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Harry M. Stevens
Harry Mozley Stevens[b] (June 14, 1855 – May 3, 1934) was a food concessionaire from England credited with being America's foremost ballpark concessionaire.[3] He is also attributed by various sources as being the inventor of the hot dog.[4][5][3] BiographyStevens was born in Derby, England, in 1855 and had connections to Litchurch there. He emigrated to Niles, Ohio, in the United States in 1882.[2] He was first employed as an ironworker, then as a traveling book salesman.[2] In the late 1880s, Stevens traveled to Columbus, Ohio, and attended a baseball game.[2] He found the scorecard he was sold to be deficient, and quickly made his mark by designing and selling a version with a illustration on the cover, player names and positions listed inside, and an advertisement on the back, a design still in use.[2] He sold his scorecards to fans using the phrase "You can't tell the players without a scorecard."[3] Over time, he expanded to Toledo, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh,[2] and also founded Harry M. Stevens Inc., a stadium concessions company. In the mid-1890s, he expanded to New York City after meeting with John Montgomery Ward, then-manager of the New York Giants.[2] By 1900, Stevens had secured contracts to supply refreshments at several major-league ballparks across the country. Stevens claimed that at a Giants' home game on a cold April day in 1901,[c] there was limited demand for ice cream so he decided to sell German "dachshund sausages", having his staff place them in bread rolls and sell them as "red hots".[3] Newspaper cartoonist Tad Dorgan,[6] reportedly recounting the event, was said to have been unable to spell dachshund, so wrote "hot dogs" instead.[3] This account has been disputed by researchers, who point out the earliest known hot-dog cartoon by Dorgan dates to 1906,[7] and "the term 'hot dog' was used for sausages in buns as early as 1895 in college newspapers."[8] Stevens died in May 1934 in Manhattan following two bouts of pneumonia;[d] he was survived by his wife and five children.[9] Harry M. Stevens Inc. was acquired by Aramark on December 12, 1994.[10] MemorialsStevens Park in Niles, Ohio, which opened in 1936, was named in his honor after his family donated its 35 acres (14 ha) to the city.[11] In 2013, the community began an annual "Harry Stevens Hot Dog Day".[2] The event includes entertainment, a dachshund race, and a hot dog eating contest.[2] In early 2013, Derby City Council and Derby Civic Society jointly announced they would erect a blue plaque (historical marker) to his memory on his first marital home at 21 Russell Street in Derby, England.[12][13] NotesSources
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