When Brady and I took a tour of Tigers’ Comerica Park last month during our Detroit visit, our guide told us about the legendary hot dog vendor who sings opera as he sells hot dogs. Wonder what the tour guide is telling folks today as that vendor has now been fired, supposedly because he didn’t agree with customers asking for ketchup (click here for story.) Guess the singing vendor forgot that old time customer-is-always-right school of thought. (Then again, he does have his own brand of mustard, so a case for conflict of interest might also be made.)
However, as I noodled around looking for the background to this breaking story, I found another Detroit Tigers’ hot dog-related story on how Ballpark Franks came to be:
“The Tigers first started selling hot dogs at Bennett Park more than a century ago. The club used a number of food suppliers through the years, but by 1958 had become dissatisfied with its vendor. That year Gus Hauf, a sausage superintendent at Hygrade Food Corp., a Detroit-based meatpacking company, invented the company’s famous Ballpark Franks. His special formula remains a secret.
In 1959, Ballpark Franks became the official Briggs Stadium hot dog. (A Hygrade employee named Mary Ann Kurk won $25 and a leather living room chair for coming up with the new product’s winning name.) Later they went on sale commercially, rising to become the country’s second-best-selling red hot.” For rest of the story (click here.) To check out the singing vendor’s act watch this: