Dirty Dancing — a coming-of-age story about class politics, love, and learning to cha-cha — just celebrated its 30-year anniversary. So it seems fitting that the resort which helped inspire the movie is poised to make a comeback.
Currently, Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel, which began its operations in the 1910s and was once considered one of the most glamorous resorts in the Catskill Mountains, sits empty and dilapidated. All of the hotels in the region, one where many predominantly Jewish New Yorkers came to recharge in the middle of the century, have closed as vacationers traded the mountains for tropical beaches, according to The New York Times.
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"Artificial flowers litter the floor of a building at Grossinger's. The resort was the scene of many weddings," notes a Times photo caption. Elizabeth Taylor married one of her husbands, Eddie Fisher, there.
"It was much grander than anyone could imagine today, especially looking at what remains there," John Conway, the historian of Sullivan County, where the resort is located, told the Times.
Louis R. Cappelli, its owner, wants to bring it back to its former glory, ballroom dance floor and all. Now that there's a $750-million casino opening nearby, he's taking the chance. But it will be a modern resort, rather than a throwback to the fictional Kellerman's.
"Do you want to bring back the old and have some flavor of what was there in the '50s?" he told the newspaper. "I want to build what is a 2017 model of Grossinger's — with some sort of memories still there." He said he envisions Napa Valley-style chalets in the woods and yoga classes.
While set in the Catskills, the movie was mostly filmed in the South — at places like the Mountain Lake Lodge in Pembroke, VA, which offers Dirty Dancing-themed weekends and walking tours.
We're calling it first: If Cappelli's dream comes true, this place will be bachelorette-party central.