Maurie and Flaurie are still missing. When a crane plucked the couple off the roof at Superdawg Drive-In on Sept. 4, we were promised they would return after a “SuperSpa” experience in a few weeks.
The figures have stood over the hot dog stand in Chicago for 76 years. A banner in their place reads, “MAURIE & FLAURIE WILL RETURN SUPER SOON!” But where are these beloved culinary and cultural icons? What’s happening to them? And what’s taking so long? First, we need to know about their history and secret lives. “Originally, they went up 10 days before we were open,” said Scott Berman.
He’s the son of late founders and figure namesakes Flaurie and Maurie Berman. Their daughter, Lisa Drucker, and her husband, Don Drucker, with her brother, are now the owners and operators of their original stand in the Norwood Park neighborhood and a second location in Wheeling. These same Superdawg rooftop figures, according to Berman, were handmade by their father with an unknown artist from paper-mache around a chicken wire frame, and first went up on April 28, 1948.
“We opened May 8 of ’48,” Berman said. The stand was only supposed to last for one summer . Their mother and father had planned to become a teacher and CPA, respectively.
But they opened again for a couple of years, and the rooftop figures came down at the end of the season in 1948 and 1949, then were held in the building during the winter. And in 1950, they decided to open Superdawg year-round so the figure.
