"It
first appeared at the St. Louis World's Fair
among several other firsts such as the first ice
cream cone, the first iced tea, the first
Olympic Games in America (Third World Olympics),
the first sliced bread, and the first coin
changer. Even though many people will claim that
the hot dog has been known for a long time
before the St. Louis World's Fair, it is not
so.
What
was known, even as early as the late Middle Ages
in Europe, was the making of sausages and it was
a German butcher, Johann Georg Lahner, who
developed prototypes in Frankfurt and later in
Vienna, that were called frankfurter and
wiener.
These
franks, along with other types of sausages, were
later brought to America by German immigrants in
the nineteenth century. In New York, in 1900, a
concessionaire sold a Lahner-type frank tie
called a "Dachsund sausage" that was later
sketched by a cartoonist in the form of a
dachsund in a roll.
However,
it was not until the St. Louis World's Fair that
a sausage-on-a-bun was made up to be called the
"hot dog" for the first time. It is evident that
sausages were known for a long time and were
called by various names, but it was the St.
Louis World's Fair that gave the name "hot dog"
to America.
Why
was it called a hot dog instead of the already
known names with which it has been associated?
Was it because the sausage was made of dog meat?
No, certainly not. The American public would
just be horrified at the time to think of eating
dog meat.
Was
it then because the sausage was crafted to look
like a dog or the bun shaped into the form of a
dog? Again, the answer is no. Then why was it
called a hot dog when there is nothing that
could be associated with a dog in a hot dog? To
me the answer is simple.
We
have said earlier that St. Louis World's Fair
was the greatest of expositions that there ever
was. We also said that the Philippine Exhibit
was the largest one at the Fair and was
considered as a Fair within a Fair.
Then
we also said that the Igorots were the top
attraction at the Philippine exhibit, not only
because of their primitive skimpy attire and
their constant dancing, but also because of
their dog-eating custom.
The
city supplied them with dogs and they also
bought dogs from the neighborhood, in addition
to receiving donations of dogs from other
sources, for their food supply. The people in
the neighborhood near the Igorot Village were
concerned, upset, and angered at times because
of the disappearance of dogs in their
neighborhood.
The
people in the city of St. Louis and surrounding
areas were engaged in an on-going debate about
the use of dogs by the Igorots. This was evident
in the newspapers of the day which carried
regular news, letters, and comments concerning
the eating of dogs by the Igorots.
In
short, the atmosphere in and around the Fair and
in the newspaper media was saturated by the
thoughts of the dog-eating custom of the
Igorots. Their dog-eating activities at the Fair
had been referred to as the "Bow-Wow Feast" and
we may look at it now as the first "Bow-Wow
Feast" in America by the Igorots, or perhaps
even just the first "Bow-Wow Feast" in
America.
I
have no doubt that the name "hot dog" was picked
as a label for the sausage-on-a-bun to attract
the attention of potential customers at the Fair
by riding on the popularity of the eating of
dogs by the Igorots, which had inspired the
creation of the name.
Thus,
it would appear that in the hot dog, the sausage
is German, the sausage-on-a-bun is an American
label inspired by the dog-eating custom of the
Igorots."[15]