Memories Of The Catskills

Memories of the Catskills: The Making of a Hotel, by Alvin L. Lesser, with a foreword by John Conway, Sullivan County Historian, takes the reader back to a time and place that was like no other. Families wishing to get out of the stifling heat of a New York City summer and other nearby crowded areas, found the perfect escape in "the Catskills." By sharing an insider's view of one person's life in this magical arena, Lesser lets readers experience the fun and the work that went into creating a place that people came back to year after year. Memories of the Catskills is a candid and charming memoir about the rise and fall of the "Borscht Belt." Lesser Lodge, a small hotel where the author spent the better part of his childhood, lies at the center of the heartfelt tale. Famous stars of yesteryear came to entertain in the Borscht Belt at Lesser Lodge. The Lodge survived the depression era and then flourished during the years of economic recovery and growth. Not just the story of the Lesser family, but the warmth of people who made others welcome by providing a respite which made them all family-- entertainers and guests alike.

A rich ethnographical study, drawing on the memories of guests, staff, and entertainers, chronicles the development of the Jewish Catskill resorts, discussing their impact on both American and immigrant Jewish culture and tracing their slow decline since the 1970s. UP.

At one time, according to the Catskill Institute, there were more than a thousand hotels spread across the mountains of Greene, Ulster, Delaware, and Sullivan Counties. The Catskills were an exciting world full of pleasures to be enjoyed, with summer and winter activities characterized by entertainment, food, sports, card playing, and food again. Catskill Hotels, with a collection of some two hundred images, tells the story of this world, which began with America's first resort hotel, the Catskill Mountain House, continued with places such as the world-famous Grossinger's, and can still be found today at Kutsher's Country Club, the Mountain House at Lake Mohonk, and a few other hardy resorts.

Gonifs, tumlers, fressers, along with a cast of waiters, busboys, chambermaids, chefs, counselors, gardeners, dishwashers, musicians and even family-Carrie Komito encounters them all in more than a half century of presiding over a thriving Borscht Belt hotel. In this collection of stories, she shares with readers her memories, often touching and ironic, but always-always filled with the humor and vitality that characterized that now historic era.

Every year between 1920 and 1970, almost one million of New York City's Jewish population summered in the Catskills. Hundreds of thousands still do. While much has been written about grand hotels like Grossinger's and the Concord, little has appeared about the more modest bungalow colonies and kuchaleins ("cook for yourself" places) where more than 80 percent of Catskill visitors stayed.These were not glamorous places, and middle-class Jews today remember the colonies with either aversion or fondness. Irwin Richman's narrative, anecdotes, and photos recapture everything from the traffic jams leaving the city to the strategies for sneaking into the casinos of the big hotels. He brings to life the attitudes of the renters and the owners, the differences between the social activities and swimming pools advertised and what people actually received. He reminisces about the changing fashion of the guests and owners—everything that made summers memorable.The author remembers his boyhood: what it was like to spend summers outside the city, swimming in the Neversink, "noodling around," and helping with the bungalow operation, while Grandpa charged the tenants and acted as president of Congregation B'nai.

With selections from Isaac Bashevis Singer, Allegra Goodman, Moss Hart, TaniaGrossinger, and many others, this volume is a tribute to the legendary Jewishresort area of the Catskills. 40 halftones. 26 figures.

Gonifs, tumlers, fressers, along with a cast of waiters, busboys, chambermaids, chefs, counselors, gardeners, dishwashers, musicians and even family-Carrie Komito encounters them all in a more than a half century of presiding over a thriving Borscht Belt. In this collection of stories, she shares with readers her memories, often touching and ironic, but always filled with the humor and vitality that characterized that now historic era.