Harry Mozley Stevens (14 June 1855 – 3 May 1934) was a food concessionaire from England who has been variously attributed as the inventor of the

hot dog A hot dog (uncommonly spelled hotdog) is a food consisting of a grilled or steamed sausage served in the slit of a partially sliced bun. The term hot dog can refer to the sausage itself. The sausage used is a wiener ( Vienna sausage) or a f ...

, but has nevertheless been credited with being America's foremost ballpark concessionaire. In 1887 he founded Harry M Stevens Inc., a stadium concessions company which was based in

Cranbury, New Jersey Cranbury is a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. Located within the Raritan Valley region, Cranbury is roughly equidistant between New York City and Philadelphia in the heart of the state. As of the 2010 United States Ce ...

until it was acquired by

Aramark Aramark Corporation, known commonly as Aramark, is an American food service, facilities, and uniform services provider to clients in areas including education, healthcare, business, prisons, and leisure. It operates in North America (United S ...

on December 12, 1994. Harry Stevens was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1855 but had connections to Litchurch in

Derby, England Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gain ...

. He emigrated to

Niles, Ohio Niles is a city in southern Trumbull County, Ohio, United States, situated at the confluence of the Mahoning River and Mosquito Creek. The city's population was 18,443 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan a ...

in the 1880s. On arrival in the States, he became obsessed with

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

and quickly made his mark by designing and selling the sport's first

scorecard A scorecard may refer to: *Balanced scorecard A balanced scorecard is a strategy performance management tool – a well structured report, that can be used by managers to keep track of the execution of activities by the staff within their contr ...

- a design still in use to this day. By 1900, Stevens had secured contracts to supply refreshments at several Major League ballparks across the US. He also began to sell scorecards to fans with the phrase ''You can't tell the players without a scorecard''.Giants Past and Present, Dan Fost, MVP Books, 2011, p130
/ref> Stevens is credited with telling the story that at the home opener of the New York Giants on a cold April day in 1901 there was limited demand for ice cream. He decided to sell German sausages known as 'dachshund sausages.' When the staff ran out of the wax paper on which the sausages were traditionally served Stevens had one of his employees purchase some buns and had the staff place the hot dogs in the buns, creating what became known today as the hot dog. A cartoonist, recording the event, was reputed to have been unable to spell dachshund, so wrote ''hot dogs'' instead. The family has since acquired the original cartoon and has preserved it.

Memorials

Despite many disputes over the claim to Stevens having been the inventor of the

, in early 2013 Derby City Council and Derby Civic Society jointly announced they would erect a Blue plaque to his memory on his first marital home at 21 Russell Street in Derby, England.''Hot dog seller Harry Stevens remembered with blue plaque'', Derby Telegraph, Chris Mallett,12 February 2013
/ref> On June 30, 2013, Niles, Ohio resurrected "Harry Stevens Hot Dog Day". The downtown event included live music, weiner dog races and costume contests, a hot dog dressing (sauce) contest, baseball clinic, and cornhole tournament among other activities. Food and merchandise vendors were also on-hand

Notes

* Rippon, Nicola, ''Derbyshire's Own'', The History Press, 2006, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, Harry M. 1855 births 1934 deaths People from Derby English emigrants to the United States Hot dogs