S02.E04: We're Going to the Catskills!

[Pallas]

The Weissmans arrive in the Catskills for their annual summer trip and attempt to settle into familiar patterns. Whispers of Midge and Joel's separation cause Rose to poke around her daughter's love life. Susie must adjust her summer plans in an effort to keep her and Midge's career momentum going.

[Quilt Fairy]

Wow, people really did that? Whole families spent 2 months on vacation in the Catskills? (Fair disclosure - all I know about this subject I learned from Dirty Dancing.)  And they must have great child care, we never even heard about baby Esther once they reached the Steiner resort. 

[shapeshifter]

8 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

Wow, people really did that? Whole families spent 2 months on vacation in the Catskills?

My mother always claimed we were "upper middle class," but in the years around 1959, we only got 2 weeks at the shore, often as house guests of wealthier friends. 

The people we saw in the episode were tenured professors, doctors, etc., so maybe they were the real upper middle class?

 

Did Joel decline to share the fireworks blanket because he saw Midge with the doctor on the rowboat?

Did the doctor refuse to row because as a surgeon he couldn't risk blisters on his hands. Or was he aware of the optics and did it to achieve Midge's stated endgame of it just not working out between them? Or both?

When Joel and Zachary Levi's character smoked together, did Joel know he was the guy Midge went boating with, and/or did the doctor know Joel was Midge's estranged husband?

Tune in to the following episodes to find out, I guess.

Edited December 6, 2018 by shapeshifter

[Pallas]

14 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

Wow, people really did that? Whole families spent 2 months on vacation in the Catskills?

Some, especially city-dwellers, and including some working-class families. The mothers and children, at least. Fathers would stay in town during the week and join their families on weekends, and for 2 - 4 weeks during the season. For long-term holidays midcentury in the northeast --  by what was called "tradition" -- WASP families headed to the New England oceanfront, mountainside or lakeside; Jewish families headed to the Catskills, the Poconos or the Jersey shore.

[Rweyls]

What was the thinking leaving the baby in the car when they arrived?

In lieu of the current situation with people forgetting babies in cars, I found this disturbing and not funny. 

Quote

 

[shapeshifter]

34 minutes ago, Rweyls said:

What was the thinking leaving the baby in the car when they arrived?

In lieu of the current situation with people forgetting babies in cars, I found this disturbing and not funny. 

But typical of the time. 

I thought they would've brought a babysitter, but maybe they didn't want to cast and write for another character.

 I assume the baby was sleeping (hopefully) alone in a crib while they were watching the fireworks.

[Pogojoco]

Abe is also a tenured prof at Columbia- he has the summers off. Rose doesn't work. That opens us a lot of free time. 

For the baby in the car- I think the windows were open (closed windows are usually the issue with hot cars and kids/dogs left). I think it was more of a wink at the idea that Miriam is preoccupied by things other than child care and is so privileged that she just assumes the baby is taken care of, because it sort of seems like she is. 

 

And for the babysitter aspect, I kind of assumed that childcare was part of the experience. Almost like a non-working version of a kibbutz for the summer. 

 

And yes, with a bunch of wealthy Jews at a Catskills resort, I was sort of expecting a working class WASP there to teach the Mambo. 

[BusyOctober]

4 hours ago, Rweyls said:

 

What was the thinking leaving the baby in the car when they arrived?

 

I was born in the mid 60’s, so I’m a generation ahead of Midge’s kids. Attitudes toward child safety were definitely not as prevalent back then as today!  I was an infant when my dad drove us cross country from Newport, RI to San Diego, CA when he was assigned a new commission in the Navy.  No car seats.  No seatbelts.  Both parents smoking all the way.  My mom told me I was either kept on her lap while dad drove, or in a “car bed” in the back seat.  The bassinet type thing was hooked over the front seat and the baby lay inside it, unrestrained. I also have vivid memories of riding down the highway in the bed of my grandfather’s ‘59 Chevy truck to get to his fishing cabin.  Me (7 or 8)and my younger sister (3 or 4) were told to “hang on”, and we were never looked at or spoken to again til we got to the lake 90 minutes later. At least the tail gate was up.

Edited December 6, 2018 by BusyOctober

[Rweyls]

Yes, times were definitely different then. Still, there was something creepy wrong about the way they all marched off without a care. 

[SailorGirl]

hah! When I was a pre-teen (late 1970s), my dad had a van he used for work. I remember well when he would drive me and my friends somewhere in the van and we would surf. Yes, literally standing up in the van in surfer position trying to not fall over. My dad would intentionally swerve and randomly step on the brakes in an attempt to knock our balance off. 

Never got a bump or bruise, and was never in a car accident or had a broken bone until I was in my 30s. 

Even younger, I also remember riding in a cousin's(?) station wagon that had the "well seats" in the very back -- that was a play pod for us -- seatbelts? WTH were those??? Again, no bumps, bruises, accidents, or broken bones.  

 

Different times, and a hell of a lot of fun. We were rockstar van surfers! :-D 

Edited December 7, 2018 by SailorGirl

[Megan]

2 hours ago, Rweyls said:

Yes, times were definitely different then. Still, there was something creepy wrong about the way they all marched off without a care. 

I kinda thought it was a joke about how the kids are barely acknowledged in the show... they disappear and reappear based on plot needs.

AND sign me up for the Vodka and Latke mixer!

Edited December 7, 2018 by Megan

[pivot]

Loved seeing the weird Catskills world. Hated that Joel was there. The guy is such a drip and just kills the show's momentum dead. Midge is just too good for him. 

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, Megan said:

I kinda thought it was a joke about how the kids are barely acknowledged in the show... they disappear and reappear based on plot needs

Perhaps, but, like any joke that works, it was based on truth, and for many viewers of a certain age, that truth goes beyond the conveniences and child labor laws of television. My sister remembers in the mid 1950s when she was barely 5 and I was 2, regularly  taking me by the hand to the neighbor's house to find our mother. Nearly 10 years later, I recall the police calling my friend's mother because her 5-year-old brother was found riding his tricycle down a road where the posted speed limit was at least 45 mph. 

There are other first-hand stories of neglect with less happy endings that I could share, which is why I think ASP might have also anticipated horrified viewer reactions like:

14 hours ago, Rweyls said:

What was the thinking leaving the baby in the car when they arrived?

The generation depicted was in transition from the extended family to the more nuclear family with often very young parents not making mature parenting choices. This eventually gave rise to "helicopter parents" who wished to prevent the outcomes of such neglect that they experienced as children.

Fortunately Ethan and Esther have grandparents and hired servants to hopefully notice them.

[AuntieMame]

I loved that they set two episodes here. These huge hotel resorts really did exist, a few stalwart survivors still do. I've always wanted to go to one. I don't know about r there is still entertainment. 

Susie and her kindred spirit getting free lodging and being mostly invisible as support staff was both incisive and hysterical. I kept hoping for a little fun for Susie. 

[screenaddict]

As Susie walked towards the employee quarters, I wanted someone to ask her to carry a watermelon.

[shapeshifter]

6 hours ago, AuntieMame said:

Susie and her kindred spirit getting free lodging and being mostly invisible as support staff was both incisive and hysterical. I kept hoping for a little fun for Susie

I'm still hoping she eventually does her own standup routine—with her plunger.

[QQQQ]

I loved the staging and timing of the family moving into their summer home - just like a play!

[TexasGal]

Loved how Rose jumped when she heard Dr. Hottie was looking for someone weird.

[SoMuchTV]

I'm really enjoying this season, but I was glad they finally threw in a line about the sitter.  I assume Ethan is happily stashed away in Kid's Kamp, but for all I knew, Esther was still in the car.  (Kind of surprised they didn't bring their own nanny.)

And, were people really that aware of fonts back then?  And Mr. Dedicated Humanitarian Doctor can leave his practice for a couple of months? (Or maybe he was a weekender.)  But other than that - really enjoying it.

[2727]

24 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

I'm really enjoying this season, but I was glad they finally threw in a line about the sitter.  I assume Ethan is happily stashed away in Kid's Kamp, but for all I knew, Esther was still in the car.

At least we saw Midge reading to Ethan once back in NY. Small children unrealistically being out of sight on TV series usually doesn't bother me but I thought Ethan at least would have liked the fireworks. I felt sorry for him missing out!

It gets dark late in the summers so maybe he was asleep already, but I shouldn't have to make up my own excuses. Throw in a sentence or two of dialog to explain, please.

[SoMuchTV]

2 hours ago, 2727 said:

At least we saw Midge reading to Ethan once back in NY. Small children unrealistically being out of sight on TV series usually doesn't bother me but I thought Ethan at least would have liked the fireworks. I felt sorry for him missing out!

It gets dark late in the summers so maybe he was asleep already, but I shouldn't have to make up my own excuses. Throw in a sentence or two of dialog to explain, please.

I’m going to assume the Kids’ Kamp Kounselor took him (Ethan) to see the fireworks :)

Edited December 9, 2018 by SoMuchTV
edited because I realized the way I worded it originally sounded a little creepy

[QQQQ]

3 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

3 hours ago, 2727 said:

 

I’m going to assume the Kids’ Kamp Kounselor took him :)

In other words... the KKK took her baby away?! Given the musical tastes of the show's creators, I think they'd highly approve!

Ramones - The KKK Took My Baby Away

Edited December 9, 2018 by QQQQ

[SoMuchTV]

18 hours ago, QQQQ said:

In other words... the KKK took her baby away?! Given the musical tastes of the show's creators, I think they'd highly approve!

I'm afraid that reference went over my head.  But my Kids' Kamp reference was about where Ethan was during the fireworks, not the baby.  (When they first arrived, the director noted that the counselor was "renamed" to keep the "K" thing going.)

Edited December 9, 2018 by SoMuchTV
Aha! Got it now.

[txhorns79]

Quote

Yes, times were definitely different then. Still, there was something creepy wrong about the way they all marched off without a care. 

I view it like an ongoing joke about how the kids are forgotten until they are needed for the storyline.  Perhaps I'm entirely wrong, but even if parents of the time were looser with how they treated the kids, it wasn't the norm for parents to forget their babies in the car.  

I was mostly amazed that B. Altman was apparently fine with Midge taking two months off? 

[winter]

loving season 2 .

have had so many laugh out loud moments. 

one thing I am pondering though...

how is a college prof. able to afford upper west side living, a maid, catering etc?

Did I miss where they said Rose was an heiress? I mean, she doesn't work...the upper class wealth bit is puzzling.

not to mention the extensive wardrobes both mama and midge have.  or is this another ironic joke by the fabulous Palladinos?

[cali1981]

On 12/6/2018 at 1:01 AM, Quilt Fairy said:

Wow, people really did that? Whole families spent 2 months on vacation in the Catskills? (Fair disclosure - all I know about this subject I learned from Dirty Dancing.)  And they must have great child care, we never even heard about baby Esther once they reached the Steiner resort. 

Upper middle class and above families did go for the summer.  We weren't in that economic universe but , in the mid-1950s, we did "go to the country" as we called it., usually for a week or so.  There were many bungalow colonies in the Catskills and that's where working class families usually stayed.  We never made it to the big hotels like the Nevele , Browns and Grossingers with the big name comedians who played the "Borscht Belt".  Nevertheless for most of the families it was nice to get away from the hot city for a while.  As a Jewish kid who grew up in Brooklyn in the 50s and 60s I'm continually amazed at how accurate the cultural references are in this show.  Family gatherings have me in tears from laughing so hard.  The Palladinos have really gotten it right.

[shapeshifter]

11 hours ago, 2727 said:

12 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

I was mostly amazed that B. Altman was apparently fine with Midge taking two months off? 

Her job, like her children, is only mentioned when needed as a plot point.

Yes, but many New Yorkers (and Chicagoans) who could afford to do so left the hot city for the summer, and these would have been the customers of B. Altman. So maybe they tended to lay off counter girls in the summer anyway? It's just a fanwank, but perhaps someone could verify.

Edited December 10, 2018 by shapeshifter

[TexasGal]

16 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Yes, but many New Yorkers (and Chicagoans) who could afford to do so left the hot city for the summer, and these would have been the customers of B. Altman. So maybe they tended to lay off counter girls in the summer anyway? It's just a fanwank, but perhaps someone could verify.

This is what I assumed, as well.   They probably went to bare bones staff during the summer.

[Mrs peel]

On ‎12‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 3:01 AM, Quilt Fairy said:

Wow, people really did that? Whole families spent 2 months on vacation in the Catskills? (Fair disclosure - all I know about this subject I learned from Dirty Dancing.)  And they must have great child care, we never even heard about baby Esther once they reached the Steiner resort. 

I think most families did 2-4 weeks if they went to the Catskills.  Abe being a professor could do 2 months, as long as he could afford it.

But back then there were large groups of folks going up there, especially Jewish people (who had their own resorts because they were often denied entrance to other places.  Grossinger's was mentioned on the show and that one really existed.  Not sure about the others).  They called the Catskills the "Borscht Belt", and it was well known for great comedians.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borscht_Belt

The camps had tons of stuff for children to do apart from their parents, but I was taken by the fact that the show basically never showed the kids.

[shapeshifter]

4 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

Quote

Yes, but many New Yorkers (and Chicagoans) who could afford to do so left the hot city for the summer, and these would have been the customers of B. Altman. So maybe they tended to lay off counter girls in the summer anyway? It's just a fanwank, but perhaps someone could verify.

Midge wasn't laid off for the summer.  If I remember right, when she is called back to man the counter, the floor manager mentions that she knows Midge is on vacation.   

Right.
In my adjusted fanwank:
They cut the hours of the staff in the summer, so the other switchboard girls were happy to work Midge's hours while she was away.

[rollacoaster]

I kind of love Benjamin. He's no push over, and he's a match for Midge's wit. 

He's also tall and strapping, which doesn't hurt. 

[ChlcGirl]

3 minutes ago, rollacoaster said:

I kind of love Benjamin. He's no push over, and he's a match for Midge's wit. 

He's also tall and strapping, which doesn't hurt. 

And a rich doctor to boot.  Someone's gonna have to pay for Midge's fabulous hats.

Edited December 10, 2018 by ChlcGirl

[rollacoaster]

1 minute ago, ChlcGirl said:

And a rich doctor to boot.  Someone's gonna have to pay for Midge's fabulous hats.

Lol! YES! 

I hope he supports her comedy career. 

[Clanstarling]

On 12/6/2018 at 1:01 AM, Quilt Fairy said:

Wow, people really did that? Whole families spent 2 months on vacation in the Catskills? (Fair disclosure - all I know about this subject I learned from Dirty Dancing.)  And they must have great child care, we never even heard about baby Esther once they reached the Steiner resort. 

Two months seems like a lot. A Walk on the Moon with Diane Lane, Liev Schreiber, and Viggo Mortenson, shows a more middle (or lower middle) class version. The family went to the resort, but the husbands came on the weekends

On 12/6/2018 at 8:38 PM, pivot said:

Loved seeing the weird Catskills world. Hated that Joel was there. The guy is such a drip and just kills the show's momentum dead. Midge is just too good for him. 

I liked that he was there, because it allowed them to show the wider social aspects of their impending divorce.

On 12/9/2018 at 9:52 PM, winter said:

loving season 2 .

have had so many laugh out loud moments. 

one thing I am pondering though...

how is a college prof. able to afford upper west side living, a maid, catering etc?

Did I miss where they said Rose was an heiress? I mean, she doesn't work...the upper class wealth bit is puzzling.

not to mention the extensive wardrobes both mama and midge have.  or is this another ironic joke by the fabulous Palladinos?

They haven't said regarding Rose, but she did spend some time as a student in Paris. In those days, the kids who did that (or even went to college) were pretty high echelon in terms of money. So there's a hint of that, at least.

[tennisgurl]

Its so wild to me that people really did this! Just ran out to a summer camp for the whole family every year, for the whole summer. No wonder Suzie was so shocked. I, like many others, spent the whole episode waiting for Midge to start flirting with a working class dance instructor, and eventually for him to tell Abe that no one puts Midgey in a corner. 

Zachary Levi! Looking nice as hell in his late 50s style clothes. I hope that he sticks around, he could be an interesting love interest. Even as Joel is having regrets about breaking up with Midge and messing his family up. Its really kind of sad that Joel and Midge cant make it work, they do seem to like spending time together, and both seem to feel bad about the end of their marriage, even if its all Joel's fault that they ended up here. 

Laughed super hard at Rose jumping up with excitement when Benjamin's mother said he was looking for a woman who was "weird." "I have just the girl for him!"

Yeah its definitely strange and even disturbing how people just leave the baby behind, even in a car (in the summer!) but thats just kind of how it was back then. My grandparents would make jokes about how their parents just tossed them into the backseat of their families car, with no seatbelts, for long car trips, and would just sit in the car together while the parents would go out and do other stuff. Definitely a different time. 

[ZaldamoWilder]

I loved that Benjamin refused to meet Midge's "the man does the rowing" stated expectations.    I mean the man does do the rowing but I loved him for being like eh, I'm doing my part by being here.  

I think it's corny as hell but I also like the tradition that brought the Catskills about.  Not discrimination obviously, but that it's such a custom that the families know each other, their arrivals are announced on loud speakers.  Husbands are paging wives to the front desk, all the women get the exact same hairstyle at the salon, like the whole thing is hilarious! 

Joel sacked up and made a speech to the Steiner guests.  Who knew the little shit had it in him?

About the baby in the car, ya'll keep referencing that she was forgotten.   She wasn't actually.  Somebody upthread said Midge walked off under the assumption that not-Jimmy (what's the new sweaty palm guy's name?) was going to get the baby.   As Rose and Midge are arranging, then returning the cottage furniture to its original floor plan, we can hear Abe bellow to not-Jimmy:  you brought the bags and forgot the baby!!  He said the same thing earlier (in response to either Rose or Midge) as they walked into the resort to be greeted by the Steiner director.   Please excuse my pedanticism, but they didn't forget Esther, it's neither better nor worse, but, they left her intentionally to be brought with the luggage.   Lol.  

I was born in '68.  The first car accident I can ever remember in my life was in 1972.  My dad drove a Dodge...I dunno, fucking yacht.   The reason I remember it was because I was eating an ice cream cone and was inconsolable at having lost my grip (and a tooth, though I wasn't sad about that) when I was hurled from a position on the edge of the back seat to the unimedian that served as the backing for both front seats - as many of you remember it was one piece back then - if you sat in the front, you and the driver had the same seat position lol.   Anyway I say all that to say I have no memory of seat belts ever having been in that car, or any other we had until about 1976.    What's that phrase about God protecting fools and babies or drunks and babies?  That.  We were a protected category before that was a thing. 

p.s. Zachary Levi? Good lawd.  

Edited December 11, 2018 by ZaldamoWilder
{{shakesfist}} I curse you, typos! one day. One Day I say!

[ae2]

Still in the middle of this episode, but boy...

Is there anything more 50s than this Catskills resort? The moving in scene was brilliantly shot.

Miriam shouting, "we're going to the Catskills" should have been cheesy (even if done tongue in cheek), but Brosnahan totally made it work!

Also, I know by 1959 he was already in Hollywood working with Sid Caesar and Carl Reiner, but I'm really hoping for a Mel Brooks cameo! (I mean, Lenny Bruce style, where someone else portrays real-life Mel Brooks. Although I wouldn't mind him actually making an appearance.)

Edited December 11, 2018 by ae2

[xaxat]

Back in the nineties, I actually worked in the inn across the lake from where this episode was filmed. It was filmed at Scott's Family Resort on Oquaga Lake. It's actually up the road a bit from what was traditionally considered the Borscht Belt. Almost all of the traditional Catskill resorts have been closed for a while.

I thought Abe looked like a very dignified older Jack Lalane is his suit. 

ETA 

Quote

how is a college prof. able to afford upper west side living, a maid, catering etc?

I know a professor who taught at Columbia who bought his coop back in the sixties. Now having a riverside view is probably a stretch, but the UWS was relatively affordable back then.

Edited December 11, 2018 by xaxat

[tennisgurl]

*Overheard on the PA*: "Mr. such and such, please come to the front office. Its not an emergency, but its not not an emergency." 

[millennium]

I'm only about ten minutes into this episode and Abe's assholery is really wearing on me.  The arrogance, condescension, the way he belittles people of lower social station, i.e his "boy," or barks orders about repairs needing to be made to the cottage.   It's not funny.   I'm starting to dislike the Weissmans almost as much as I can't stand the Pfeffermans from Transparent.   

The Weissman's ostentatious affluence is a turnoff too.   I love seeing all of Midge's outfits (the yellow Catskills dress was gorgeous) but when you juxtapose her life with, say, Suzie's, the shameless wealth starts feeling crass and ugly.   Correct me if I'm wrong but Midge didn't seem to have an ounce of sympathy for Suzy that she's being left behind.

On another level the wealth also seems to undermine Midge's comedy.   I mean, her act is one big rant but her life is a candy-colored dream.  It's a life people would kill for.   I see all the privileges she enjoys and I start to ask, "what basis does she have to rant about anything?"

How do the Weissman's afford -- in the same year -- a spacious Upper West Side apartment, a maid, endless designer clothes, a month or so of living in Paris, and two months in the Catskills?

Edited December 12, 2018 by millennium

[millennium]

I watched the rest of the episode and found nothing to mitigate my original impression.    It's feeling more and more like The Marvelous Mr. Weissman.   I loved Tony Shalhoub in Wings (his first appearance, as a waiter in an Italian restaurant, was priceless) but find him unbearable here.

[TV Diva Queen]

Abe also works at Bells Labs. I think he’s a big shot engineer there. No?

[TV Diva Queen]

7 hours ago, millennium said:

I watched the rest of the episode and found nothing to mitigate my original impression.    It's feeling more and more like The Marvelous Mr. Weissman.   I loved Tony Shalhoub in Wings (his first appearance, as a waiter in an Italian restaurant, was priceless) but find him unbearable here.

I simply love Abe. Funny how people see things so differently. :)

[2727]

6 minutes ago, TV Diva Queen said:

I simply love Abe. Funny how people see things so differently. :)

It does make me feel sympathy for show creators!

ASP does not pander to fans AT ALL, which I admire even when I wildly disagree with the way she writes some of her male characters.

I kind of wish more showrunners and writers would do the same and not let noisy fans minorities influence their ideas.

[ProudMary]

On 12/9/2018 at 8:38 PM, txhorns79 said:

I was mostly amazed that B. Altman was apparently fine with Midge taking two months off? 

I have no idea if this may be the case, but several years ago I read a novel called Summer At Tiffany.  The protagonists were two female college students from Iowa who travel to New York for the summer in the post-war 1940s to find summer employment in one of the higher end department stores.  They end up working at Tiffany & Co.  This episode of TMMM had me wondering if these temporary "summer shopgirl" positions were to cover for full time employees like Midge.

On 12/10/2018 at 2:48 PM, Mrs peel said:

I think most families did 2-4 weeks if they went to the Catskills.  Abe being a professor could do 2 months, as long as he could afford it.

But back then there were large groups of folks going up there, especially Jewish people (who had their own resorts because they were often denied entrance to other places.  Grossinger's was mentioned on the show and that one really existed.  Not sure about the others).  They called the Catskills the "Borscht Belt", and it was well known for great comedians.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borscht_Belt

The camps had tons of stuff for children to do apart from their parents, but I was taken by the fact that the show basically never showed the kids.

Suzie also mentioned the real-life Catskills' resort, The Concord as a place she was checking out for a potential gig for Midge.

Italian-American girl from New Jersey here (NYC suburbs.)  I'm right around the same age as baby Esther would be.  Working class, my dad was a union worker with a trade.  His vacation every year was the last two weeks of July and we always went, not to the Catskills but to a very similar style resort in the Pocono Mountains in PA starting in the late 1960s.  (When I was a little kid, we used to rent a house down the Jersey Shore but after several years, my Mom said it was no vacation for her; she just moved her kitchen to a different location.)  "Our" resort was called Pococabana (nope, not making that up--with it's own song, just like the resort in TMMM or Kellerman's from Dirty Dancing.  Poco's song was set to the tune of "There's No Business Like Show Business" and I still remember most of the words!) 😆 From the time we checked in, I hardly ever saw my parents, there was so much to do!  I was a tween and made plenty of friends.  We ate meals with our parents but that was about it and if we kids could have eaten together, we would have chosen to do so.  I'm sure Ethan had his own friends and had a great time!

Once a week, dinner was an outdoor buffet and we kids all ate together.  As we got to be 13-14, we used to sneak food to some of the staff members we had crushes on.  And yes, one barbecue night we snuck a couple of watermelons over to the staff quarters!  That scene in Dirty Dancing makes me laugh every time I see it because I lived it!

On 12/11/2018 at 1:25 PM, ZaldamoWilder said:

I think it's corny as hell but I also like the tradition that brought the Catskills about.  Not discrimination obviously, but that it's such a custom that the families know each other, their arrivals are announced on loud speakers.  Husbands are paging wives to the front desk, all the women get the exact same hairstyle at the salon, like the whole thing is hilarious! 

We'd see a lot of the same people every summer.  We may not have spent the entire summer there, but most people would consistently vacation during the same couple of weeks each year so all the families would get to know each other.  In the Poconos, lots of folks were from Philly, although NJ and Long Island were well represented.

 

23 hours ago, xaxat said:

I thought Abe looked like a very dignified older Jack Lalane is his suit.

I absolutely had visions of Abe having watched Jack LaLaine early in the morning for his exercise routine.  JLL wore a very similar suit to what Abe was wearing.

[Pallas]

The Chicken Fat song marched on U.S. elementary schools in the early 1960's, as part of a Kennedy Administration initiative, the President's Council on Physical Fitness. Songwriter Meredith Willson, his Music Man Robert Preston, and Capital Records all donated their services; the track was recorded at the same time and studio as the movie soundtrack for The Music Man. The six-and-a-half minute recording was sent to schools with a poster of 11 exercises -- jumping jacks, toe-touches, etc. -- that young students could perform during P.E.

That winter my class of second-graders would go double-file to the auditorium (cleared of folding chairs), with the portable record player set up by the janitor on the stage, and do our drills. And the school bullies would shout-sing the song into the faces of kids they picked on, on the bus ride back home: "Go, you chicken fat, go away!" That association may be what kept me from linking the song to Willson and Preston, whose show I knew in the form of the Broadway cast LP, and still treasure. Said my father of Preston's Harold Hill, a performance he saw the same week he arrived in New York City: "His heels never touched the ground." 

[Clanstarling]

14 hours ago, ProudMary said:

I absolutely had visions of Abe having watched Jack LaLaine early in the morning for his exercise routine.  JLL wore a very similar suit to what Abe was wearing.

Me too - it was the first thing I said when he came out in his...what did he call it? Romper?

[ProudMary]

@Pallas  I absolutely remember exercising to the Chicken Fat song in school during the early '60s.  "Go you chicken fat go away. GO you chicken fat GOOOO!"  Featuring it in an episode that takes place in 1959 is ever so slightly anachronistic but I'll forgive them for being just a couple of years too early as its use was such a delightful memory inducer.

[dleighg]

On 12/8/2018 at 4:28 PM, SoMuchTV said:

And, were people really that aware of fonts back then? 

I'm pretty sure NO. And wouldn't that sheet be typed, on a, you know, typewriter? And mimeographed?

[Clanstarling]

48 minutes ago, dleighg said:

I'm pretty sure NO. And wouldn't that sheet be typed, on a, you know, typewriter? And mimeographed?

I would think the term would be typeface at that time, and so far as I know, it was in the late 70s or early 80s before IBM selectrics came out with an interchangeable type ball. It was pretty exciting at the time. (sits back in her rocking chair... let me tell you about when we first got line wrapping on computers...)