Hot Dog!
Jamaica Woman First From Queens
To Cut The Mustard

BY LIZ GOFF

La Toya Morgan has accomplished something in her 21 years that no one else in Queens has ever done. She’s driving a Wienermobile!

Morgan, who grew up in the shadows of Baisley Park, was one of thousands of people who submitted resumes to the Oscar Mayer Company, seeking a shot at driving one of nine 27-foot-long hot dogs on a year-long tour of cities across the U.S. She was one of 19 people chosen for the position this year – a “Hot-Dogger,” as they are called.

Only 233 people have driven the dog for Oscar Mayer in the company’s 65-year history. And no one in Queens has ever “cut the mustard” as well as Morgan, whose excitement lit up phone lines in a recent PRESS interview. (She’s currently hot-dogging it in Wisconsin.)

Morgan’s first contact with the folks at Oscar Mayer was in a telephone interview. The second was in person, at the University of Maryland campus (where she recently graduated with a degree in communications). And that’s where she proved her relish for the job.

“I made my resume in the form of a menu,” she said. “The name of the restaurant was “La Toya’s Hot Dog Place.” She featured “Appetizers” on the menu – a list of her on- and off-campus activities. Under “Entrees,” she included her degrees and the jobs she has held, and she ran a “Restaurant Review” (a letter of recommendation from a college faculty member) at the bottom of the menu.

Representatives from Oscar Mayer took one look at the menu and ordered a year’s supply of La Toya – on the bun. Then she was off to Madison, Wisconsin (home of the cold cut king) for a crash course in driving the wienermobile.

The Wienermobile is a 27-foot-long hot dog mounted on (and around) a GMC “W” Series truck chassis, with a 350-cubic-inch Vortec engine and a 32.1-gallon gas tank. Inside the dog is a hot-dog-shaped instrument panel featuring a global navigation system, a 27-inch color TV monitor and seats for six (relish colored). There are two exterior “safety” cameras, gull wing doors, a “condiment-splattered” carpet and a removable “bun roof.”

Watch out! The Weinermobile is scheduled to roll-into your neighborhood before October, 2001.

Each Wienermobile has two drivers (this year, one has three). The teams drive approximately 500 miles a week, often covering five states in two weeks (as Morgan just did). The teams stay at pre-booked major hotels at night, usually answering dozens of questions posed by employees and guests about their unusual mode of transportation.

Along their way, Morgan and the other Hot-Doggers hand out whistles, interactive CD-ROMs, T-shirts and other promotional items – but there are no free hot dogs. This wienermobile is pure promotion, and it works.

Madison expects her mid-western tour to last until winter, when the wienermobiles are due back in Wisconsin. She said she hopes to be able to drive the hot dog into Baisley Park before her tour is over. “I can just see the reaction,” she said.

Morgan, who has one older brother (a phone company employee), attended St. Clement Pope Elementary School in South Ozone Park and St. John’s Prep in Astoria before heading to the University of Maryland. She worked part time at a Foot Locker store at the Queens Center in Elmhurst, as well as several other part-time jobs to supplement her school and clothing costs.

But the former altar girl makes no bones about it – driving the Wienermobile is the “coolest” job she’s ever had.

“I’m in love with it,” she said, “because no two days are the same.

“I can be at a backyard barbeque today, a parade tomorrow, a wedding, grocery store, or grand opening on the next day,” she said. “I can be in St. Louis one day and Kansas the next. It’s always exciting and different.”

The National Honor Society member student loves to dance. She fine-tuned her dancing skills as a child as a member of “The Movement of the Children” Dance Center in Jamaica. She said she has always been a joiner, active in school and church extracurricular activities, since she was a child.

The very first Wienermobile appeared in 1936 – the brainchild of Carl Mayer, nephew of the company’s founder. It was put on a back burner during World War II to promote gas rationing, and brought back on the road in 1950.

In 1958, Oscar Mayer added buns to the dog and the Wienermobiles stayed on the road through 1977, when they were retired. The company lit a fire under the buns again in 1986 – its 50th anniversary. And it’s been “hot-doggin’” it ever since.

Morgan said her parents, who still live in Jamaica, were “extremely supportive” of her after she explained the benefits of driving the wienermobile.

“People right out of college don’t usually have much responsibility in their first job,” she said. “Through this job, I am developing a very keen sense of responsibility and decision-making.

“I’m on my own.”

Once her ride in the hot dog is over, Morgan hopes to land a job selling air space to TV stations. “That’s my passion,” she said. “It’s what I want to do.”

Morgan said her traveling experience would allow her to “network with managers and business owners every day.” She said she is constantly speaking with newspaper and television reporters and meeting people who can be contacted “later on.” The job is also providing immeasurable communications-skills training, she said.

To contact the Oscar Mayer Company for information on how you can apply to become a “Hot Dogger,” or for information on when the Weinermobile will roll into your neighborhood, contact the hot dog king at 608-285-6820,or by email at www.oscarmayer.com.