This video is brought to you by Squarespace the all-in-one platform where entrepreneurs can easily create and customize their own personal or professional website more on Squarespace later in the video so hello and welcome to another episode of Geographics I am your interim co-host Carl Smallwood and today we’re talking about the borch belt
Comedy in the cat skills and normally for these videos I wouldn’t dress up but since the topic of today’s video is partially about hacky standup comedian and I used to be a standup comedian I figured I’d dress like a hackey standup comedian from the 1950s and 60s all I
Need is for this to be in black and white and to have a whiskey and a cigarette and a lot of the jokes from my days the standup were a little risque and they don’t like swearing here on Geographics other the sister channels biographics and top 10s but I guess I
Can open with the joke I’d always use to um get my opening laugh which is hello my name is Carl Smallwood Yes you heard that right and it’s spelled exactly the way that it sounds with a K an a an R an
L and then an S an M an a l w uou o d which is quite a bit of a mouthful which no one ever really expects from someone with the last name small wood few laps but at least half a dozen people’s eyeballs will be placed upon the script
Before I myself get my eyes on it and the first person’s eyeballs on it are of course the original author who in this case is one Mr Larry holsworth the links to their socials can be found below cheers Larry let’s get to it the ashkanazi Jews which translates
Loosely to the Jews of Germania were a dispora of Eastern European Jews many of whom immigrated to the United States in the late 19th century they brought with them their Eastern European Traditions from numerous areas their Yiddish language and the cuisine which had sustained them in the Old Country this
Included the extensive use of cabbage root vegetables and lesser used cuts of meat including brisket liver and chicken gizzards in the their new Homeland in America they chose to live in large Eastern cities creating ethnic enclaves in places like Brooklyn and the Bronx where Yiddish language newspapers
Thrived and Mark its cater to the growing ashkanazi population like other ethnic groups relocating into the promised land represented by America they found safety in their own neighborhoods and hostility when leaving them Italian neighborhoods cater to Italians and look suspiciously upon strangers Irish neighborhoods welcome their own and Jewish neighborhoods rang
With Eastern European languages with Yiddish the language of Commerce in the local shops among the Yiddish words heard often was Bor and there’s multiple pronunciations of borch either with a t or just borch um I’m going to using Bor because that’s how it’s written in the script but there are multiple different
Pronunciations of the word I’ve actually had some Bor but first people probably want to know what it is so this is a reference to an Eastern European Soup said to have originated in the Ukraine but is popular in many Eastern European countries for example in Poland where a
Close friend of mine is from and every year she holds polish Christmas where we eat bored drink vodka and um just eat lots of other Potato based dishes it’s all very fun it’s a very wholesome filling meal I highly recommend B to anyone who wants to try it and B is
Usually made with beets although other root vegetables can be used and when it’s made with beets due to the roots being cheaply acquired it presents a deep red color beets were not popular outside of immigrant communities considered to be a little better than animal feed by the genti or communities
And B became another contemptuous term directed towards the immigrants by those considered themselves Real Americans and so a lot of the video is just going to mention stuff like that because we are discussing a time in US history when people weren’t as shall we say enlightened as they are today so just
Keep that one in mind as we go forward passions inflamed the subject of immigration in America particularly in the big cities where new arrivals were viewed as threats to jobs rightly belonging to established Americans signs which read no Irish need apply discouraged immigrants from Ireland seeking employment in American cities
Restaurants and hotels established policies that denied access and services to various groups in the absence of laws to the contrary Merchants freely refused to admit potential customers they viewed as undesirable in New York the large and thriving ashkanazi communities found themselves alienated in their new adoptive Homeland in the early 20th
Century enterprising Jewish businessmen and entrepreneurs began to cater to their own communities with restaurants hotels Bungalow communities and Recreation camps north of urbanized Manhattan in the Catskill Mountains the region became so popular with Recreation areas C to New York St communities that acquired several names many of them derogatory these included the Jewish
Alps the Yiddish Alps Solomon County and the conservative camps a reference to consumption as tuberculosis was known back then and among others the entrepreneurs who created the area and its many attractions stressed the availability of food specifically kosher food which was found in abundance for guests including the dishes popular in
Their former homeland of Eastern Europe when the name bch belt came to apply to the region is debated among historians and Scholars what is not disputed is that the region became the birthplace of stand-up comedy in America fed comedians who cut their teeth in the cat skills
Include but is no means limited to performers like Henry Youngman Milton bur Jerry Lewis George Burns Woody Allen Don Rickles Joe rivers and Jerry Seinfeld all of these started their careers appearing on stages and in the theaters of resorts in the cat skills the bch belt originally a disparaging
Term directed at Yiddish culture became a point of Pride among performers and comedians here is part of its story in the 1890s the Jewish enclaves in New York and Brooklyn which were separate cities until 1898 grew exponentially Brooklyn was especially popular as a destination for arriving Jewish immigrants numerous Jewish neighborhoods
Developed in Brooklyn and its Jewish population remains large even today in the 21st century having a greater population than Jerusalem as of 2018 many of the encls were crowded tenaments with multiple generations of families sharing common quarters streets were likewise crowded the population density was such that anti-immigration Americans
Cited the high rate of tuberculosis among immigrants as justification to deny service to Jews in their shops and businesses and it also led to the coining of one of the alternate names for the bch belt that people came up with as mentioned previously settlement of Jewish immigrants outside of the
Tenaments of Brooklyn and Manhattan was a concern of many among them German Jewish Baron Maurice deers the baron was a self-made millionaire with major interests in European railroads in the late 19th century he envisaged relocating Eastern European Jews to the Americas including the cat skills of New York and developing agricultural
Communities there the baron reason that his approach would help more Eastern European Jews escape the policies of saris Russia and other European anti-semites without contributing to the overcrowding of American cities the baron financed small farms in the cat skills paying for land and for transportation to them yet the newly
Arrived farmers were unable to make ends meet though the lands offered good water excellent views and clean fresh air but did not offer much hope to the husbandry of crops the soil was Rocky irregular infertile St on the climate offered a short growing season beginning in the
First decade of the 20th century many helpful Farmers simply gave up on crops and dedicated their lands to a new form of Commerce with so many New York establishments denying access to their fellow Jews a situation repeated in cities such as Albany Buffalo and Rochester enterprising Jewish investors
Began to let out buildings on their land to visitors especially in the summer months an establishment similar to many of the tenaments of New York and Brooklyn appeared several Apartments were created within a single building Within shared kitchen and bathing facility connecting them these were called and I hope I pronounce this
Correctly a cushan and it allowed a landholder to collect multiple rents on otherwise fow land they were so successful that land owners began to erect bungalows in planned communities that offered a place to stay surrounded by healthy outdoor recreation The Bungalow communities were scattered across the cat skills with most being
Established near existing railroad stops so along with somewhat primitive roads coming out of New York at the time alongside the Bungalow communities which were targeted at families were summer camps more primitive than the Bungalows admittedly they off off campers community activities such as Games sports fishing canoeing and chaperone
Access to unattached members of the opposite sex along with the emerence of bungalow camps and summer camps came the development of cat skill Resort Hotels one of the first was grossing Jers which began as rented rooms in a private home the grossing Jers Asher and his wife
Mala were Jewish immigrants from what is today Poland in 1913 in part because of health issues which made the cat skills beneficial to Mr gringer they purchased a house in Sullivan County which they named Longbrook they advertised the availability of rooms to in New York newspapers and Asher supervised the
Household w m around the kosher kitchen their Venture was so successful that in 1919 they sold Longwood which I’m now just realizing is very funny being said by a guy called Smallwood and purchased 100 acres of land and a much larger house which they named gringer Terrace
Hill House over the next several decades the property grew to include over three dozen buildings and other amenities including swimming pools staes a nightclub a theater a golf course and its own post office it also had its own air strip gingers offered winter entertainment as well including ice
Skating rinks and ski slopes gingers became internationally famous serving as the inspiration for the fictional kelman’s Resort in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing at Kisha Lake also in Sullivan County another small hotel ideal house grew into a major Resort in the 20th century ideal house offered rooms in the
Requisite kosher kitchen in the 1920s though it remained a small Lakeside Resort offering privacy and peace and quiet well into the 1930s in 1937 it’s owner allowed the property to go into default and an entrepreneur named Arthur win purchased the property and rebuilt it as a 500 bed Resort Hotel he then
Demonstrated a determination to keep up with the jonesers as the saying goes but in this case the jonesers were the gingers win added a golf course for the summer and ski slots for the winter months and built an elaborate indoor swimming pool called the tropical indoor pool in the 1950s he expanded further
Adding Wings to the main hotel which brought in several hundred beds and several entertainment venues for the pleasure of his guests One S space was the Imperial Room which seated some 3,000 patrons which more than doubled the size of another entertainment space in the complex the Cillian room with
Such impressive entertainment space as it was critical to attract top Bill performers to entertain the guests who’d go there the Concord complied by presenting performance who filled the Imperial Room on a nightly basis among the entertainers who performed there during the Heyday of the bch belt were Judy Gallen Tony Bennett buddy hcky
Barber Sten and the aforementioned Milton B hello and welcome to the the void where we talk about today’s sponsor Squarespace so nearby Brad I’m going to need your help on this one guiding my hips tell me about today’s sponsor Squarespace never said guiding my hips again Squarespace is an all-in-one
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In history called terrar who supposedly had a bottomless stomach who could eat almost anything from rocks to live birds in one bite and that’s a story for another day back to the video with Carl I presume in the postor War II era of the 1950s the cat skill Resorts reached the
Pinnacle of their success over 500 Resorts Bungalow Camps summer camps and hotels were found in the Three Counties Sullivan olster and orange of the Jewish Alps some of these were small summer camps and others were major Resorts attracting top entertainers and influential customers all advertised heavily and marketed their services to
Young men and women of marriageable age as well as young families young healthy well educated and available was the target guest and the possibility of romantic attachment became part of the Allure of these Resorts one prominent Resort which originally opened in 1901 and expanded throughout the first half
Of the 20th century was the Noel Grand Hotel Nel is 11 spelled backwards and local law assigns several different reasons for the Curious name one is that the original owner the unfortunately named Charles slotsky had 11 children and Drew inspiration for the name from that situation however Mr slk’s 11 child
Was not born until 1906 when the hotel had been operating under the Noel name for 5 years damn it another is that the referred to 11 School teachers who while a soer through the woods nearby in mid 19th century had discovered a waterfall whatever the case Nel eventually grew to
Over 400 rooms unlike the other Resorts featured numerous buildings and amenities on its property its showrooms and dining rooms feature the entertainment popular among the vacationers by the 1950s the complex included several Wings interconnected via underground tunnels an 18-hole Championship golf course and nine-hole supplementary course a lavishly decorated indoor swimming pool skating
Rinks for ice skates and roller skates a health Spa several restaurants and cafes several bars both indoors and Outdoors and lakeside beaches and two separate Lakes both located on the property so a lot to offer in the 1960s the Noel erected a 10-story tower which appeared
To be round from the outside but was actually geometric shape known as ad do decahedral its design was intended to avoid the excessively long corridors encountered by guests in the more conventionally designed Wings which were the style known as Mission Revival popular at many cat skill resorts at the
Time the script’s video was based on was written in 2023 the to were though Long abandoned still stood though plans for its demolition were underway the resort hotels Drew such large audiences at their evening shows that they became mandatory for established performers and a highly desirable gig for the upand
Cominging entertainers of the day one such resort was Ker’s hotel and Country Club in Sullivan County near Thompson New York kers began operations in 1907 when Brothers Max and LS Kutcher began renting out rooms in their Farmhouse eventually the property ran to over 1500 Acres operating two summer camps two
Bungalow communities a 400 room Resort Hotel Lakefront amenities a golf course and several condos the coach is famously cated to a lot of athletes with several famous prize Fighters training there including Rocky Marciano and later Muhammad Ali during the mid1 1950s future National Basketball Association Hall of Famer Will Chamberlain worked at
Kushers as a bell boy coers pioneered what became a standard in the bch Bell the all-inclusive vacation package patrons were offered the opportunity to purchase a vacation which included all meals up to six per day all of which were kosher as well as access to ENT detainment in the lounges and
Auditoriums it also included golf Green Feed in the summer months skiing and snowboarding in the winter and other forms of Recreation on the premises among the other forms of entertainment were tea dancers swimming pools outdoor games such as shuffle board tennis badminton and entertainment programs for teens and younger children by the mid
1950s the resorts in the bch belt were unapologetically focused on excess the theory was that there could never be too much of a good thing too much was just enough too much food too much entertainment too much to do and all four are quite reasonable and affordable price yet it remained almost completely
Jewish throughout most of its Heyday at least in regards to the clientele many black performers appeared at the resort including Sammy Davis Jr Lena horn nipy Russell flick Wilson and others yet few Black Faces appeared in the audience to watch these shows for entertainment in the theaters and auditoriums coers
Offered a diverse range of Acts over the years for example Rodney Dangerfield performed there long before he was known as the man who got no respect Lewis Armstrong was a popular performer at the result as were Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis during the their days as a comic
Team and it’s worth noting that the shows were free as they were at most cat skill Resorts often taking place during the dinner hour and as a result the entertainers at least the comedians found they needed new material pretty much each and every night singers and musicians could rely on their usual
Staples but for the jok Smiths the preceding night’s material was unlikely to raise additional last because you’d have pretty much the same audience watching as a result topical humor emerged based on the news of the day the weather upcoming events and whatever other topic the comedian could mine for
Human by the mid1 1950s the cat skill Resorts were firmly cemented in the public mind as the bch belt performers would mention they were appearing in the bch belt during interviews New York newspapers reviewed the act at the resort and reported on bch Belt appearances told you just some of the
Video is going to be like this history sucks sometimes although the resorts and camps were open hell was that although the resorts and camps were open to anyone at least officially the overwhelming majority of vacationers in the region were white Jewish and from New York or other East Coast cities
Blacks did not find a warm welcome at Jewish Resorts instead a resort for black Americans opened in the cat skills in 1951 known as pegle bait’s Country Club It came it to a black cantel and it promised its guest that while on the premises and I quote you are secure you
Are protected you will not be robbed you will not be moked this remained in operation until 1989 weirdly though the famed negro Travelers green book it sucks that this thing had to exist but it’s a thing a travel guide listing establishments including hotels restaurants Tavern Resorts barber shops and other businesses where black
Americans were welcom did not include the cat skill Resorts so that’s worth keeping in mind black entertainers that appeared on their stages performed near exclusively for white audiences and while the resorts did not specifically exclude black people as customers it’s worth noting that they didn’t actively Market to them either American Jews were
Not the only group to experience the sting of discrimination in Americas in the 20th century as television began to grow with it grew exposure to the same Comedians and acts appearing at the borch belt Resorts early American television was centered primarily in New York with most broadcasting originating
From there for the performers booked into the cat skills it was a relatively easy trip to New York to appear on television followed by a train trip to the cat skills and live appearances that results there 1950s saw the peak of the borch Bell as a vacation resort and an
Entertainment venue by the end of the decade the seeds of the Region’s demise were planted and begun to sprout out America was moving to the suburbs interstate highways had begun to connect cities and create a sprawl outside of them longdistance travel was no longer limited to the railroads television was
Altering the world of entertainment as well Americans were replacing leisurely meals with fast food drastic changes to society were just around the corner in the late 1950s and early 1960s The Comedians and entertainers who tour the bch belt circuits made an interesting Discovery the comedy which work worked so well before the mostly
Jewish audiences in the cat skills much of it self-depreciating worked equally well before Gentile audiences and on television many borch belt entertainers entered the new medium of Television brought with them the humor they’d used to entertain their Jewish audiences in the cat skills they also brought with them their new names developed to
Separate them from their own Heritage examples of this include Nathan bbam who became George Burns Benjamin kabowski who became Jack Benny and Jacob Cohen who became Rodney Dangerfield they and many other presented what became known as bch Bell humor or Yiddish humor known for being rapid fire irreverent frequently self-depreciating and again
Because history sucks often misogynistic jokes about ugly wies addicted to costume jewelry and Furs were depressingly common so were jokes about their prate spending mother-in-laws were also popular targets for barbs as were lawyers and while these are a little bit stereotypical and a bit but you know data today remember this was cutting
Edge humor at the time which is kind of hilarious to think about at one point in time lawyer jokes were considered to be the Cutting Edge of humor and some examples of jokes that worked for mainstream audien as well as Jewish audiences are about to follow and I not
Entirely comfortable doing this but it’s written in the scripts I’m assuming that these are okay for me to tell I hope because they are taking advantage of stereotypical humor so let let let’s just try and I’ll even try and do like proper delivery on them so why do Jewish
Divorces cost so much because they’re worth it how many Jewish Mothers does it take to change a light bulb don’t bother I’ll sit in the dark I don’t want to be a nuisance to anybody a Jewish Boy comes home from school and he forms his mother
He has a part in a school play what part asks the mother the husband says the boy you go back and tell them you want a speaking part the mother responds oh they’re all C Ed humor at the time though cut Edge you at the tie oh the aforementioned Rodney Dangerfield
Basically built a career by exploiting these Jewish stereotypes and directing them inwards becoming self-depreciating an example of such a joke includes last week my house was on fire my wife told the kids be quiet or you’ll wake up daddy many of the comedians who emerged from the bch belt first appeared there
As opening acts for more established stars of the day called tumblers they home their chots before live audiences carrying on the tradition of mocking their own jewishness which today will be known as like self-depreciating humor I’m a big fan of self depreciating who when you look like this you talk like
This and your last name is Smallwood you better get real real good good at self- depreciating humor and the general r with Thor when performing on stage is that if you bring it up first heckers can’t so you better get right to it and I still remember the very first joke I
Ever told on stage and I walked out I was very nervous I was dressed very much like this cuz I thought if I dressed up nice it would help me be more confident it it didn’t help and I walked out on stage and said uh I’ve been speaking to
A lot of other comedians here and I’ve asked them what their advice would be and they told me that telling jokes on stage is a lot like having sex so I guess this is like the first time I had sex I’m nervous I’m hoping it’s going to
Last for more than five minutes and my dad is here because my dad is in the audience watching me perform and then I doubl down on that for my second one back to the same place said well last time I was on stage I told everyone that
I was hoping that my first time on stage would like the first time I had sex so I’m hoping that the second time on stage is like you know the second time I had sex that I’m more confident I’ve learned a few new tricks and it’s hopefully
Going to last more than 5 minutes it was my first time in both cases like I thought that was a winner winner chicken dinner but you let me know in the comments how bad that joke is back to the comedians they created what is still referred to to this day as bch belt
Humor exploiting and magnifying Jewish stereotypes such as excessive physical complaints marital bickering insults hypochondria and the desirability of a doctor or dentist as a potential son-in-law all popular topics of like very stereotypical and data humor to this day bch belt humor has since been a major factor in television sitcoms films
Such as the works of Woody Allen and Mel Brooks and standup comedy including comedians like Lenny Bruce Rod Dangerfield Don Rickles Joe rivers and many others too numerous to list situational comedies of the 6s and 70s such as Roda for example thrived on bch Belt humor and all the things that it
Entailed at the time the civil rights movement in the United States led to direct attacks on discrimination denial of service to someone because they were black or Jewish or any other reason came under heavy fire in 1964 the Civil Rights Act made illegal under federal
Law it was no longer necessary to plan a vacation based on whether or not they accepted a Jewish person as a guest by then the results in the cat skills were already in Decline discrimination against Jewish people faded opening more destinations to them to spend their Leisure Time interstate highways made
More destinations easily available The Comedians and singers who appeared in the bch Bell showrooms were now on television in car radios and on living room hi-fives an air conditioned hotel room with a television became readily available at newly emerging Motel chains with names like Holiday Inn and Howard
Johnson’s One By One The want’s Mighty Resorts began to fade under decreased attendance higher rates for performers and changes to dining Habits Like no more people having six meals a day I guess younger upwardly mobile clients the most desired customers for Resort since they spent the most money began to
Turn their back on vacations that included their extended family trapped as it were at a lavish result family vacations became centered around the family car which offered Mobility privacy and a seemingly Unlimited selection of destinations to attend the resorts refused to go quietly though with several continue to operate
Throughout the Decades of the 1960s and ’70s gross iners remained in operation till the mid 1980s finally closing its door in ‘ 86 two years earlier it hosted a 25th anniversary at the Woodstock music and arts fair appealing to a decidedly older audience than it had covered in its Heyday by then its
Customer base was older closer to retirement age and the axit managed to book in it showrooms appealed to a much older audience as well after ceasing operations most of the site’s numerous buildings were raised to the ground a similar fate befell the Concord Resort though it managed to hang on till 1998
Before finally closing after filing for bankruptcy once the largest of the Catskill Resorts its buildings and amenities are long gone and the site is occupied at least in 2023 when the script for this video was written by The Resort World Cat skills Casino presumably it’s still there in the 21st
Century the borch belt Museum strives to keep the memory of the resorts and the era during which they thrived alive located in El New York it and I quote celebrates the Golden Age of the cat skills Resorts era it is scheduled to open a permanent exhibit in 2025 in the
Meantime a website and temporary exhibits display information about the borch belt and its Heyday the true memory of the borch belt though lives on in The Comedians and other entertainers who performed there though many of them have gone to their reward many live on and some have fostered another
Generation of the type of blunt plain spoken human the cat skill Resorts were known for and pioneered their legacy can be seen in videos in Old films on televisions many retro channels and in recording and this humor is about all that remains of the once legendary region known by many names but most
Commonly as the namesake of a simple Eastern European soup made with beets bch is definitely an acquired taste not considered palatable by many such is the case with the borch belt so I hope everybody at home found this video to be entertaining educational and informative I certainly
Found the script to be all three of those things so thank you to Larry Hallsworth for writing it in the first place give them a follow on the social media links below I’ve been your host KL small you can like the video comment below with your favorite joke and
Subscribe for more content like this and as I always like to say go out there and have the day that you deserve so a lot of my jokes were CU I was a student when I performed so obviously my humor was a bit racy by
Which I mean like you know I just told lot of sex and fart jokes which aren’t really good fodder for this video I’m just thinking like how many of these jokes can to get away no not that one that one swears too much that one’s too
Rude that one used the word penis a lot I wasn’t a very good comedian I guess just call this out unless you want to to leave me going H yes
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