By Eric W. Schoen
As a child, I sat in the back seat of my father’s Impala every summer when we, like many families made our annual trek up Route 17 to the Catskill Mountains. It was usually the last week of August, and if we were good we would stay over Labor Day Weekend, the official end of summer in the Catskills.
Gigantic signs announcing the various hotels dotted Route 17. I think they called it the Quickway. The signs would list the entertainment coming to the respective hotels. David Brenner, Woody Allen, Rodney Dangerfield, Jerry Seinfeld, Henny Youngman, Sid Caesar (from Yonkers), Billy Crystal, Buddy Hackett, Gabe Kaplan, Andy Kaufman, Joan Rivers, Jerry Lewis and Johnny Mathis were some of the names that graced the signs.
In the 1970’s Air travel became more plentiful and cheaper drawing families away from the various all inclusive resort hotels in the Catskills to Europe and Florida (visiting Mickey and Friends). Hotel owners needed something to bring the masses back to the lush Catskill Mountain Region.
On the bottom of the signs naming the hotels, their amenities and upcoming entertainment were little white signs that said ‘Casinos Mean Jobs.’ Casino gambling, particularly with Atlantic City opening 2 casinos in 1978 was the way Catskill hoteliers hoped to bring families back to the ‘Borscht Belt.'(For those of you who don’t know, Borscht is a soup made with beets and usually served with sour cream, associated with the cuisine of eastern and central Europe, especially Russia, Poland, and Ukraine)
And it took almost 50 years until this week to bring casino gambling to the Catskill Mountains. People throughout the country with fond memories of the Concord, Nevele, Grossingers, Raleigh, Brickman’s and so many of beautiful hotels that graced the Catskills and those in the Catskill region celebrate the opening of Resorts World Catskills on the former grounds of one of the largest Catskill Hotels, the Concord in Monticello, NY. The pictures of this new resort are breathtaking.
An 18-story hotel with 332 all suite luxury rooms, 12 penthouse suites, 8 garden suites and 7 two story villas. You won’t find machines attached to the beds where for 25 Cents you could get the bed to give you a massage, something I always looked forward to in our Catskill jaunts. T.V.’s in the room broadcast in color, not black and white, and the clocks next to your bed allow you to plug in your iPod or other entertainment devices. No more 8 track players or cassette players.
The casino and entertainment complex ain’t your grandpa’s casino and entertainment complex.
100,000 square feet of casino floor, featuring over 150 live table games, 2,150 state of the art slot machines, a poker room and private gaming salons. Gone are the smoke filled rooms where dad would play cards for hours gambling pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars. The room would be attended by a college student earning money to become a medical doctor who card players would tip for ice or water. In the 2018 Casino Expect free drinks to be provided to gamblers by attractive ladies expecting more than a 50 cent or a $1 tip!
You won’t find things like baked or matjes herring, shirred eggs, cinnamon toast or postum, a powdered roasted-grain beverage popular as a coffee substitute on the breakfast menu. Boiled beef flanken, broiled Delaware half spring chicken with a pineapple ring or bouquettere of garden vegetables served with a baked potato for dinner. I doubt guests will be offered parve mocha mix, non dairy milk for coffee or tea.
Guests will, however be able to choose from over 10 varied bar and restaurant experiences, including fine dining, and an Italian steakhouse created by celebrity chef Scott Conant. I’m pretty sure A Catskills (and American) staple, bagels and lox will adorn the menu at one of the various restaurants.
The Catskill hotels served as incubators for some of the top comedians in America including Joan Rivers and Jerry Seinfeld and Jerry Lewis. Rivers and Lewis have gone to their reward, but who knows maybe Jerry Seinfeld will come back to his roots. Guests will enjoy year-round live entertainment at the over 2,500-seat event center, casino bars, restaurants and lounges.
Will the drink of choice be a Tom Collins, so refreshing on those hot summer days or a Shirley Temple, named after that famous actress with a cherry on top? I kind of think the new hotel will be serving fine scotches, whiskies and Long Island Ice Teas to quench the thirst of the masses. And tables in the event center won’t be adorned by knockers, little wooden or plastic devices you would hit on the table if you were enjoying the entertainment on stage.
The spa? Fancy massages, some for husband and wife to enjoy together will replace the older gentleman who put a towel on the massage table and using a little oil and funky smelling eucalyptus gave you a massage you would never forget taking away your aches and pains. After the massage you took a shvitz, a steam bath that would open the pores of your skin and clean the toxins out of your body.
The new resort will have an indoor water park. We didn’t know what water parks were when we were kids. You hopped in the indoor or outdoor pool with your parents, and if you didn’t know how to swim your parents tossed you around the pool and you learned how to swim very quickly! The deck of the outdoor pool was the area where so much activity took place. Beauty demonstrations, square dancing, trivia games and the like entertained the masses.
Lou ‘Simon Says’ Goldstein who could eliminate the best has long gone to heaven. I bet he is still doing Simon Says magic with those who have joined him far, far away.
Some blame the decline of the Catskill Mountains on former Governor Mario Cuomo, who supposedly opposed casino gambling. Many were afraid of the element that gambling would bring to the pristine Catskill mountains.
Many of the hotels built special rooms and facilities to accommodate casino gambling. They were never used. Once in a while I visit my old stomping grounds in the Catskills. It’s a depressing site to see this once bright spot in our state covered with mold, graffiti and buildings gated in with security chains. The biggest tourist attraction in the Catskills prior to the the new casino hotel rising was jails. With prison population decreasing even lockups are not attractions anymore!
So we welcome Resorts World Catskills and hope it’s Spurs the economic recovery this part of New York State sorely needs.
But let’s never forget the good old days! Those were the days my friend. We thought they’d never end!
Reach Eric Schoen at thistooisyonkers@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericyonkers. Listen to Eric Schoen and Dan Murphy on the Westchester Rising Radio Show Thursday’s from 10-11 a.m. On WVOX 1460 AM or WVOX.com and click on listen live.
