The scene contains the information that Thursday night was bingo night at Kellerman's Mountain Home resort hotel.
Thursday, August 22, 1963, was the date when Penny Johnson got her abortion and when Baby Houseman and Johnny Castle performed at the Sheldrake Hotel.
Penny and Johnny worked for Kellerman's but they also worked secretly for the Sheldrake on Thursday nights. Because most of the guests played bingo on Thursday evenings, the absence of dancers Penny and Johnny from Kellerman's for a couple hours on Thursday evening probably would not be noticed by Kellerman's management.
Although the bingo games are just about to begin at Kellerman's, Johnny and Baby still are at Kellerman's They are sneaking away from Kellerman's as late as they can.
Whenever Johnny and Penny danced at the Sheldrake on Thursday nights, they likewise stayed at Kellerman's as late as they could, so that their absence would not be noticed. They would rush to the Sheldrake, perform there, and then rush back to Kellerman's, arriving just as the bingo games were ending.
After the bingo games, there was dancing at Kellerman's. At the beginning of the above video clip, a waiter offers to dance with Lisa later that night, after the bingo games. Johnny and Penny had to appear in the Kellerman's ballroom on Thursday nights soon after the dancing began there.
That night while Johnny and Baby were dancing at the Sheldrake, they both were upset to see the Schumakers in the audience there. Johnny and Baby worried that the Shumachers later might mention to the Kellermans that Johnny was performing at the Sheldrake when he was supposed to be working at Kellerman's. Johnny's performing at the Sheldrake was supposed to remain secret.
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In a previous article, titled Why couldn't Vivian Pressman fill in for Penny Johnson, I suggested some reasons why Vivian (instead of Baby) could not dance with Johnny at the Sheldrake on that Thursday evening. Now that I know that Thursday night was bingo night, I suggest an additional reason.
Vivian might have been involved in gambling scams with her husband Moe. If so, then Moe might have been especially busy on Thursday nights if the bingo games served as a cover for more serious gambling in other rooms. While the women played bingo for fun and small prizes, many of the men played poker for serious money.
The Catskill resort hotels always were tying to convince the state legislature to legalize gambling in those hotels. The gambling was not legalized, so it was simply hidden.
Someone should make a movie about Vivian and Moe, called Dirty Scamming.
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Baby's parents and sisters are dressed quite formally -- probably not just to play bingo but rather to dance in the ballroom afterwards.
Baby is dressed in her tight white pants and peasant blouse. This is the same outfit she puts on in the car's back seat on the drive from the Sheldrake back to Kellerman's.
She does not intend to come to the ballroom after she returns from the Sheldrake. I think she intends to seduce Johnny after they return, but her plan was prevented by Penny's health crisis. I will write more about that in a future article.
Baby's hair is all frizzy in the above video clip .Look at her hair a short time later at the Sheldrake.
The below image indicates how Baby fixed up her hair so quickly for the Sheldrake dance:
How Baby fixed her hair up quickly for the Sheldrake performance. |
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At the end of the video clip, Baby threatens to tell her parents a lie about Lisa. Baby says that she herself will be believed over Lisa because "I never lie".
Later that very same night, however, Baby's father will find out that the $250 she lent Baby went to pay for an illegal abortion. When he had agreed to lend her the $250, he had asked Baby whether the money was for an illegal purpose, and she had assured him, "No, Daddy."
Therefore, if Baby then told her lie about Lisa, Baby already would have lost her credibility with her father. Lisa would have been believed, and Baby would be caught in her second lie.
I can't believe I[m commenting for a correction but Johnny and Penny are not sneaking to the Sheldrake. If they cancelled their Sheldrake gig, they would be fired from Kellerman's Billy tells this to Baby when she asks what the Sheldrake is. I believe Max Kellerman owned both hotels.
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