The Borscht Belt in Motion in Postcards 4
- May 7, 2014, 8:48 a.m.
- |
- Public
*Al Katz on stage aboard the Island Princess.
I’m just home from fifteen enjoyable days on board the Island Princess. After watching an old school comedian on our last night onboard, it struck me that this 2014 cruise trip must be much like a 1960’s vacation at a Borscht Belt resort.
At the turn of the last century when middle class and working Jewish immigrants were not welcomed at the existing resorts, they started their own in the Catskills and Poconos. Families like the Grossingers moved to the area because of the already established Jewish community. They planned to farm, but soon they discovered they could make more money taking in guests. They bought a larger farm down the street and began expanding. At the height of their heyday, these resorts also offered ice skating, golf, swimming in a choice of pools, tennis, horseback riding, skiing, and the best Kosher cuisine in a number of restaurants or coffee shops.
When the resort owners discovered that their guests would stay longer, they began entertaining them. Scott Eckers tells, “Everyone got their start in the Catskills, and Grossingers was the hot spot.” Each resort presented guests with comedy, singers, music, impersonators, and wonderful headliners to keep you smiling throughout your stay and coming back.
On board the Island Princess, I could get off and explore exotic stops if I wanted. I could take organized off ship tours too. I could also enjoy my sea days aboard by swimming at one of four pools. If I wanted to counteract my overeating there was a spa and a gym. On an upper deck there were tennis courts that I didn’t use or a miniature golf course. Other ships have climbing walls and devil-may-care slides into their big pools. Not for us. George and I really enjoyed the entertainers. After dinner every night, we would trek to one of the two show rooms and get ourselves enchanted by the entertainers.
At Grossingers and the other Catskill resorts, all these things welcomed you back year after year just like they do aboard the modern cruise ships. Much like the Borscht belt Hotels, dining venues are also scattered everywhere on board. Our ship had two giant dining rooms with the kitchens connected to the rooms by escalators. There was a lido dining area we often used, plus smaller a la carte dining rooms, and finally tiny places for pizza or hamburgers. Tucked into corners, I found an ice cream parlor and a specialty coffee shop. Most of the great resorts like the giant Concord, the modern Kutshers, and the Queen of the Catskills, Grossingers, offered all these restaurants and more.
*Tamarak Lodge Pool. Photo: Jenifer Stiles: under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported. *
*Tamarack Lodge indoor Pool. Photo Scott Haefner. Used Used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported.
Just like at the Catskill resorts, today on shipboard you can find entertainment for kids in their own spaces, adult activities, and senior events that seem remarkable similar to the resort offerings that kept everyone occupied all day late into the night on land. No full sized ice rink nor ski slopes yet, but one never knows.
NYT Grossingers indoor pool in its heyday. All entries are copyrighted under the author's legal name under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported.
By the early 1960’s, with invention of the jet plane, the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the diminished rail service, and rise of the cruise ships, the traditional Jewish family vacation lost its appeal. With grandma and grandpa either dying or retiring to Florida, many new guests were not Jewish. By the 1970’s even the convention business began to flag, and the bigger establishments began failing. By 1986, Grossingers closed signaling the end of the era.
Grossingers indoor pool, 2012. Copyright Joe Lehman…used with permission.
Ted Arison and Knut Kloster started the modern cruise industry just before the land based resorts began to fail. After a split with Kloster, Arison began Carnival Cruise Lines in 1961 with his purchase of the ocean liner, Empress of Canada. When he bought his second used ship, the Transvaal Castle, he was on his way to build an empire and change the way we all vacation. Just like the Grossingers, he started with an idea and an older property. Unlike Grossingers or the other Catskill resorts, his ideas and properties are still expanding.
The Empress of Canada on her speed trials. Copyright Liverpoolships.org Used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported.
Today Carnival cruise lines has become this world’s largest cruise line. It has absorbed Cunard, Aida, Holland America Lines, Iberio, P&O, Princess Lines, Seabourn, and Costa. Although a high percentage of resort patrons still go to Las Vegas and Orlando, Carnival is number three in the resort business. To overcome the capsizing of the Costa Concordia and a fire onboard the Carnival Triumph, Carnival has instituted a new marketing campaign and a new brand management style
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Italian Divers on board the Costa Concordia: 2013. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported.
The resorts of the Borscht belt have collapsed into the past. Visitors to the Catskills now find only bulldozed acres or graffiti covered ruins. Small Orthodox Jewish groups have moved into the area. The great comedians of the fifties like Totie Fields and Mel Blanc are gone. These truly great entertainers of the 20th century performed in the Catskills year after year. Wikipedia tells us that Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Dean Martin, Woody Allen, and Jerry Seinfeld were some of the many notable performers to grace the stage of Kutscher’s nightclub. Each Resort had their own string of famous headliners most long gone now.
Young comedians now break into the business through clubs, the college circuit, some classes, and comedy nights while keeping their day jobs. Television is opening its doors to the young entertainers via the comedy channel, talk shows, and talent shows like America’s got Talent. Cruise lines all hold auditions all over the world for these talented newcomers.
Agents and huge corporations that place the newcomer on cruise ships for a fee. No more waiting tables and working the theaters at nights if you are good. Singers, dancers, and musicians all are hired for a six to nine month contract. Once the guest entertainer is a hit, not only will they sign them to a contract, they will fly the artist from ship to ship. “Fly on” they are called.
Did I know all this when I carried my bag aboard the Island Princess. Not at all. My curiosity led me to the algae filled monument of the Grossingers indoor pool. The stunning architecture of the structure captured my imagination. After a week of reading and researching, I came to the comfortable conclusion that my vacation on board the Island Princess was very much like a fifteen day stay at Grossingers or the Concord. Only far better.
Links and Research Material
Grossingers: 1916 – 1986 All the best of Abandoned Grossingers
Grossingers Resort: Wikipedia
Abandoned NY: Grossingers
Concord Hotel: 1935 – 1997 / Wikipedia
Jewish Forward Rediscovering beauty amid the ruins
NY Times: Resorts Death darkens the view
Carnival Cruise lines: Wikipedia: Photos of all Carnival’s ships from the beginning to now
BBC: A cynical view of the cruise lines: Wonderful film clip of Carnival CEO working undercover
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