Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel, near Liberty, New York, was perhaps the grandest of all the resorts in the “Borscht Belt.” Many of Grossinger’s hotel guests and entertainers came from New York City, especially in the summer months. The hotel received a nickname from the title of a book, Waldorf-in-the-Catskills: The Grossinger Legend (1952), by Harold Jaediker Taub. The Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City was one of the world’s most famous luxury hotels at that time.
The nickname became the slightly changed “Waldorf of the Catskills” by at least 1958. Grossinger’s closed its doors in 1986.
Wikipedia: Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel
Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel was a resort in the Catskill Mountains in the Town of Liberty, near the village of Liberty, New York. It is part of the Borscht Belt. After decades of activity and notable guests, it closed its doors in 1986.
OCLC WorldCat record
Waldorf-in-the-Catskills : the Grossinger legend. Illustrated by John Fischetti.
Author: Harold Jaediker Taub
Publisher: New York : Sterling Pub., ©1952.
Edition/Format: Book : English
Google Books
14 March 1958, Advertising Agency Magazine, pg. 29, col. 3:
Even better, we like the headline in the New York Times for the Waldorf of the Catskills: “I could have danced all night at Grossinger’s.”
6 February 1966, Los Angeles (CA) Times, “Grossinger’s: Behemoth of Borscht Belt” by jerry Hulse, pg. H10:
Another scribe labeled it the Waldorf of the Catskills.
Google Books
The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English
Edited by Tom Dalzell
New York, NY: Routledge
2009
Pg. 114 (“Borscht Belt” entry):
Damon Runyon described it [Grossinger’s] as Lindy’s with trees. It has also been called the ancestral home of the bagel, the pride of the “Borscht Belt,” the Waldorf of the Catskills.—San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle, p. 11 (Travel), 25th February 1973
Google News Archive
22 December 1986, The Blade (Toldeo, OH), “Homespun Foods for Hanukkah” by Mary Alice Powell, pg. 23, col. 4:
“We must never let anyone go away hungry,” is a quote from Mrs. Grossinger that has been a motto at the hotel, which has been called the “Waldorf of the Catskills.”
New York (NY) Post
Ex-Gov.‘s call: reform
By CINDY ADAMS
Last Updated: 12:24 AM, January 5, 2011
Posted: 12:09 AM, January 5, 2011
(...)
REMEMBER Grossinger’s, the Waldorf of the Catskills a few decades ago? Jon Haeber’s new book is “Grossinger’s: City of Refuge and Illusion.”
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