Hot dog! Restaurant mystery solved
New York’s Coney Island is known for its amusement park, its crowded beach and, most of all, for hot dogs.
Greek and Macedonian immigrants entering New York through Ellis Island are credited with inventing the hot dog in the early years of the 20th century. By 1913, it became such a popular dish the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce banned the name “hot dog,” for fear people might think they actually contained dog meat. Then, people began selling and eating what was commonly called a “coney island.”
Canonsburg historian James T. Herron Jr. helped us research the current Mystery Photo, and from him we learned a Coney Island was located on Pike Street in Canonsburg as early as 1913. It was closed by the sheriff two years later. Another restaurant of the same name operated at 35 W. Pike St. Torn down to make way for Woolworth Five and Dime in 1928, it moved across the street and advertised until 1938.
Herron said there were Coney Islands in Eighty Four and Houston, and Coney Island Hot Wieners in Washington, but the one pictured in the Mystery Photo was Carl’s Coney Island on property at Central and Greenside avenues in Canonsburg, across the street from the municipal building.
“It had been the Eaves restaurant, and the rest of the lot had been parking for the Beedle theaters, which had to close because of vandalism,” Herron informed us.
The Eaves restaurant was purchased by Carl Ide, a Pittsburgh radio and television personality, in the late 1960s. Ide is the man wearing the eye patch in the Mystery Photo. Herron found an article about Ide in the June 26, 1970, edition of the Canonsburg Daily Notes, which profiled him in advance of the July 4 parade, for which Ide served as master of ceremonies.
After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Ide worked for KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh for three years before switching to a Newark, N.J., station. He returned to Pittsburgh in 1953 to work for the news departments of KDKA and WTAE television stations. He left in 1968 to start his own advertising and public relations company and to open several “Coney Island” restaurants.
“Carl, enthused about the Fourth of July Celebration, is looking forward to meeting Greater Canonsburg Area residents not only at the parade but on July 1, Wednesday evening, when he will present the Fourth of July Celebration’s free concert and street dance to be held at the Coney Island parking lot,” the newspaper reported.
Many readers responded to our request for information about the photo. Some thought the location might be at Herd’s Drug Store, Paradise Confectionery or Victory Diner, all in Washington, but most pinpointed the lunch spot in Canonsburg and identified Ide.
“I read the Observer-Reporter every single morning, and I just stood straight up when I saw that,” said Don Burgess of San Antonio, Texas.
“I remember when he (Ide) bought that place,” Burgess said. “I worked across the street, at Marty’s Texaco station.”
Burgess was born and raised in Canonsburg and worked for Joy Manufacturing until the 1980s, when he and his three daughters moved to Texas.
Zeke Jackson, now living in Peters Township, was running Canonsburg radio station WCNG when Ide opened his Coney Island. “I was on my radio show, and I made a crank call to him,” Jackson recalled. “I asked to speak to Ide personally, and then I placed an order for (McGraw-Edison) Transformer for something like 1,000 hot dogs.”
Jackson, who said he copied the routine from radio personality Don Imus, said his order was complicated: some with mayonnaise, some without mustard, “until finally Ide asked, ‘Who the hell is this?'”
Unfortunately, and surprisingly, no one was able to identify any of the others in the photo.
Back to Coney Island, which is still synonymous with hot dogs. In 1916, Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker borrowed $300 and opened a stand and sold hot dogs there for a nickel apiece. Nathan’s is still open in the same place, as well as in hundreds of other locations around the world.