Faded Catskills Resorts Try To Find A New Image

LIBERTY, N.Y. - Jackie Horner came to the Catskills in 1953 for a weekend of dancing. She's still there.

Cha-chas, crooners, comedians and all-around fun helped her enjoy the heyday of "Borscht Belt" hotels. For decades, predominantly Jewish crowds flocked to the green mountains and grand hotels north of New York City for fresh air and caustic jokes, big bands and all the food you could eat: rib steaks, blintzes and, yes, borscht.

"It was like New Year's Eve every night," Horner said. "We danced all day and danced all night. Then we danced some more."

But Horner, a dance teacher at Grossinger's, watched the party wind down through the decades, ceding to air-conditioners at home and airline travel abroad. Today, only a couple of the big hotels still offer traditional hospitality. Some have been refurbished for corporate outings. Another is an ashram.

The past year has been especially tough for the old-line hotels. Grossinger's and the Concord, once the area's classiest resorts, went on the auction block as part of bankruptcy proceedings. Locals now hope the properties can find second, more contemporary lives as golf centers or luxury hotels.

A vanishing culture

"It's a sad thing," said Abe Barrish, a retired hotel maitre d'. "The whole culture is gone. . . . The Jewishness of everything: the shows, the food, the Jewish cooking, the Jewish entertainment. Everything."

Even before this century, Jews from New York City came to the Catskills seeking refuge from summer's swelter. Boom times after World War II sent area tourism into overdrive. Little farms and boarding houses turned to big-time hospitality. Family-owned hotels coddled guests and kept them busy.

Hikes, bingo, bridge, shuffleboard and tango lessons filled the days. At night there was no need to go out - shows came to the hotels.

Who performed?

Suave entertainers with Las Vegas polish such as Eddie Fisher, Jerry Vale and Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme alternated with rapid-fire comedians. The comics' self-deprecating jokes became synonymous with Jewish humor - a style honed on notoriously tough Catskills crowds. Buddy Hackett, Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, Jackie Mason - even Jerry Seinfeld in the latter days - played the Borscht Belt.

Basketball greats such as Wilt Chamberlain and Bob Cousy played there too, in summer hotel leagues that attracted promising young players between seasons. Players worked at staff jobs between games. The 7-foot-tall Chamberlain was a bellhop.

All you could eat - and more

The kitchens were kosher, but they served all you could eat. And more. Barrish recalls bringing out tray after tray of food for some guests, only to have them nibble at it before asking for more.

Horner met her future husband at Grossinger's - an activities director named Lou Goldstein, whose witty twists on the time-honored children's game earned him the title "Mr. Simon Says." The pair married at Grossinger's and became a notable Catskills couple.

They describe the Catskills in those days as a sort of wonderland where Sid Caesar and Milton Berle spent mornings poolside riffing on jokes, where Swedish boxer Ingemar Johansson took dancing lessons, where band after band belted out standards on a revolving stage. Horner's own experiences were a springboard for the 1987 movie "Dirty Dancing."

"The hotels had everything," Goldstein said. "If you were in bed before 2:30 or 3 in the morning, there was something wrong with you."

Decline began in the 1960s as times and tastes changed. Catskills historian John Conway said blame is commonly assigned to the "Three A's":

-- Air-conditioning made summer in the city bearable.

-- Air fares dropped, allowing the middle class to jet to more exotic locales.

-- Assimilation: A new generation of Jews preferred other diversions.

"The very style of the resorts - gross overeating, ethnic entertainment, self-deprecating humor - was embarrassing to a younger generation," wrote Phil Brown, professor of sociology at Brown University and author of the book "Catskill Culture."

Seeking a new niche

Since the 1970s, Catskills hotels have closed at a steady rate. Some have been casting about for a new niche, any niche. For a time, the Concord opened its Imperial Ballroom to teenagers. Others have been hosts to gay weekends and conventions of fire chiefs.

For a while, they hoped legalized casino gambling would save the day. But the state Legislature quashed gambling proposals in the past two sessions. Government officials are still considering a proposal for an Indian-run casino at an old harness race track in the area.

The 344-room Granit abruptly closed in July 1997, forcing 350 guests to find other accommodations. The Pines closed in 1998 after an aborted effort to market its 400 rooms as a base where guests could enjoy golf, karaoke and even a non-kosher menu.

Grossinger's, shut down for years save for the golf course, filed for bankruptcy protection last year. But the biggest blow, at least symbolically, came last November when the long-struggling, 1,200-room Concord Hotel closed after 18 months of bankruptcy proceedings. The Concord was notable for being the biggest of the big hotels, complete with a spot to sunbathe - indoors.

"Those that want the Borscht Belt are reducing and reducing and reducing," said Norman Sherman, a veteran travel agent in nearby Westchester County.

Adapting to change

Local officials have adapted to the changing times. Michael Davidson of the Sullivan County Visitors Association reports success with bookings for ski groups and conventioneers. He also tries to nudge the old hotels into forsaking faded charms in favor of modern makeovers.

"You say this is charming, or this is Old World, but I can't hook up my modem and get e-mail," he said.

Catskill hotels are more now likely to promote nearby attractions such as West Point or the site of the original Woodstock concert than carry on in the Catskills tradition.

Sure, The Raleigh still offers three "sumptuous meals a day" and two shows a night. And Kutshers, with its big dining hall and pink-accented hallways, still lights its cursive neon sign and retains a whiff of the '50's.

But the real sign of the times may be the fate of the renewed old hotels. An investment group bid $10.25 million for the Concord and intends to work with the Sheraton chain on a new image. County officials hope Grossinger's will also be resuscitated.

The Granit re-opened as The Hudson Valley Resort & Conference Center, complete with a "cigar bar." The old Stevensville hotel is being redone and reopened as the Swan Golf and Tennis Resort Hotel. There's indoor tennis and a sushi bar, but there will still be a theater and kosher dining, traditional Borscht Belt mainstays.

But, says sales manager Craig Cohen, "it's definitely one big-time corporate hotel."

Lou Goldstein and Jackie Horner live near the now-abandoned Grossinger's. They're excited about the Swan and the new life it could bring to the old scene. But they're clear-eyed about the changing times.

Goldstein often takes his Simon Says act on the road now, to basketball games and corporate conventions. He stays in a lot of hotels, and it's always the same story. No matter where he is, the food is a la carte and the hotels all look alike.