Ceramic Hot Dog Piggy Bank from Mexico




Porcelain Hot Dog Music Box (plays "Take me out to the ball game")




AM Hot Dog Radio from the 70's courtesy of Su Garfield (KSJO)




Statuette by Ron Lee (One of approximately half a dozen)




Decorative Plate also by Ron Lee



ABOUT THE COLLECTION: Knick Knacks and Bric-a-Brac, Oh my...

This delightful world class collection encompasses several thousand pieces of hot dog art, collectibles, items of some historical significance, memorabilia, oddities, promotionals, rarities & toys in virtually every medium.

There are figures and figurines, mascots and miniatures, statues and statuettes, marionettes and puppets.

The collection also includes clothing and costumes, jewelry, inflatables, pillows and stuffed plush toys.

And we have a large number of flat, framed art pieces, paintings, jig saw puzzles under glass, a tapestry, neons, posters and signs, you name it...


The hot dog shaped items are always delightful; one of our favorite parts of the collection due to the thought that went into some of these things such as a ceramic bank made in Mexico, a porcelain music box, a radio, squirt gun, soap and several version of hot dog telephones, etc...


Our Wienermobile collection is also well worth seeing.

While it isn't the most comprehensive one out there (that honor belongs entirely to John Masters of the Wichita, Kansas area who has virtually cornered the market), it encompasses somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 dozen pieces of both Oscar Mayer items and those made by a variety of other companies across the country.

We also have an amusing collection of several dozen toy push carts.


We've also acquired a good amount of hot dog cookware and related items such as hot dog dishes, flat ware, utensils, picnic ware, a number of condiment dispensers, servers, easily a dozen varieties of hot dog shaped Salt & Pepper shakers (some form the 1940's), table cloths, napkins, place mats, aprons, cups, glasses, trays, etc.

And there are approximately 30 decorative platters (from as far back as the 1950's), and plates (Ron Lee, Danbury Mint), maybe even more...


And a really fun part of the cookware is our hot dog cooker collection. Generally, there are steamers, grills and rotisseries (one is designed around a mutant toaster), some professional equipment for the restaurant or stadium but most are for the home.

They are straightforward and utilitarian in design, for the most part, but some are miniature push carts and there's even one in the form of a carousel and they cook anywhere from 1 or 2 hot dogs at a time up to approximately 100.

Most are electric, powered by good old 110 Volt AC house current, we have a sterno powered hot dog vendor's portable steamer from the Super Dome in New Orleans which saw duty at at least one Super Bowl and a number of Sugar Bowls over the years (thanks to Jerry Strahan of Lucky Dogs), several solar powered units and one that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket in your car from the late 50's (the Car-B-Cue).


Largest, smallest, most expensive & the oldest:

Lamborweenie (The Hot Dog Hot Rod, The Frankfurter Funny Car, etc) is the longest creation (16 feet) and the 12 foot long sign from the now defunct Surf Dogs of Carmel Valley is the second longest piece in the collection. The smallest is a tiny hot dog in a bun sculpture which is less than a half an inch long and requires a good magnifying glass to view properly.


The most expensive piece would also be Lamborweenie as we estimate that we'll have somewhere in the area of $10K invested in it when it's done (I did 100% of the labor and already owned a lot of the VW stuff as well).

Second to that is our 6 foot tall fiberglass hot dog statue from the Philippines that we picked up on Ebay several years ago now ($700 plus).

As we're stuffed to the rafters with the collection, this statue now sits in the corner here at La Casa Weenie and we aren't kidding when we tell everyone that we live in The Wiener Warehouse...

Following that, we spent $400 on a single Ron Lee statuette and well over a thousand dollars for the rest of the hot dog themed ones.


Much of the collection was donated and cost us nothing but we also spent a considerable amount over the years, thousands and thousands of dollars...

Then, when we discovered Ebay, the collection took over the rest of the house, forced us to build a large shed out back for displaced household items but that still wasn't enough and the only thing that stopped it was when the wife found an inch plus thick pile of Postal Money Order receipts, tallied up the thousands of dollars I had spent in less than 5 months and threatened me with grievous bodily harm...

The oldest piece is a Civil War era token from a sausage company. As you historians in the crowd already know, up until after the Civil War, US Currency did not exist in the form that we know today. Instead, banks and other institutions were free to issue their own coins and paper money, which led to mass confusion and egregious opportunities for counterfeiting, etc...


Finally, there are numerous other items which defy easy classification and simple description, some of them downright strange, in fact...


And we've never actually seen the entire collection together, since the very early days (1978 or so) when several hundred pieces were displayed in the house on Franck Avenue. Additionally, a few dozen pieces were also on display at Hot Diggidy Dogs, our 23 seat weenie stand on El Camino Real in Silicon Valley (1984?).

In 1996, we participated in our first (and only) public exhibition, Hall Of Fame Hall Of Fame, again displaying only a few pieces.


In the realm of the media, we have ad icons, logos, business cards, menus, promo material, print ads, books, cook books, TV ads, programs, movies (Tubesteak TV and Tubesteak Theater), music in the form of LPs, cassettes, CDs, cartridges, computer files and sheet music, etc (Tubesteak Tunes) and literally hundreds of articles and photos in our print archive and numerous computer files.

Our best guess is that this part of the collection contains thousands of items as well.


We have not yet begun the arduous and time consuming process of cataloging and photographing the collection (it got way out of hand very early in the game and no one has seen it in its' entirety since that time) but we hope to eventually itemize and document it all for the purposes of building an online data base which will be made available to affiliate groups and educational institutions for future research, etc.


Much, if not most, of this stunning collection was donated by hundreds of hot dog lovers from all over the world during the last 30 years and it is our duty and obligation to find it a permanent home.

Some of these pieces, such as a couple of the commercial restaurant signs in the collection, were donated, so they cost us nothing (other than renting a truck to haul them back here, where they belong), but they originally cost someone else thousands of dollars when they were new...

It all deserves to be shared with the world and The Smithsonian has approached us about donating it to them, should we fail in our mission.


PS We welcome contributions and we'll mention you in "The Frankfurter Chronicles" (The Newsletter with Relish).



Zak Lennan: A cool dude in a loose mood...