I had an old-school version of this for many years.  Probably '50s vintage, it was a vertical grey "cracked ice" Formica panel about 18+" tall with prongs on the front to zap four dogs.   The base was a flat frontward protrusion in red Formica, so the whole thing had an "L" shape to it.  It was likely used in a small scale snack scene, like behind a drug store or some such counter.  Verbiage on the panel read, "Get 'em Hot," "Sanitary" and "Cooked In the Bag"  Big 1.5" red jewel lights indicated zapping was in progress, which was triggered by a toggle switch.  If I even have a picture of it, it's certainly not in a digital format.  I found the picture below on line.  It's very similar except for the base color.  If anyone is interested, it's on Worthpoint/ebay right now.

My sister gave this to me with a lifetime supply of bags -- maybe about 50 of them.  The flaw in this system is the funky metallic burnt taste from the prongs, hence the "lifetime" terminology.  I used it only a couple of times and after that it was for decorative purposes only.  I gave it to Nate about ten years ago and let him do with it what he wanted. 

I can't imagine the Presto would have provided a better result, but maybe it could have if a different type of metal was used.  I love the concept, just not the finished product.

I have this one and have used it in the past but really seldom eat hot dogs any longer as most are not that healthy to eat.

I fail to see much hazard to this appliance, and if it was sold today it would get the Energy Star award as it uses about 1/2 the power of cooking hot dogs in a MWO or about any other way you could heat a HD for that matter.

When we we kids my brothers and I put two nails through a piece of wood and wired each lead from a cord to the nails and placed a HD on the nails and plugged it in and it worked just fine.

John L.

I had one when I was about 3.  I remember the age because I'm pretty sure it was during the time period when Daddy was laid off from Reynolds Aluminum which was 1974.  I loved that thing!  I have one now called Hot Dog House and it's basically a steamer.  Rarely ever use it anymore since it's just as easy to steam hot dogs in a basket over boiling water in a pan and then put it all in the dishwasher.  The hot dog house can't be washed in the DW.

I’ve never used a Hot Dogger, but we both love hot dogs and have them a couple of times a month.  I know they aren’t the most healthy thing to eat, but we eat mostly fresh, unprocessed foods, and I prepare most everything from scratch, so an occasional hot dog isn’t going to kill us.

We like them in a bun, I like mine with relish, mustard, ketchup, onions and sliced tomatoes while David likes his with just mustard, maybe some relish once in a while.

We also like hot dogs and baked beans baked the oven with some shredded cheddar cheese and a little ketchup, served with either toasted english muffins or buttered toast.  When I was a kid this was my favorite requested meal for my birthday every year.  And whenever I serve hot dogs I always serve fresh carrot and celery sticks too so we at least get some fresh vegetables.

I say you only live once, eat the things you like, but in moderation.

Eddie

My parents have the Presto version as seen in photo #1.  I really liked them made that way.  A quick way to serve a hot lunch to a bunch of kids during the summer when mother is busy with other household duties.

Nothing beats electrocuted food!

To me, the hot dogs always tasted like they were electrocuted. But then I guess they were.....

“They have a natural casing that "pop" when they are nicely done, grilled, microwaved, or electrocuted.”

Oh how I miss those old fashioned kind of hot dogs with the casings!  Around here I’m not aware of anyplace that still sells this kind of hot dog.

And speaking of hot dogs, back when I was in elementary school almost every school had Hot Dog Day once a month.  It was a special treat that we all looked forward to.

 The Mothers Club or PTA would organize these hot dog days for us, and we would put in our orders the week before, then the Mom’s would come to the school and prepare them for us.

 In Catholic school we paid a nickel a dog, plus we could order small bags of potato chips and either homemade cookies or cupcakes for dessert.  And of course our usual 5 cent carton of milk.  Everything was a nickel each, so for a quarter you could get 2 hot dogs, a bag of chips, a cupcake and milk.  What a treat!

When we moved to the country in 1964 the little three room Fort Ross Elementary School had never heard of Hot Dog Days.  My Mom changed all of that, and got it organized and boy was she popular with the kids at school after this.

I wonder if this was just a California thing, or if the rest of you guys also had Hot Dog Days in grade school?

Eddie

Eddie, we had Hot Dog Days at St. Leo's.  Maybe it was a Catholic school thing since we didn't have a cafeteria serving up lunch every day like public schools.

We had one of these "hot dog electrocuters" when I was a kid. Maybe it was the brand of hot dog, but I recall they made a slight smell like burning rubber. Maybe it was just me too, there was a lot more to smell way back then. I had this "kid" project book that showed how to make a single hot dog cooker using a  board, 2 nails and an electrical cord. I was really young but didn't need anyone to tell me that wouldn't be very safe to use. An Underwriters Testing Laboratory wasn't that far from where we lived. They conducted tours and did cool stuff like blow-up (kinda) toasters with excess voltage. Better than Disneyland, it was food for my destructive child mind.

Ralph and Mike, I think that Hot Dog Days were also in some public schools too in the 50’s and 60’s.  I went to three different public schools from kindergarten through the first quarter of second grade, and I remember having hot dog days in both the first and second grades, in kindergarten we only had graham crackers and milk at snack time everyday, no lunchtime.

The way I recall all the schools managed hot dog days was that each student put in their order on a mimeographed form a week before,  indicating what you wanted on your dogs, whether you wanted reg or BBQ chips, and a cupcake or a couple of cookies.  Then on hot dog day the orders came in brown paper bags with your name on them and the teacher passed them out.

Eddie

These are interesting items, and I think at one time I'd have liked having one for novelty. Although I'd never use it, since I don't eat meat (and even before, I had no interest in consuming a Class 1 carcinogen).

I was interested that the people who wrote that article even tried vegetarian/vegan hot dogs in that gadget. That was something I wondered about.

IIRC, my physics teacher in high school brought one of these in and cooked a hot dog. Although I can't remember the demonstration itself.

I made my own for a science project in 4th grade after seeing a home made one in a textbook.

How times change--I can't imagine a kid of today being allowed to do anything like this for a science project. Not even a high school student, let alone a 4th grader!

Hey Joe, I think I knew the UL facility you mentioned.  It was in Santa Clara IIRC.

I always assumed that the public wasn't welcome.  Too bad.  I'd have been there a lot to watch the pros blow up toasters and other fun things.   A friend and I used to do all sorts of crazy stuff with small appliances (toasters were a favorite -- cheap and plentiful) out by our garage, which had its own circuit breakers so nobody inside the house had any clue about what we were up to.   Often when something was sparking/arcing/smoking/burning, we'd stop for a moment and state, "U-L," then burst into more laughter.   The solenoid-driven time delay mechanism for the garage lighting would chatter like crazy -- until it clunked into complete silence and all went dark.

And by the way, you absolutely could not kill a postwar Toastmaster!

No doubt about it -- if Hot Doggers were in thrift stores back then, we'd have snapped them up.

Back when I was a teacher I did a unit comparing original and new versions of the same Hardy Boys book.

I have a few Hardy Boys books that cover a date range from 1927 to 1970-something. The older books are definitely better. I have found older books (and even searched out a few), and immediately read them to my Inner Child. Meanwhile, I mainly have the newer books because of something like sentiment (one I remembered from growing up).

"Sanitized" is a good way to describe the newer books.

It's interesting comparing old and new. (And I wonder what reaction the class mentioned above had?)

I honestly had never thought of the 1920s Hardys as more mature before. They may have had more freedom then in some ways. But the Hardys of the 60s may be more mature--but it's mature in an overly sanitized way; they emerge almost as crime solving robots. (And, at some point, they not only were allowed to use boats, but also allowed to fly planes!)