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Rise and Fall of the Borscht Belt

Sep 14, 1986 · 1h 21m
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Documentary

PLOT

At its peak, one million New York Jews spent their summers in the Borscht Belt, the birthplace of Jewish-American iconoclastic humor. This film shows how these Catskills communities were run by women, and how class divisions were reflected in the resort hotels: upwardly-mobile hotel guests were entertained by a who's-who of talent, while in the bungalows, do-it-yourself burlesque and vaudeville reigned among the blue-collar families. This film is happy, humane, ironic, and, finally, bittersweet, as we see that today's Jews no longer share the tastes or aspirations of their parents.

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CAST

Joseph Wiseman
Self - Narrator (voice)
Directed by Peter Davis

DETAILS

Status
Released
Original language
EN
Budget
—
Revenue
—
Production
Villon Films
Country
US

SIMILAR TITLES

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2020
The Catskill Mountain House and the World Around
2010
Deep Water: Building the Catskill Water System
2002
Rails to the Catskills
2014
Land of Little Rivers
2019
When Comedy Went to School
2013
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