The Internet provided some sources ( although their reliability may be in
doubt). It appears Charles Feltman began selling
them at Coney Island around 1871. The term "hot dog" was coined in 1901 at
the New York Polo Grounds, by cartoonist Thomas "Tad" Dorgan. Dorgan was
drawing a cartoon of a 'sausage in a roll' for Harry Stevens' concession
stand. Dorgan could not spell "dachshund" so instead he wrote "hot dog."

I did a search under "hot dog history" on Google and came up with a few
links to the and their take on the first hot dog.

National Hot Dog and Sausage Council
http://www.hot-dog.org/hd_history.htm

Hofmann Sausage Company
http://www.hofmannsausage.com/hotdog.htm

http://members.iol.co.il/kosh/hotdog.htm

http://mayouspice.com/histofhotdog.html

Brian Keough

At 07:10 AM 8/29/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Jim
>
>The thick reference work "Famous First Facts" has them for ALL
>places, and New York City has a long section, as delineated in
>an index to this work.  Other indexes are by Year, Names, Day-of-Year:
>
>Joseph Nathan Kane,  "Famous First Facts",  NY: H.W.Wilson Company.
>
>I saw this book in a library, but bought a used copy via web used-book
>search. Mine is (c)1981; there's a newer edition.
>
>But I can't spot the item hotdog/frankfurter/sausage in it.
>
>Some other reference gave credit to Charles Feltmans restaurant at
>Coney Island, Brooklyn circa 1900, but also indicated Harry Stevens at
>Polo Grounds was a contemporary contender.  But these do make it
>an NYC-first.
>
>Recommend this Kane book as your starting-point.
>
>Tim Holls
>20000829.0705