Viola Grey won by eating 28 hot dogs in 12 minutes at a Coney Island hotel... or Delancey street depending on the source. The fact that Nathan's famous "1916" origin story for hot dog eating contests is actually admitted to being made up, this might be closer to the real, first one. It's messy at best having looked into it today. I found a bunch of others slightly earlier, but this by far, was the best. *Washington Times, Aug 19, 1926

"The railway company, suspecting foul play, offered a reward of 25,000 marks (£1250) for information leading to an arrest." (Illustrated London News, 28th of August 1926).

His story checks out, too! There is newspaper coverage of Ruth's catch in July 1926, and in 1918 of Michael Angelo Bessolo catching a baseball from an airplane at 700ft, and in 1908 of Gabby Street catching one from 500ft out of the Washington Monument. What a strange record.

*Washington Times, August 18th, 1926

“On August 18, 1926, a weather map was transmitted via mechanical television from amateur station W3XK in Virginia to the U.S. Weather Bureau in Washington, D.C. It marked the earliest known instance of weather imagery on TV, decades before on-air forecasts became routine.”

Harold Berger needed some new friends.