Ron Jeremy's Reminiscences About Borscht-Belt Resorts

One of the most famous male actors in pornographic movies is Ron Jeremy. He performed in more than 1,750 pornographic movies, which was the world record in 2007. He estimates that he has enjoyed sexual intercourse with more than 4,000 women.

He became a porn star because he has a big penis and an amusing personality, but he is not handsome.

When he began his porn career at the end of the 1970s, at about the age of 26, he was handsome enough.

In 2007 his ghost-written autobiography was published -- Ron Jeremy: The Hardest Working Man in Showbiz.  The following information and quotes are taken from that book.

He was born Ron Jeremy Hyatt (he dropped his family name when he began working in pornography) in 1953. He grew up in a secular-Jewish family in Queens, New York. He studied piano and flute from childhood. In high school, he became active in theatrical performing and in earning money.

By the time I enrolled in Benjamin Cardozo High School, the acting but had wiggled deep into my chest and wasn't budging. I took every drama class the school offered, hung out with the theater crowd, and starred in productions like The Devil and Daniel Webster and Oklahoma. When I wasn't cast in The King and I,  I managed to persuade Mr. Segal, the director, to let me play piano as the musical accompaniment. 

Though music and theater were my first loves back then, my second love was making money. I was barely in my teens before I decided I needed a disposable income. By fifteen, with proper working papers, I was gainfully employed as an ice-cream vendor in Cunningham Park. The ice cream was supplied by  a local hot-dog stand, and I wold walk around the park for hours with my little car, peddling ice cream to the tourists and making a staggering $1.60 an hour for my efforts. I can still remember the thrill of receiving a check every week. It wasn't much, but to me it was a fortune. And best of all, I had earned it. 

Ron lost his virginity at the age of 15. Well endowed, confident and seductive, he acquired much sexual experience by the time he graduated. Here is his senior photograph in his high-school yearbook.

While he still was in high school, he began earning extra money by working in hotels in the Borscht Belt during his summer vacations. Since he was born in 1953, I assume he worked there in the early 1970's -- more than seven years after the Dirty Dancing story. However, his experiences still resonate with the movie.

I first started coming up to the Catskills when I as still in high school. I'd spend the summers working s a waiter at any of the high-class hotels, like the Concord and Grossinger's and Green Acres. As I got older and more experienced, I eventually moved up in rank and seniority. I loved the work, but more important, i loved the money. For a young Jewish kid with a limitless supply of energy, the Catskills was like a gold mine.  

But I wasn't just a miser looking to line his pockets with cash. Some of that money was actually necessary. When I enrolled in Queens College, I needed something besides good looks to pay my tuition. ..... You could make a small fortune at Grossinger's if you learned how to work the guests.  

It wasn't enough just to be polite and bring out their meals as quickly as possible. You had to play into their expectations. I learned that from watching the Christian waiters. They'd wear yarmulkes and pretend they were med students, and they'd always get the biggest tips. I, like a fucking idiot, who actually was a Jew, didn't wear a yarmulke. I was a reformed Jew, so it never seemed appropriate. And I was too honest with my customers. They asked me what I wanted to do with my life, and I told them that I was pursuing an acting career. Big mistake. ....
When I figured out that honesty wasn't getting me any tips, I gave myself a full Jewish makeover. I wore yarmulkes. ... And when a customer asked me about my career choices, I would always -- always -- claim to be studying medicine. .... 

Grossinger's had some incredible discotheques and nightclubs, and I always visited them after my shifts, shaking my butt on the dance floor and flirting with the female guests. It was a dangerous game, because, at least in theory, the hotel's clubs were off-limits to employees. Remember the movie Dirty Dancing? It was exactly like that, although not as highly choreographed. The staff wasn't allowed to socialize with the guests, and doing so was grounds for dismissal. ..... 

Even as a kid with little use for sleep, I was burning the candle at both ends, working all day and chasing the girls all night. All around me were vacationing women, walking around in their skimpy bikinis, looking for a fling with the first teenage boy with a big penis to walk up and buy them a drink.  

Not all the flirtation between the staff and guests was frowned upon in some of the smaller hotels. When it came to the Borscht Bunnies, sometimes we were expected to "date". Though we couldn't socialize in their nightclubs or discos, there was an unspoken understanding that we were allowed to "take care of the women" if they needed company. .... 

"Borscht Bunnies" or Bungalow Bunnies" were terms coined in the Catskills, meaning "married women who live boinking younger guys." Every summer, rich couples from Manhattan would drive up to the Catskills for the weekend, wining and dining at the best resorts that money could buy. On Monday, the husbands would return to the city (and one could only assume, to their mistresses) while their wives stayed behind. They were lonely, armed with their husband's credit cards, and ready to play. By "play", I mean, of course, have as much sex as possible with as many hot young boys as possible, which usually meant the resort's staff of easily seduced waiters and busboys. .... 

On this particular summer in 1975, I just so happened to be maitre d' at one of the poshest resorts in the Catskills: Gasthalter's Paramount Hotel. The moment I spotted these two Borscht Bunnies in the Paramount dining room, flirting and drinking wine, I knew it was going to be a good night.  

I called up my friend Ken, and we met up with the ladies for a few drinks after my shift. Several cocktails later, we invited them back to our room ..... 

We took a dip in the pool before splitting off into pairs and retiring back to our respective rooms. Though my Broscht Bunny couldn't have been more than forty-five, I'd never been with an older woman before, so it was a novelty to me. It was like having my own personal Mrs. Robinson. And she clearly had some built-up sexual frustration, because .....

... and so forth and so on.  You yourself will have to read the book for more details.