Hot Dog Inventor Charles Feltman born 179 years ago today

Happy Birthday to Charles Feltman who was born on this date in Hanover, Germany in 1841 (updated for 2020). Besides inventing the hot dog you can also thank Mr. Feltman for the F train. It was after Feltman’s insistance that Andrew Culver had an express line built (Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad) bringing wealthy businessmen to Culver Plaza which was adjacent to Feltman’s Oceanside Pavilion at Coney Island. Today that line is still the Culver line or as we know it. The F train.

The businessmen sure did come to Feltman’s. Literally by the millions.

Visit FELTMANSOFCONEYISLAND.COM 

This excerpt from a 1938 article featured in Fortune Magazine gives further insight:

“Feltman’s was founded on three things — shrewd German common sense, an act of God, and the ten-cent frankfurter. The common sense and the frankfurter were brought to Coney Island by a German baker named Charles Feltman when he opened a restaurant on a 200 by 150 foot plot in 1871. The act of God was the addition of some 1,200 feet of free land piled onto this Flot by an obliging sea. This potent combination founded the first great Coney Island family dynasty and a practical long-time monopoly over Coney’s restaurant business — a monopoly carried on by Charles’s sons, Charles L. and Alfred, and by Charles A. of the third generation, whose likeness to Franchot Tone of the cinema is frequently noted.”