It Was a Dog Day, Frankly Speaking

Jerry Primack of Canoga Park was in the pink Sunday as he arrived at his mother-in-law’s house for what he believed would be a quiet dinner to celebrate his 50th birthday.

His pink turned to a blush once he realized the more than 60 people standing outside the house holding pink balloons were there to whisk him away on a school bus to his surprise birthday party.

And his blush turned a deep shade of red as Primack laughed until the tears rolled down his cheeks once he realized where the bus was going.

Primack’s family and friends had arranged a nostalgic gathering at his favorite high school haunt--Pink’s Hot Dog Stand in Hollywood.

“It’s the sloppiest, delish-ee-est thing in the whole world,” Primack said, savoring the greasy mess of his birthday chili dog at the landmark stand. “It’s just like how I remember. You get it all over your face no matter what you do.”

Primack, owner of a San Fernando Valley security alarm system company and a 21-year resident of the Valley, has been frequenting Pink’s since 1949, when he was a student at Hollywood’s Bancroft Junior High School. He said the stand remained a favorite meeting place and hangout throughout his years at Fairfax High School and continues to get his business at least once every couple of months.

Although he limited his birthday treat to a single hot dog heaped with chili, onions and mustard, Primack said that during his younger days he occasionally would wolf down three of the spicy concoctions during a single sitting.

“There’s just no place like it,” he said, wiping chili from his nose. “Everything is special here--the hot dogs, the chili, the flies . . .”

The party idea came up several weeks ago, shortly after Primack warned his wife, Bobbi, not to do anything special for his birthday.

“She wanted to do something perfect for Jerry and this is it,” said Jeanne Kravitz, Primack’s sister, who worked across the street from the hot dog stand in the 1950s and frequently joined her brother for lunch.

Paul Pink, who opened the stand in 1939, relished the nostalgia at the party and told Primack he remembered him from his Bancroft Junior High School days.

“I remember all the guys. They were all delinquents,” Pink said, affectionately hitting Primack in the arm.