By Carter Seaton
HQ 68 | SUMMER/AUTUMN 2009
Back in the day, as they say, you could usually tell from which part of Huntington someone hailed by asking, “What’s your favorite hot dog stand?” If the person lived in the East End, Stewart’s was the overwhelming choice. West of First Street, Midway ruled. When the new dog in town, Frostop Drive-In, opened on Memorial Day, May 29, 1959, on Hal Greer Boulevard, it gave the Southsiders and the Enslow Park crowd a favorite stand of their own.
As the family business celebrates its 50th anniversary, ownership has passed on to members of the family’s second generation, Marilyn McGinnis Murdock and Bing McGinnis Murphy, but not much else has changed. When the sisters stepped in to run the business at their mother’s death in 1996, they did expand the menu; however, the retro-style building looks the same, and the giant root beer mug on the roof still swirls. Judging by the number of cars in the lot at the business’s anniversary celebration, retaining that sense of history has served Frostop well.
In 1958, William Warnock, who worked for Guyan Creamery, wanted to open a dairy store as a side business and asked his brother-in-law, Rupert C. McGinnis, to join him in the venture. McGinnis agreed, and the two bought the empty lot where the drive-in stands today. McGinnis owned Choice Model Grocery, located at Third Avenue and 11th Street, and Sehon Stevenson, Cash & Carry, a wholesale grocery business. When McGinnis’s father, Bernard C. McGinnis Sr., heard of their plans, he recommended opening a drive-in instead.
The pair took his advice, bought a Frostop franchise and then borrowed the money – at 2-percent interest – to erect the building, the design of which was mandated by the franchiser, a Canadian firm that later dissolved. The trademark revolving mug was also part of the design package. The partners purchased the mug for $1,800 from a firm in Springfield, Ohio. The firm fabricated all of the giant mugs for Frostop Drive-Ins; however, it required a proof of franchise ownership before it would sell a mug to the two men.
Both sisters recall their mother and their aunt, Karleen Warnock, making batch after batch of sauce in the McGinnis kitchen until they achieved the flavor they wanted. The original recipe, written in Rupert McGinnis’s handwriting, is in Murdock’s safekeeping today. It’s also etched in Frostop cook Patricia Smith’s brain, and a copy is in her safe deposit box. Smith has been with the company that she calls “a small family” for more than 25 years. Manager Larry Turner and night manager Elizabeth Bates have worked there for more than 25 years as well. Murdock, who retired in 2009 after teaching English for 20 years, says she and her sister couldn’t have managed without the longtime staffers.
“When Mother died at Christmas time, we took a day to meet with each shift,” Murdock recalls. “The first thing we did was to thank them, because if they hadn’t kept it running, we’d have been sunk.” Many of the carhops have been with Frostop for years as well. Frostop boasts doctors and lawyers among their alumni, many of whom returned for the anniversary celebration.
In the early days, a hot dog cost 15 cents, a large root beer was a dime and a small mug was only a nickel. Murdock says they sold 150 gallons of root beer during their opening weekend. Hot dogs, hamburgers and root beer were the only items on the original menu. French fries and a few other items were added later. In those days, the McGinnis and Warnock families spent many hours sitting on the parking lot, just watching the crowds. Often they went to the other Huntington drive-ins – Stewart’s, The Fat Boy and Midway – to see how they were faring against the competition.
Despite being allowed only to wash mugs as a young girl, Murdock now considers herself a very hands-on owner. It’s common to see her sweeping the lot, washing dishes or cleaning. She’s following the example set by her mother, a nurse who took over the business at the death of her husband in 1980. With no prior business experience, she ran it for the next 16 years with the help of the crew and staff. Murdock’s husband Bill, former co-owner of Budget Pharmacy, is now the finance man. And, although the Murdocks live in Huntington and the Murphys are in Charleston, the sisters and their husbands make all the decisions together.
These days, business is stronger than ever. Frostop sells more than 140,000 hot dogs a year. Murdock says take-out comprises approximately 40 percent of their sales, much of it to Cabell Huntington Hospital and nearby medical offices. She says that if her father and uncle bought the property because of its proximity to the new hospital, which opened in 1956, “they had a crystal ball, because it’s a great source for us.”
Although Frostop does not routinely cater, large reunion orders are rather common; a Huntington High School class recently ordered 150 hot dogs for its 35th reunion. That’s no surprise. Nostalgia for Frostop runs deep. Raves from some of the “I Love Frostop” Facebook fans mention the good times, awesome root beer and hotdogs, signature frosted mugs and the ever-popular giant spinning mug. Many ex-pats confess that it is their first stop when they visit home.
“My record for hot dogs was six,” says Wallace Taylor, who now lives in Richmond, Va., “and I was so full I had to lay down in Ritter Park before I could make it home to 11th Street. We used to go after Little League baseball games at Prindle Field. As a teenager, I used to go there with Roger Simmons in his 1960 Edsel.”
Huntington insurance agent Arch Keller has fond childhood memories of Frostop as well. “They had the best hot dogs and root beer around. As kids, we thought we were eating high on the hog when we got to go to the Frostop,” he says. “It was really special when the whole family piled into the 1950 Ford convertible with the top down and went to the Frostop. It was as much a social event as it was going out to eat.”
Murdock has her own special memory of the drive-in. “I crawled up on the mug on my 50th birthday and took a little ride on the handle. Daddy would never let me, but I always wanted to. Traffic was stopping. It goes fast! You wouldn’t believe it. They stopped it so I could get on and then started it again. Quite a ride! This whole 50th anniversary has been quite a ride.”
Huntington is now the home of several newer hot dog stands, from the many locations of Sam’s Hot Dogs to the kitschy Hillbilly Hotdogs. But for those with long memories, there’s nothing like a good ol’ root beer and a hot dog under Frostop’s spinning mug.
