Editing Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest (section)

=== Fake history of the contest ===
In 2010, Nathan's promoter Mortimer "Morty" Matz admitted to having fabricated the legend of the 1916 start date with a man named Max Rosey in the early 1970s as part of a publicity stunt.<ref name="NYT 08-18-2010">{{cite news |author=Sam Roberts |date=August 18, 2010 |title=No, He Did Not Invent the Publicity Stunt |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/nyregion/19experience.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170106193843/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/nyregion/19experience.html |archive-date=January 6, 2017 |access-date=February 11, 2017 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> 

According to that legend, on July 4, 1916, four immigrants held a hot dog eating contest at Nathan's Famous stand on Coney Island to settle an argument about who was the most [[patriotism|patriotic]]. Some accounts alleged that a man named Jim Mullen won the first contest.<ref>{{cite book |author=Jason Fagone |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Y7fSMRrkUEC&q=%22Jim+Mullen%2A+is+the+original+hot-dog+champion.%22&pg=PT271 |title=Horsemen of the Esophagus: Competitive Eating and the Big Fat American Dream |date=2007 |publisher=Crown/Archetype |isbn=9780307347152 |page=215}}</ref> Others described [[Jimmy Durante]], who was ''not'' an immigrant, as competing in that all-immigrant inaugural contest, which was judged by [[Eddie Cantor]] and [[Sophie Tucker]].<ref>{{cite web |date=July 4, 1980 |title=America is 204 years old |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bMUPAAAAIBAJ&pg=5694%2C528768 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306091440/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bMUPAAAAIBAJ&pg=5694,528768 |archive-date=March 6, 2023 |access-date=October 17, 2020 |work=Boca Raton (Fla.) News (sec. A, p. 2)}}</ref> Another co-founder describes the event as beginning "in 1917, and pitted [[Mae West]]'s father, Jack, against entertainer Eddie Cantor."<ref name="Crown/Archetype (p. 222)">{{cite book |author=Jason Fagone |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=utR6mUoZBVIC&q=%22Rosey+also+elaborated+on+the+contest%27s+backstory%22&pg=PA221 |title=Horsemen of the Esophagus: Competitive Eating and the Big Fat American Dream |date=2007 |publisher=Crown/Archetype |isbn=9780307237392 |page=222}}</ref> Nathan made the spurious claim that the contest has been held each year since then except 1941, "as a protest to the war in Europe",<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nathan's Famous July 4th Contest History |url=https://majorleagueeating.com/articles/1035/ |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=majorleagueeating.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-07-03 |title=How Hot Dog Eating Contest Became July 4 Tradition |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/how-did-july-4-hot-dog-eating-contest-become-holiday-n386456 |access-date=2024-06-12 |website=NBC News |language=en}}</ref> and 1971, as a protest to political unrest in the U.S.

The legend grew over the years, to the point where ''[[The New York Times]]'' and other publications were known to have repeatedly listed 1916 as the inaugural year, although no evidence of the contest exists.<ref name="NYT 08-18-2010" />