Nathan's Hot Dogs

 Charles Feltman had invented the hot dog at Coney Island in 1867, and then built a vast hotel that catered to the well-to-do. Nathan Handwerker had different ideas. Taking a job at Feltman's in 1915, Handwerker slept on the kitchen floor and lived on free hot dogs for a year, by which time he had saved $300--enough to open his own hot-dog establishment across the street.

Handwerker charged his customers half the price that Feltman did--only a nickel a hot dog--but even the poorer visitors to Coney Island reacted to the lower figure with distrust. When Handwerker hired local bums to sit at his counter, it only made matters worse. Finally, he approached a theatrical costume company and outfitted the bums in spanking clean medical attire. Passengers exiting the subway looked into Nathan's, saw a group of doctors eating there and, as often as not, decided that the food had to be all right. Business at Nathan's took off after that, and it became the dominant purveyors of hot dogs after Feltman's was sold in 1946. The tradition of New York City mayoral candidates to make Nathan's a mandatory campaign stop continues to this day.