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Ellenville, NY:

In order to know where we are today, we have to take a look at the past to discover how the wiring road brought us to the new era.

NYC VIBE was invited to drive up to the Catskills to explore the one-day festival which paid tribute to the legacy of the Borscht Belt- the well known name for the once large hotels and resorts with bungalow colonies in parts of Sullivan, Ulster and Orange counties that catered mostly to Jewish families - which influenced modern American culture.

Back in the day, starting in the 1900s up through the 1970s, Route 17, also known as the “The Quickway,” was jam packed starting in late June when New York City Jews made their exodus from the crowded and hot city to the Catskill Mountains. Named after the Ashkenazi beet soup, the Borscht Belt attracted guests upstate for leisure, Yiddish culture, food and of course entertainment. At the area’s height in the 1950s, there were over 500 hotels, and 50,000 bungalow colonies in Sullivan and Ulster Counties alone…

The entertainment at the Borscht Belt hotels was first-rate. Musicians like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Mel Brooks, and Dean Martin, and comics Rodney Dangerfield, Henny Youngman, Joan Rivers, Woody Allen, and Jerry Seinfeld all were on stage - many doing multiple shows at different hotels.

Early on Jews came to the Catskills because they were barred from vacationing at many other popular locations - so they created their own vacationland, checking into Jewish-owned resorts like Grossinger's, Kutsher’s and the Concord amongst many others…

Many legendary Jewish comedians performed early in their careers at Catskills resorts, including Jackie Mason, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Joan Rivers and Jerry Seinfeld.

Of course, Jews also came to the Catskills because they were barred from vacationing at many other popular locales — and therefore they created a vacationland of their own, packing Jewish-owned resorts…

These summers in the New York mountains shaped American Jewish culture, enabling Jews to become more American while at the same time introducing the American public to immigrant Jewish culture,....By the late 1960s, however, with the rise of air travel, the lure of Catskills started to fade. By the mid 1980’s - most of the hotels and resorts closed.

But for the comedians, they had new and more opportunities to reach their audience - TV variety programs, guest appearances on late night TV, movies, NYC, Los Angeles and Las Vegas stage bookings along with acts on tape which moved to DVDs.

The thread followed with many cruising stars always referencing back to the glory era in the Catskills for inspiration and to reflect on what worked then and that translates to today’s audiences…

Young comedians just starting out like Alan Zweibel, elevated his career using the Catskills to fine tune his comedy and writing skills.

A comedy writer, TV, film, books, theater, keynote speaker, Alan is an original Saturday Night Live writer, winning five Emmy Awards for his work in television, which also includes It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, which he co-created and produced), The Late Show with David Letterman and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

So, to know where we are and possibly heading, we now know how we got here.

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