"hot dog"--Douglas Wilson's 1935, 1939 attestations

[Gerald Cohen]

I'm very grateful to Douglas Wilson and Sam Clements for the
additional attestations of "hot dog" and am still trying to interpret
their significance. As a start, here are my thoughts on Doug's new
material:

1) One of the earlier meanings of "hot-dogging" was simply "eating hot dogs."
        E.g., from HDAS, with the comment 'The sense in 1946 quot. Is app.
                  "Eating hot dogs".'): 1946 Werris et al. If I'm
Lucky (film): "There'll be some hotdoggin',  leapfroggin', cotton
candy and pink lemonade."

In the June 21, 1939 example below ('When the President returned from
hot-dogging with royalty, he looked at his desk, frowned at the
"stacks of work" confronting him'), "hot-dogging" clearly means
"eating hot dogs." On June 11, 1939, President and Mrs. Roosevelt had
entertained King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at their estate at
Hyde Park, New York and served the royal guests Nathan's hot dogs.
This is a heartwarming highlight in the history of the hot dog.

2) In the July 26, 1935 example, the meaning of "hot-dogging" is
unclear ("Nowadays the New Dealers are stepping out.  Most publicized
hot-dogging is their weekending at the exclusive Jefferson Island
Club in Chesapeake Bay."). Would the full quote provide more clarity?
The term might mean "eating hot dogs" (at a swank outdoor
gathering--away from the city--as happened four years later with the
Roosevelts and king/queen of England).

***

At 4:48 PM -0400 5/29/04, Douglas G. Wilson (Subject: Re: "hot dog"
baseball player, 1954) wrote:
>...
>I would speculate that the "hot dog" = "showoff athlete" of the 1950's and
>later is descended from the ca. 1900 "showoff" sense. There is a hiatus in
>the HDAS citations from 1903 to 1948 however.
>
>HDAS shows the clearly related verb "hot dog" = "show off" from 1961, but
>at N'archive I find a couple of examples of "hot dogging" from the 1930's
>which could go far toward filling the gap.
>
>----------
>
>_Nevada State Journal_ (Reno NV), 21 June 1939: p. 4, col. 5 ["Washington
>Merry-Go-Round" column, Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen]:
>
><<When the President returned from hot-dogging with royalty, he looked at
>his desk, frowned at the "stacks of work" confronting him.>>
>
>----------
>
>_Chronicle Telegram_ (Elyria OH), 26 July 1935: p. 10, col. 2 {"The
>National Whirligig" column]:
>
>[section title: <<SNOOTY.>>]
>
><<Nowadays the New Dealers are stepping out. Most publicized hot-dogging is
>their weekending at the exclusive Jefferson Island Club in Chesapeake Bay.>>
>
>----------
>
>I take "hot-dogging" to mean "swanking it" -- more or less "showing off".
>
>-- Doug Wilson



Gerald Cohen