All 162 cups of fun displayed at local Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe restaurant

CHIPPEWA TWP. ― Mike Ditka, Donnie Iris and Amber Brkich.

Tony Dorsett, Jimbo Covert and Henry Mancini.

Beaver County greatness − resembling hot dogs and emblazoned on plastic − it's there to behold at the Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe in Chippewa Township.

Get ready to smile as you gaze at all 162 of the Beaver County restaurant chain's "fun cups" displayed publicly for the first time together − behind glass, like the museum pieces they are − in a dining room at the Darlington Road eatery.

"For us it's a regular-size cup, but we know it as a fun cup. That's what everybody calls it," Mark Papa, owner of the Vanport Township, Rochester and Moon Township Hot Dog Shoppe locations, said.

From Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe; to local sports stars; The Incredible Hulk, "The Wizard of Oz" and the cast of TV's "Gilligan's Island," pop-culture images reimagined in illustrated hot dog shape have graced those iconic drinking cups that serve pop, iced tea or water.

"It's the coolest thing ... I am so honored," Patterson Township-raised TV star Joanie Sprague ("America's Next Top Model," "Trading Spaces") said last February when announcing she and New Brighton resident Christy Miller would be featured on a Hot Dog Shoppe cup celebrating their new Outdoor Channel show "Renovation Hunters."

Papa said, "It's been fun to honor Beaver Countians with their cup."

One Hot Dog Shoppe cup got spotlighted on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

"We did a U.S. president's cup (series), and Jay used to do a thing called 'Jay's Lookalikes' and someone put a fun cup on there because one of the presidents looked like Jay," Papa said.

Found anywhere from yard sales to business offices, those 22-ounce, white plastic cups get repurposed as pencil holders, bathroom cups and sidewalk salt dispensers for winter.

"I remember when I first started dating my now-wife and I used her parents' bathroom there was a fun cup on the bathtub," Papa said. "Our old Pepsi representative had said whenever they do parties, they don't do Sharpies and red Solo cups, they do fun cups, and you remember your cup by which fun cup you have.

"It's kind of turned into one of those Beaver County things that people are disappointed when we don't have the cups," Papa said.

Tracking down all 162 cups took some work.

Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe president Frank Papa had tried to display a few cups from every single design in the company's Vanport headquarters. Alex Winger, owner of the Chippewa, New Brighton and Ellwood City Hot Dog Shoppe locations, suggested they publicly display the cups, at which point planners soon discovered Papa's collection was missing 15 of them.

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"When we found out we were missing a few, a couple customers and a couple employees said, 'Hey, we'd love to contribute,'" Winger said.

Five people donated doubles from their collections, "And that's how we were able to complete all 162," Papa said.

Chronologically displayed at the Chippewa restaurant, the very first cup from the late 1980s simply shows smiling hot dogs drinking out of straws.

Hired in 1975 to run day-to-day operations by Hot Dog Shoppe co-founders Victor and Francis Trevelline, Frank Papa came up with the cup idea.

"He was at home watching TV, and McDonald's was advertising and he said, 'I'll never have the money to compete with these guys and get our name out there, so what's something I can do?' son Mark Papa recalled. "He thought how about if I put out a reusable cup that we can have our logo on, and people can take with them and have at home so any time you reach for something you see Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe. So, we gave it a try and put it out there. It caught on.

"Dad had the benefit of being creative enough to come up with a bunch of catchy slogans. One of the most popular was 'You ain't nothing but a hot dog' with (company mascot) Frankie dressed up like Elvis. And through the years, that just caught on."

Gradually, holiday designs were added. Then local celebrities.

Beaver Valley's resident rock star Donnie Iris was the first local person to be honored with a signature cup, followed by New Brighton High graduate Terry Francona, World Series-winning manager for the Boston Red Sox.

"The next ones we are going to try reaching out to are (Aliquippa-bred pro football stars) Ty Law and Darrelle Revis," Papa said.

There's only been one elusive target so far − football legend Joe Namath.

"We just can't get Joe, and we have tried countless times," Papa said. "We're working on it."

The company follows procedures to get permission to use someone's likeness on a cup.

"There's a process that we go through and that's where we make a certain offer to every person we want to feature," Winger said. "It's up to them to give us permission to use their likeness."

Papa added, "It's a donation to their favorite charity, it's not, 'Hey, we'll give you cash.'"

Once the ownership team comes up with the next cup idea, there's back-and-forth discussions with the company that creates the cups before the final design is finished. McGaffic Advertising in Vanport has helped with some preliminary designs.

Displaying the cups in one big public room has been a hit, Papa said.

"It's nice to see the enthusiasm. These cups really mean something to people," he said.

What makes the cups so popular?

"They're just playful," Winger said. "That's the feedback I hear from customers."

"It's nostalgia for them," Papa said, noting the cups are part of the restaurant chain's commitment to staying consistent, which appeals to expats who return home to Beaver County for holiday visits.

"When you come home to the Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe, it's still the Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe, so to be able to take a little piece of Beaver County with you is fun for most people," Papa said.

"There are times where if we don't have (fun cups), they'll be like, 'OK, I'll stop by later,'" Winger said. "Then when a new cup does come out, routinely people will come in, have lunch, get a drink and then as they're walking out, they'll say, 'I got to buy four or five of these to send to friends or family.' They definitely are all over the country. It's fun."

People hang onto those cups.

Many years ago, the Hot Dog Shoppe tried a promotion where if you traded in your old fun cup, you'd get the brand new one as part of a free drink deal.

"People would not do it," Papa said. "It was a complete flop. Everyone was like, 'I'm not giving up my old fun cup.'"

The five people who donated cups to the Chippewa dining room collection made sure they had duplicates first, Winger said.

Through the decades, some of the most popular ones were a 2010 black-and-gold Steelers cup, a Woodstock anniversary cup, the classic TV series cups with I Love Lucy" and "Cheers," and cups that honored military and first responders.

New fun cups come out four to five times a year.

The day after Thanksgiving, the next cup comes out with a holiday theme, available through the end of the year at the Hot Dog Shoppe's nine company-owned and three licensed locations in Beaver, Lawrence, Butler and Allegheny counties along with one in Salem, Ohio.

Scott Tady is entertainment editor at The Times and daydreams about being featured on a Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe cup. Reach him easily at timesonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: 162 cups of fun displayed at local Brighton Hot Dog Shoppe