`The Hot Dog Man,` Michael Knabjian, 84

November 16, 1985|By Kenan Heise.

Services for Michael Knabjian, 84, who sold hot dogs and tamales on the streets of his Bridgeport neighborhood for 65 years, will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday in the chapel at 1059 W. 32nd Street. He died at home Thursday.

For the last 50 years--winter and summer, rain or shine--``Mike The Hot Dog Man`` stood on the corner of 32nd Place and Aberdeen Street, most recently selling hot dogs to the grandchildren of those to whom he gave free ones during the Depression.

``In our neighborhood, `Mike-the-hot-dog-man` was pronounced as one word,`` said Johnice Stanislawski, who grew up in Bridgeport. ``If someone asked him for a pop or fries, you knew they weren`t from around here. He sold only hot dogs and tamales and everyone knew that.``

``People would come and order a hot dog from him 10 or 20 years after they had grown up and moved out of the neighborhood,`` another resident said. `` `That all right,` he would interrupt them as they began to describe their order, `I remember what you like on it.` ``

Several years ago, Bridgeport residents besieged a local radio station that was conducting a poll to find the best hot dog in Chicago. Those calls helped him to win first place.

Residents recalled that people would line up 10 and 12 deep to a buy a hot dog from him. The line moved slowly because he fixed two hot dogs at a time, taking buns and hot dogs out of the steam cabinet at the last minute.

Mr. Knabjian, an Armenian, was born in Constantinople, Turkey. He came to the United States in his teens and moved to Racine, Wis., where he lived with an uncle and worked for Ford Motor Co. He came to Chicago in 1920.

``He slept on park benches at first,`` said his daughter, Sylvia Knabjian. ``A fellow Armenian told him about selling hot dogs. At first he had a box on his back with the hot dogs and walked around Bridgeport. He did it for 15 years. In 1935, he got a cart and established himself on the corner of Aberdeen and 32nd Place.``

His daughter has taken over the stand, but it will be closed until next March. She does not share her father`s practice of selling hot dogs from the pushcart year-round.

``There`s tons of hot dog stands in Bridgeport,`` Stanislawski said. ``He was there the longest and he was the best.``

Survivors, besides his daughter, Sylvia, include two other daughters, Michelene Pognant and Diana Campbell; a son, Michael; and 15 grandchildren.