For most West Coasters, the Catskills are something that passes on the Eastern seaboard for a mountain range. Many New Yorkers, however, attach great nostalgia to the vacation haven, which served as training ground for some of America's most beloved entertainers.
In this humorously sentimental oral history, Neil Sedaka, Sid Caesar, Jackie Mason and other stars, along with former busboys and cooks, describe summers spent in the great Catskill resorts (Grossinger's, Tamarack Lodge, the Concord) - where the mostly Jewish clientele ate kosher food, received expert dance instruction (a la "Dirty Dancing") and were royally entertained by top comics (Jack Benny, Milton Berle) and singers (Leslie Uggams, Sammy Davis Jr.).
Filled with snapshots of the famous and un-famous living it up lakeside, this is a kind of fond family scrapbook of a bygone paradise. There are still big hotels in the Catskills, and weary urbanites still patronize them. But it ain't what it used to be - and never will be again.
In this humorously sentimental oral history, Neil Sedaka, Sid Caesar, Jackie Mason and other stars, along with former busboys and cooks, describe summers spent in the great Catskill resorts (Grossinger's, Tamarack Lodge, the Concord) - where the mostly Jewish clientele ate kosher food, received expert dance instruction (a la "Dirty Dancing") and were royally entertained by top comics (Jack Benny, Milton Berle) and singers (Leslie Uggams, Sammy Davis Jr.).
Filled with snapshots of the famous and un-famous living it up lakeside, this is a kind of fond family scrapbook of a bygone paradise. There are still big hotels in the Catskills, and weary urbanites still patronize them. But it ain't what it used to be - and never will be again.
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