Murray Handwerker, 1921–2011

last updated 8 January 2015

Murray Handwerker grew up literally surrounded by hot dogs. The son of the founders of Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs, he was raised behind the counter of the original Nathan’s Famous stand in New York’s Coney Island. The 3-foot-by-3-foot crates that held the buns served as his playpens. Long after Nathan’s franks were served to British royalty and became a favorite of Al Capone’s, Handwerker could be found serving customers at the Coney Island stand. “That place meant so much to him,” said his son, Bill.

Handwerker’s parents, immigrants from Poland, opened their stand in 1916 and made it a success. But he “returned from Army service in World War II with a broader worldview and new ideas on expanding the business,” said the Chicago Sun-Times. The first change he made was to add clams and shrimp to the menu. He also oversaw the opening of new restaurants, first in New York City, then outside the region. He franchised the restaurants, took the company public, and “put its hot dogs on supermarket shelves across the country.”

Like many entrepreneurs, Handwerker overexpanded and had to scale back in the 1980s, said The New York Times. But the hot dogs kept the business afloat, buoyed by publicity stunts such as Coney Island’s July 4 hot-dog-eating contest. He sold the company to Equicor, a private equity company, in 1987. But he remained a feisty New Yorker all his life, razzing New York Mayor Ed Koch when Koch gave him a hard time about “the demise of the 5-cent hot dog.” The 5-cent frank, Handwerker shot back, was as obsolete as the 5-cent subway fare.