{{Short description|German-American restaurateur}} __FORCETOC__ thumb|Charles Feltman, circa 1910 '''Charles Feltman''' (1841–1910) was a German restaurateur in the United States. He is one of several claimed inventors of the hot dog. In 1871, Feltman began building his restaurant complex. It achieved its heyday in the 1920s, serving nearly 5,250,000 people a year, being a large restaurant complex with several restaurants, two bars, a beer garden, a famous carousel, and other attractions, and offering many types of food beyond hot dogs.
==From pushcart to restaurant mogul== Feltman was born in 1841 to a Lutheran family in Germany and emigrated to America in 1856, at the age of fifteen.<ref name=Schulz/><ref>{{cite web | url=https://forward.com/food/408181/has-the-jewish-created-american-hot-dog-finally-assimilated/?amp=1 | title=Has the Jewish-Created American Hot Dog Finally Assimilated? | date=15 August 2018 }}</ref> He was familiar with the frankfurter, named for Frankfurt-am-Main in his native land. Feltman's operation began operating a pushcart pie wagon at the Coney Island beach in 1867, selling fresh pies to beachfront hotels. When his customers began asking him to add sandwiches to serve as well he added a small charcoal stove to his cart and began selling pork sausages on rolls which he called "red hots" and later "hot dogs."<ref>{{cite book |last=Berman |first=John S. |date=2003 |title=Portraits of America: Coney Island |url= |location=New York |publisher=Barnes and Noble Books, Inc. |page=18 |isbn=9780760738870}}</ref>
Henry Collins Brown, a New York historian, explained its attraction: "It could be carried on the march, eaten on the sands between baths, consumed on a carousel, used as a baby's nipple to quiet an obstreperous infant, and had other economic appeals to the summer pleasure seeker".<ref>{{cite book | last =Brown | first =Henry Collins | authorlink =Henry Collins Brown | title =In the Golden Nineties | publisher =Valentine's Manual Incorporated | series = | volume = | edition = | date =1928 | location = | pages =384 | language = | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=06oBAAAAMAAJ&q=It+could+be+carried+on+the+march,+eaten+on+the+sands+between+baths,+consumed+on+a+carousel,+used+as+a+baby%27s+nipple+to+quiet+an+obstreperous+infant,+and+had+other+economic+appeals+to+the+summer+pleasure+seeker | doi = | id = | isbn = | quote=}}</ref>
In 1871, Feltman leased land and began building his restaurant complex. It achieved its heyday in the 1920s, serving nearly 5,250,000 people a year, being a large restaurant complex with several restaurants, two bars, a beer garden, a famous carousel, and other attractions, and offering many types of food beyond hot dogs.<ref name=Gothamist/><ref name=Gothamist2/><ref name=Schulz/>
Nathan Handwerker was working at Feltman's as a roll slicer when he quit to found Nathan's. Handwerker undersold Feltman, offering hot dogs for five cents instead of ten, at a more downscale operation than Feltman's, but eventually Nathan's became the Coney Island hot dog purveyor and a nationwide brand which thrived into the 21st century.<ref name=Sentinel/>
==Family and business after his death== Feltman died in 1910 (he is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York)<ref name=gravelyspeaking/><ref name=Richman/> after which his family ran the business. Feltman's sons Charles L. Feltman and Alfred F. Feltman and grandson Charles A. Feltman, who had been operating the restaurant, sold the operation in 1946 to Alvan Kallman and others.<ref name=Schulz/><ref name=KallmanObit/><ref name=Eagle/> The restaurant closed in 1954.<ref name=Gothamist/> The land was later used to construct the Astroland amusement park which opened in 1962 and closed in 2008, subsequently replaced by a new Luna Park. The last remnant of Feltman's – the building that had housed the kitchen – was demolished in 2010.<ref name=Schulz/>
Charles' Feltman's grandson Charles A. Feltman invented the Shooting Star Tommy Gun,<ref name=Patents/> a pneumatic BB machine gun used in fair and amusement park stalls for many decades and continuing well into the 21st century (the device is used by players to shoot out all traces of a red star on a paper target). Shooting Star Games was founded by Charles A. Feltman and continues to manufacture the device in the 21st century.<ref name=ShootingStar/> There was for years a shooting gallery on the original Feltman's site.
In 2017, a hot dog emporium named Feltman's of Coney Island in New York's East Village was opened on the original site, a homage to the original Feltman's.<ref name=Gothamist3/><ref name=BBC/>
==References== <references>
<ref name=Gothamist>{{cite web |url=http://gothamist.com/2016/08/23/best_hot_dog_ever_man.php#photo-1 |title=Behind This Tiny Window Is NYC's Best Hot Dog |author=Scott Lynch |date=August 23, 2010 |work=Gothamist |accessdate=March 30, 2017 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170722140512/http://gothamist.com/2016/08/23/best_hot_dog_ever_man.php#photo-1 |archivedate=July 22, 2017 }}</ref>
<ref name=Gothamist2>{{cite web |title=Hot Dog Creator Feltman's May Return To Coney Island|url=https://gothamist.com/food/hot-dog-creator-feltmans-may-return-to-coney-island |author=Nell Casey |date=April 14, 2015 |work=Gothamist }}</ref>
<ref name=Gothamist3>{{cite web |url=http://gothamist.com/2016/08/23/best_hot_dog_ever_man.php#photo-1 |title=Behind This Tiny Window Is NYC's Best Hot Dog |author=Scott Lynch |date=August 23, 2016 |work=Gothamist |accessdate=March 31, 2017 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170722140512/http://gothamist.com/2016/08/23/best_hot_dog_ever_man.php#photo-1 |archivedate=July 22, 2017 }}</ref>
<ref name=Sentinel>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kP9DAAAAIBAJ&sjid=U7AMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2778,5148287 |title=Inventor of Coney Island Cut Hot Dogs to Five Cents |author=UPI (United Press International) |date=March 25, 1974 |work=the [Middleport-Pomoroy, Ohio] Daily Sentinel |accessdate=March 30, 2017 |page=7}}</ref>
<ref name=Schulz>{{cite web |url=https://www.6sqft.com/before-nathans-there-was-feltmans-the-history-of-the-coney-island-hot-dog/ |title=Before Nathan's There Was Feltman's: The History of the Coney Island Hot Dog |author=Dana Schulz |date=June 20, 2016 |work=6sqft |accessdate=March 31, 2017}}</ref>
<ref name=KallmanObit>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/09/04/alvan-e-kallman-62-dies.html?_r=0 |title=Alvan E. Kallman, 62, Dies |author= |date=September 4, 1964 |work=New York Times |accessdate=March 30, 2017}}</ref>
<ref name=gravelyspeaking>{{Cite web |url=https://gravelyspeaking.com/2013/09/11/the-mausoleum-that-the-hot-dog-built/|title=The Mausoleum that the Hot Dog Built |date=September 12, 2013| website=Gravely Speaking |access-date=November 11, 2016}}</ref>
<ref name=Richman>{{cite book |last=Richman |first=Jeffrey I |title=Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery: New York's Buried Treasure |year=1998 |publisher=Green Wood Cemetery |isbn= 978-0966343502 |pages=104–05}}</ref>
<ref name=Eagle>{{cite news |date=April 29, 1946 |title=Feltman Family Sells Famous Coney Resort |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/52909847/ |url-access=subscription |work=Brooklyn Eagle |location=Brooklyn |access-date=March 31, 2017 |page=3}}</ref>
<ref name=Patents>{{cite web |url=http://www.freepatentsonline.com/2801624.html |title=Amusement pneumatic machine gun – United States Patent 2801624 |work=Free Patents Online |accessdate=April 1, 2017}}</ref>
<ref name=ShootingStar>{{cite web |url=http://www.shootingstargames.com/ |title=Shooting Star |work=Shooting Star website |accessdate=April 1, 2017}}</ref>
<ref name=BBC>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240703-the-truth-about-the-us-most-iconic-food |title=The truth about the US' most iconic food |author=Julia Hammond |date=July 4, 2024 |publisher=BBC |accessdate=July 4, 2024}}</ref>
</references>
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feltman, Charles}} Category:1841 births Category:1910 deaths Category:Hot dogs Category:People from Brooklyn Category:Emigrants from the German Confederation to the United States