Tania Grossinger - Growing Up at Grossingers

I VE NEVER quite agreed with those who say, You cant go home again. On the contrary, I spend more time wondering if you can ever really leave.

It was in the late spring of 1974 that I boarded the Shortline bus for my first visit back at the G in almost ten years. I had called Paul and asked if I would be welcome. With open arms, he answered. Plan to spend at least a few days and make sure some of your time is spent with me. I look forward to sharing the experience with you. I hung up the phone and packed my bag.

So many thoughts rushed through my mind as we sped along the New York Thruway, the Quickway, the Speedway, a far cry from the torturing four-hour drive of years ago highlighted by the hairpin curves of the Wurtsboro Hills on old Route 17. Would there be anyone left whom I knew? Where would I sleep? With whom would I eat? Would they be happy to see me? Would I be treated as part of the family? As staff? As a guest? Would it be a very emotional experience? Would the place be very different? Would I even recognize it?

I was well aware that the hotel had changed a great deal in the past decadein character as well as a physical entity. It was a matter of sheer survival. Times had changed and Grossingers either had to go along with the times and reflect that change or face the possibility of financial disaster.

The whole concept of traveling was different now. In the forties and fifties, even the early sixties, it was a matter of great prestige to go back to the same place on a rather constant basis, be greeted familiarly by the owners and staff, and renew old friendships with fellow guests made throughout the years. But the advent of jet travel changed all that. Suddenly it was possible to fly to Puerto Rico or Miami Beach in not that much longer time and for just about the same amount of money. The in thing became bragging about how many different places one could go to in a certain amount of time. More often than not it was the G one weekend, the Concord the next, and possibly San Juan or Florida the weekend after that.

As it was no longer a social stigma for girls to go to a place for the express purpose of meeting men, the last persons they wanted to travel with were their parents. More women were working and could afford to get away for weekends periodically, but if they were going to spend their hard-earned money, you can bet they wanted to spend it at a place that could guarantee other singles. Thus, the Singles Weekend was bornstarted initially by Grossingers in early 1962a particular weekend when the patronage of families and couples was discouraged (not turned downthats against state law), and all the activities revolved around exposing singles to as many new people as possible. One feature that gained immediate approval was round-robin seatingputting people at a different table each meal so that no one would be stuck with the same people unless they specifically requested it.

Another factor in bringing about changes was the growing competition among the hotels. In the minds of many, Grossingers was no longer Queen of the Mountain. She had been replaced, some felt, by the Concord, which could not only accommodate seventeen hundred people, as opposed to Grossingers twelve hundred, but programmed top name entertainment, something the G did not do, preferring, rather, to stress twenty-four hour-a-day activity with little emphasis on major show biz stars. The Concord established a reputation as being a swinging place, and managed to draw away a number of Grossinger regulars. And some of the smaller hotels, the Nevele, Browns, the Fallsview, among others, had modernized their buildings and operations and were doing an excellent job in attracting new people as guests.

One law in hotel business is absolute. No matter how full the house, the overhead remains the same. Whether there are one hundred guests or a thousand, the permanent staff must be paid their salaries, the taxes and insurance bills are the same, and the costs of plumbing and maintenance do not decrease. So it obviously behooves an owner to have as full a house as he can and as often as possible. Thats where the profit is made. To counteract jet travel, changing mores, and cheap charter flights to Europe and beyond, hostelers in the area turned their eyes to conventions.

It wasnt easy in the beginning. When certain companies were approached initially in the late fifties with the promise of attractive package deals, Catskill hotelmen were met with stiff resistance. Many of the salesmen and staff who would be attending certain conventions were Gentiles, and the businessmen queried were afraid that the hotels in the Catskills were too Jewish. Their people wanted to have cream with their coffee at night and bacon with their eggs in the morning. They wanted to smoke on Saturday and worship on Sunday. And when entertained, they didnt want to be subjected to ethnic humorists who might deliver punch lines in Yiddish. What they were really saying was that they didnt want to feel out of place.

For Paul, none of these possible obstructions was insurmountable. He believed strongly that what appealed to the middle-class Jew would appeal equally to the middle-class Gentile, and he was prepared to make some compromises.

Mocha mixes and the various soybean derivatives were found to be perfectly acceptable by all as substitutes for milk and cream at night. [A special kind of calves liver to be used as a substitute for bacon, which is not permitted in an orthodox Jewish hotel, was discovered that was almost indistinguishable from the real thing.] For cocktail parties the chefs perfected a shrimpless, porkless egg roll that was the envy of many a Chinese food fancier.

Most of the lobbies were deemed okay for sabbath smoking. If requested, the synagogue could be turned into a nondenominational house of worship and a priest or minister from Liberty invited to celebrate religious services on Sunday.

The comedians on the show, long steeped in the traditions of television, had no trouble adjusting their acts. On the contrary, among the new breed of entertainers, ethnic humor was noted primarily by its absence. The days of Jewish shtick were over.

The New York State Food Merchants Association was the first to take a chance. They were followed by another groupand yet another. A full-time convention sales director was hired and the word spread. Grossingers had expanded its facilities, built meeting rooms, created space for exhibitions, and supplied the latest in audio and visual equipment. Conventioneers were wined and dined royally and given special cocktail parties. Certain activities and sporting events were created just for their group. There was nothing, within limitation, that they couldnt ask for and receive. The hotel had truly grown into a convention paradise.

Yet I couldnt help wondering how all of that affected the ambience of the place. Was there still the warmth? The sense of style? The intimacy? The class? The interrelationships of family, staff, and guests? Somehow, I doubted it.

I didnt have to wait long to find out. Soon the bus approached the bottom of the hill, and I looked up with the same sense of excitement, expectancy, and wonder I experienced at that very same spot almost thirty years before. What was it going to be like?

I walked into the Main Building and was almost overwhelmed. The interior was so efficient-looking, and everything seemed to be so much under control. The first word that came to mind was slick. The next thing I noticed was that everything seemed to be interconnected, literally. A glass-enclosed walkway linking up every cottage but three with the Main House had been put up during my absence. Someone could now spend a whole week in the country without ever going out for a breath of fresh air! Progress?