Catskill Culture: A Mountain Rat’S Memories Of

A century ago, New Yorkers, hungry for mountain air, good food, and a Jewish environment combined with an American way of leisure, began to develop the Catskills resort area. By the 1950s, this summer Eden of bungalow colonies, summer camps, and over 900 hotels were attracting over a million people a year. Born to a small hotel-owning family who worked for decades in hotels after losing their own, Phil Brown tells a story of the many elements of this magical environment. Catskill Culture recounts the life of guests, staff, resort owners, entertainers, and local residents through Brown’s own memories and archival research, and the memories of 120 others. He includes an appendix listing over 900 hotels he has been able to document and invites readers to contact him with additional entries.