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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. Click here for details
and photos. |
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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
Oceanside |
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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. Many
remember it as the most iconic, beloved structure ever built in
our little town
and its most recognized landmark. |
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The story of
the
Oceanside /Roadside Rest
presented on this
page
(and supplemented
by some of the linked pages — especially
this one.) is the most complete and
comprehensive history of this beloved property that you will
find — online or elsewhere. Here, it is
organized (more-or-less) in chronological categories as follows:
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The
beginning |
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The Original |
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 Since the
late 1920s, the
Roadside Rest
was a huge part of
our little town's history and culture, its
most famous business. 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" (as said in
one of our reunion
speeches,
these were the two
— yes two — renowned "religious shrines" in
our little town). And for the many of us who came to
Oceanside
in the early to mid-1950s from
Brooklyn, going to
Famous
was, in many
ways, 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. (Click here for
a more extensive and detailed
early history of the
Roadside Rest.)
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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.
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It
was
built in a style more likely to have been found in
Florida or
California, but
not New York. As
Nathan's grandson, Lloyd Handwerker put it in his
2016 book, it was "an
elaborate structure with Spanish architectural
flavorings, oddly out of place in its Long Island
environs, probably the only outsize Moorish vila outside
of California." 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.) |
The west and south sides, circa
early 1930s
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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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As reporter, 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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These three clustered photos seem to be the oldest ones
available of the Roadside Rest building that we knew when we
were kids. Notice at left that the famous sign above the
northwest and southwest corners of the building (as shown above
in the photo from the early 1930s) had not yet been erected. |
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Click here for
a photo of, and information about, the smaller, copycat
competition right across the street during the mid-1930s. |
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The "heyday"
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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." It
claimed capacity to seat 3,000 people, and it occupied a
full city block.
Another grandson
of Nathan, Bill Handwerker,
wrote in his 2016 book, "My
mother and father would tell me stories about how the big-band
greats ... who would play regularly on the
Roadside Rest's
stage."
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."
"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,"
as told directly
to this reporter in an interview in 2004 by
then 81-year old Morton (Morty) Shor, son of
Roadside Rest co-founder, Leon Shor.
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Ad from
the
 , April 4, 1957 |
Beacon Newsday |
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The
Roadside Rest's
garden terrace often 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 postcards (one above and three
below) of
Roadside Rest in its
prime, circa 1930s |
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Click here for
a more extensive and detailed
early history of the
Roadside Rest,
including Morty Shor's unique perspective obtained in
exclusive interviews of Shor conducted for this website on
January 4, 2004, and again in December 2010 and June 2015, when
he was 81 and almost 88 and 93 years old, respectively.
Also featured on the same page are images of various items of
early
Roadside Rest memorabilia and
photos of its little known branch locations in Merrick and Miami
Beach. |
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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
young
dancing
couples). 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.
And with the introduction of air conditioning (in movie
theatres and later in homes) and TV, the growing traffic
congestion between NY and LI followed by the effects of WWII
reducing both recreational automobile use and the
availability of live, big band entertainment, the old
Roadside
Rest
lost its popularity and became run down, eventually, it
actually closed briefly around 1955-'56.
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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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The Roadside Rest, in the late 1950s,
shortly before it became
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Of course, we know that
Famous,
the original in Coney Island, practically
(if not literally) invented,
and virtually single-handedly
popularized, the American hot dog on a
bun — with mustard and
sauerkraut beginning in 1916— and
until WWII, for
only a nickel!!
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Click here for more on the
history of
Nathan's Famous
in Coney Island. |
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The
Handwerkers:
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Murray
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Nathan
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(a
toddler) |
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Coney Island,
New
York,
circa 1923 |
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Enter
Murray
Handwerker. |
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The transformation
Newsday New York Times Oceanside
Beacon |
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Murray
Handwerker 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.
According to
a
interview, June 11, 1976,
Murray said, "Dad, people are moving out of Brooklyn to the
suburbs, and our customers, too."
And as Nathan's
grandson, Lloyd Handwerker, quoted in his 2016 book,
Famous Nathan,
Murray told Nathan, "Times
have changed. You've got to
grow,
and you've got to do different things."
Nathan, however, was unwilling to do it at first. He
felt he could only watch one "store," as he called it,
at a time.
So in late 1956, Murray acquired
title to the famous
Roadside Rest
property,
through a corporation he controlled,
refurbished it and then took over its management by
himself in January 1957, according to an article in the
,
and operated it (as Murray's
son, Bill, says in his book)
as "Murray's
Roadside Rest."
 Seen
at left, next door,
there was an area with
amusement rides for little kids
called Kiddieland" (later to
become "JazzboLand"
in 1961).
The "Kiddieland"carousel
Photo from the
In
a 1979 interview given to  , Murray implied that his new
Oceanside venture was doing so well in 1958 that his father
became "a little concerned that I might be
going away from the Nathan's store," so Nathan
had his company buy it, but Murray's version is
subject to some controversy.1
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Ad from
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4, 1959 |
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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
(the now late) 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. This version is
pretty much borne out by Lloyd Handwerker in his
book, Famous Nathan.
But in our 2004 interview, Murray Handwerker (now
deceased) pretty much stuck to his 1979 version,
emphasizing that his father came to him primarily to
keep Murray in the corporate family. (Click here for
the late
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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Whatever the reality, on Thursday,
June 4, 1959,
our beloved
Roadside Rest opened
as
Roadside Rest and became
what it had previously imitated. At first, the new
was managed by Murray's
younger brother,
Sol, while Murray went back to Brooklyn. However, after Murray
returned, the old name,
Roadside Rest,
was quietly dropped forever (except, of course, from our
collective, sweet memories). |
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The June 1959 grand opening of
Famous Roadside Rest
must have been one the grandest events ever
in
our little town.
In addition to the ads taken in Newsday
and the Oceanside
Beacon (displayed above and below,
respectively, on this page), the event was
announced briefly as news in the New York
Post
(see the clipping reproduced at right). The
Post announcement featured a caricature of
the famous face of
founder,
Nathan Handwerker, created especially for the
occasion by one-time (1950-1977) famed
Post editorial and sports cartoonist, John
Pierotti. The original of
this work hangs in the home of Nathan's
grandson, Bill
Handwerker, author of Nathan's Famous: The
First 100 Years, and previously hung in
the company's offices in Coney Island.
(Click
here
or on the caricature at right for a larger image
of the original.)
Except when it appeared in the notice in the
Post, the image has never before been seen
publicly, either printed in any book or by
online display. |
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Notice that appeared in the
New York Post, June 1959 |
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Our
classmate,
Bill Liebman, remembers:
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"I
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
Nathan’s 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 driver’s ed.
at the time, and one of the coaches was
the driver’s
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 didn’t 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."
(Dave's
story is recounted by Nathan's grandson,
Bill Handwerker, in his 2016 book,
Nathan's
Famous: The First 100 Years.) |
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In 1961,
the "Kiddieland Park" area was taken over by Jazzbo, a
professional clown 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?
(Click
here for lots more about Jazzbo.) |
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Edmund A. Tester, Sr. as Jazzbo in
the JAZZMOBILE |
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The fare
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 Nathan's
Famous
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At ,
you had to wait on a different line for each item you bought, including
the drinks (so in that respect, it certainly was NOT
fast food). Every member of your party was assigned a different
line to wait on.
Our favorite memories of youth (outside of our beloved
Oceanside High School) were of
Famous Roadside Rest.
Here's one from our classmate, Ed Chilton
(now deceased):
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"I
spent many hours of my youth in this old building, which had an outdoor
dance floor and once hosted big bands. The wisdom of the location can be
seen on a map of Long Island, east of Idlewild Airport, now known as
JFK. Nathan's was located on Long Beach Road
—
the
major thoroughfare to and from Long Beach2
—
the summer
resort of literary renown with a miles-long, elevated boardwalk full of
beachfront hotels, kiddie rides, game arcades, and knish vendors; a
credible rival to Atlantic City, NJ."
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And as told by another
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?3
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.4
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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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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"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 Famous,
looked when we were kids.
This photo courtesy of Nathan's Famous Inc.
Interestingly, the original, full color
version of photo above was
dug out of the archives by
Nathan's Famous, Inc.'s
management after a year-long search made for this site circa
2001 at our request and then and is still the only photo of
the historical Oceanside property that is featured on the company's
own website's very brief
history page.
A beautiful print of a watercolor reproduction
of this photo in its original form,
signed by the very talented artist, Michael White, can be viewed and
purchased at
https://www.michaelwhitestudio.com/.
It's AWESOME!!
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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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Circa early to mid- '70s, looking
eastbound |
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And in the winter, mid-70s |
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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) |
At
right, a national media ad
(from Time Magazine), 1960
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 In
1966 (after opening its third location in the
property previously known as the Adventurer's Inn in
Yonkers, New York),
celebrated its golden anniversary.
In 1971,
Murray made another attempt at a rebirth of the glory of the former
Roadside Rest
in
Oceanside
as an
entertainment facility. 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
Murray 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 we all loved 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
Famous
Roadside Rest,
which we all took for granted as kids, was demolished.
Immediately
below 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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"It
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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photo, 1976 |
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(Notice how
the "FRANKFURTERS
& SEA FOOD"
part of the sign remained unchanged from the 1930s until
the end in 1976.)
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It
should have been preserved as an historic site! |
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As forecasted in
Jack Altschul'scolumn,
our
was soon replaced with a strip shopping center2
and a smaller, more modern, corporate, "cookie cutter"
(with far less character and beauty) a block away to the north
at the corner of Long Beach Road and Windsor Parkway, where it
stood —still serving those famous hot dogs  ,
with all the sauerkraut you can stand and the very best
french fries in all the world —
until it closed in the fall of 2014.
(Click
here for more information, and
see
Update 2015,
below.)
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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 thought so. (See his 2004
interview
for
this website.) |
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* * * * * * *
Substantially all of the
contents of our
page, as it was in 2003, in a beautifully framed, printed edition in the Oceanside,
immortalizing the old Roadside Rest along with the Class of 1960, was
presented June 28th of that year, 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.)
It hung at that location at the corner of Long Beach Rd. and Windsor
Parkway until that location closed in January 2015. |
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Update
2015
In late 2014,
it was announced that the Windsor Parkway
location was to close. Among some controversy among local residents,
a new
Oceanside
location further north at 2807 Long Beach Rd. (corner of Merle Ave.) was
approved and opened in March 2015.
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Sign
announcing the January
2015 closing
of
the
Oceanside Nathan's at Windsor Pky |
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Grand
opening of the
new
Oceanside Nathan's
at Merle Ave. in
March 2015 |
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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
(now deceased)
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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
most responsible for
bringing
to
Oceanside and most closely associated
with it, 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.
Other Links:
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Click here for more on
the
history of
Nathan's Famous
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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NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
16-PAGE INSERT DATED MAY 22, 2016
 Two
New Books
and a Film
Commemorate the 100th
Anniversary of the
Original
Nathan's
FAMOUS!
 On
October 16.
2015,
we received a call from
Bill Handwerker, a
grandson of Nathan (founder of
Nathan's
Famous) and son of
Murray
Handwerker, who turned our renowned
Roadside Rest
into the Nathan's that we loved. Bill
has written a book (along with co-author, Jayne A. Pearl),
which is available from
Amazon
and elsewhere,
called Nathan's Famous: The First
100 Years.
(You can read about it on
on
Facebook.)
The
purpose of the call was to request permission to credit our
class
association and
www.1960sailors.net in the book.
So how cool is that?
 A second Nathan's history book, called
Famous Nathan, also refers
to this website and is available
from Amazon. It was written
(with co-author, Gil Reavill) by another Nathan Handwerker
grandson, Lloyd Handwerker, (who, in 2014, also produced and directed an acclaimed
documentary film
by the same title).
On
July 20. 2016, I posted the following online review of both books
(on Amazon.com):
One hundred years ago, in 1916, an enterprising, bright and savvy,
but uneducated, young Polish immigrant, started a modest business
that would eventually grow to become one of the most popular and
beloved food service establishments in the world — and one of the
most famous — Nathan’s Famous, that is.
To commemorate the 100th anniversary
of this iconic American family business, in the summer of 2016, two
grandsons of its colorful founder Nathan Handwerker (whom I call
“the Henry Ford of the American Hot Dog"), independently published
books in loving tribute to Nathan and the company. For those from
Brooklyn, Nathan’s Famous is, perhaps, second in its nostalgic value
only to Ebbets Field (except that Ebbets Field has been gone for
almost 60 years, and Nathan’s Famous is still there).
These two books are titled, respectively, Nathan's Famous: The
First 100 Years of America's Favorite Frankfurter Company and Famous
Nathan: A Family Saga of Coney Island, the American Dream, and the
Search for the Perfect Hot Dog. Each from their own separate
point of view, both books palpably oozing with family pride, the
authors, first cousins, William and Lloyd Handwerker, poignantly
tell the classic rags-to-riches story in most readable, moving, and
delightful ways, of their poor, immigrant, illiterate but remarkable
grandfather, and how he overcame all the conflicts and other
obstacles frequently associated with family businesses, as well as
two world wars, the Great Depression and all the other economic
upheavals that occurred over the first 55 years of Nathan’s Famous —
until Nathan retired reluctantly in 1971, three years before he died
at age 81.
As I started reading the first available of the two books, Bill
Handwerker’s, on the day before the popular annual Nathan’s Fourth
of July Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island, I instantly
developed a craving for one of those fantastic hot dogs. We had them
for dinner that night.
Both accounts tell substantially the whole story and, accordingly,
they overlap considerably, especially to the extent the
text relies on a 1973 taped interview of Nathan made shortly before
he died by another cousin of the authors, David Sternshein. However,
they also complement each other well. Lloyd’s book, based largely on recorded interviews of family members
and other long-term employees of Nathan’s Famous, delves deeper than
Bill’s into his grandfather’s early life in poverty in Poland,
his struggles as a young immigrant and a novice entrepreneur in New
York City and the early history of the business. Bill’s book is more
of a personal memoir that focuses
mainly on the history of the mature business by the beach and beyond,
most particularly the period when he
worked there. They both emphasize and deeply explore the
dynamics of running a family business when family members with
strong personalities have divergent ideas about how to do it.
For anyone who has an emotional, nostalgic attachment to Nathan’s
Famous, or an interest either in the challenges and triumphs of
America’s early twentieth century immigrants from Europe or a case
study in managing a family business, I highly recommend reading both
of these books. Never before has this story been told as intimately,
passionately, completely and engagingly as in these two labors of
love. And you just can’t make this stuff up.
Unlike other far less comprehensive
and accurate accounts of Nathan's
history, our
Oceanside
Nathan's Roadside Rest
is featured prominently in both books with almost an entire chapter
devoted to it. And both
are available in either hard or soft cover or e-book editions.
Cousins, Lloyd (left) and Bill Handwerker
Copyright
©
2016,
NY Post,
Photo by Helayne Seidman
See the NY Post story about the two books:
http://nypost.com/2016/06/18/dog-eat-dog-two-nathans-famous-descendants-publish-competing-books.
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 as a souvenir to promote the 1959 grand opening of
Oceanside but never actually used at the restaurants.
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."
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‡
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Editor's note:
There are certain inaccuracies in
the foregoing account by Sinisi. 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, for years,
1960sailors.net was the only place on the worldwide web
(including
Nathan's
Famous'
own website) that mentions the event
and still places it incorrectly
in 1955.
The article also states incorrectly that Nathan's Famous'
recently retired CEO, Wayne Norbitz, started his career behind a
Nathan's counter. In fact, he started with Wetson's,
acquired by Nathan's in 1975.
And Norbitz is quoted above as
having said that Nathan's two grandsons sold out in 1987
when, in fact, it was Nathan's two sons, Murray and Sol, who
sold out the last significant Handwerker interests. Thanks
to Lloyd Handwerker, one of Nathan's grandsons (Sol's son),
co-author of
Famous Nathan, and
director/producer of the documentary film by the same name, for
straightening that out for us.
One more thing: whether Eddie Cantor
and Jimmy Durante actually loaned Nathan $300 in "seed
money" is debatable. |
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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 Sinisi 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.
This appears to be correct. 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 1968 book, Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Cookbook
(right), 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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Some folks incorrectly think
Nathan's Famous
had a Manhattan location at that time.
However, according
to Bob Levine (OHS '63) (who worked at our
Nathan's
for five years beginning in
the early '60s), and as later confirmed by Lloyd Handwerker, this may likely be because Murray's
younger brother (and Lloyd's father), Sol, 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 accordingly, the
Nathan's
name appeared all over Snacktime,
although it was not
a
Nathan's Famous
location.
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