Читать книгу Bad Boys, Bad Times. The Cleveland Indians and Baseball in the Prewar Years, 1937–1941 онлайн

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At nine o’clock in the morning the concession staff was already hard at work. The mouthwatering roast beef and corned beef had to be cooked and simmered for at least six hours. Bags of popcorn were being produced at a rate of fifty bags every two minutes. Bread trucks lined the streets with several thousand loaves of warm fresh bread and hot dog buns.

At least ten tons of ice were needed to cool the thousands of soda and beer bottles. An opening-day crowd had the capacity to devour up to 34,000 tasty sandwiches. including hot dogs, cool off with 3,000 or so bricks of ice cream, and wash it all down with refreshing lemonade, soda pop, and beer. Several hundred vendors, from small boys to grown men, handled the concession sales for 10 percent of the gross. Selling beer had the potential to earn more than a few bucks, while hot dogs had the greater volume. Vendors were always looking to hawk the higher-priced items, leaving the popcorn and candy bars for the youngest boys. The ten- and eleven-year-olds stood in a line, their oversized vendor coats falling far below their waists.