another technical error in a
previous paragraph, which states that Nathan's Famous'
current CEO, Wayne Norbitz, started his career behind a
Nathan's counter. In fact, he started with Wetson's,
acquired by Nathan's in 1975.
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We also know that there were no other Brooklyn or Manhattan branch locations in
the mid-'60s, as claimed in the article above. Here's proof:
Nathan's
Famous, Inc. says it obtained its third location in 1965 when it
took over the well-known Adventurers' Inn in Yonkers, NY. In 1966, when it
celebrated its 60th anniversary, it still had only three locations (Brooklyn,
Oceanside and Yonkers), as shown on the commemorative drinking glass pictured
above on the right. Further, Murray Handwerker's book, Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Cookbook
(right),
which was published in 1968, refers to only these three locations as follows:
"From its main base in Coney Island or from its units in Oceanside, L.I.,
and Yonkers, N.Y., Nathan's air-expresses its products to hot dog and salami
lovers the world over." In fact, according to Nathan's Famous, Inc.,
its only branch units continued to be Oceanside and Yonkers until it opened its
fourth location in Times Square with the proceeds of its first public securities
offering in 1970.
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However, according
to Bob Levine (OHS '63) (who worked at our Nathan's for five years beginning in
the early '60s), Murray's brother, Joe Handwerker,
opened "Snacktime Featuring Nathan's Frankfurters" in
the mid-'60s on 34th Street across from
Penn Station. Nathan's franks, burgers, and fries were
available there, and the Nathan's name appeared all over Snacktime.
Perhaps this
is why some folks think Nathan's Famous had a Manhattan location then. |
Copyright ©
2000-2009 by Howard B. Levy and
1960 Sailors Association Inc. All rights reserved.
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,
with all the sauerkraut you can stand
and the very best
french fries in all the world! 
