Johnny was attracted to the Houseman family's wealth

While the Houseman family was vacationing at Kellerman's Mountain Home, Johnny Castle was feeling pessimistic about his dancing career. He feared that he might lose his Sheldrake job and a lot of money. His cousin Billy Kostecki explained to Baby Houseman one of Johnny's concerns about Penny Johnson's abortion as follows:

They [Johnny and Penny] do their act at the Sheldrake on Thursday night. If they cancel, they lose this season's salary and next year's gig.

The dancers would be penalized severely for a failure to appear for just one performance. Their salary for the entire season would be reduced significantly.

The abortion would cost $250 (about $2,000 in current dollars), an amount that Johnny and Penny together could not pay. Perhaps much of their salary was withheld from them until the end of the tourist season.

Later in the story, Johnny  remarked to Baby that he feared losing his job at Kellerman's.

I need this goddamned job lined up for next summer. My dad calls me today. "Good news," he says. "Uncle Paul can finally get you in the union."

If Johnny lost his dance job at Kellerman's, then the ultimate consequence might be that he would abandon his dancing career and become a house-painter.

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Johnny resented the hotel's vacationing guests, because they were financially comfortable, even wealthy. In particular, he resented the Houseman family, and more particularly he resented Baby. I described those resentments in a previous article, titled Johnny's Initial Hostility Toward Baby. That article included the following passage:

The Houseman family attracted Johnny's special attention and hostility because Baby was Neil's girlfriend and Lisa was Robbie's girlfriend. From Johnny's perspective, Baby and Lisa were not ordinary guests at the resort. Baby and Lisa were the girlfriends of Johnny's two main enemies [Neil Kellerman and Robbie Gould].

Furthermore, Johnny recognized that Robbie enjoyed special favor from Max Kellerman, because Robbie was a Jewish, single, medical student who was attractive to the resort's Jewish families. Therefore, if some conflict involving Robbie arose among the employees, then Max would keep Robbie and fire Robbie's enemies.

Johnny was hostile toward the entire Houseman family because he feared that some such situation might develop where the Housemans might compel Max Houseman to choose between Robbie, on one hand, and Johnny, Penny and Billy, on the other hand.

Johnny felt that the financially comfortable Houseman family could not really understand his own financially precarious life. Johnny told Baby:

You don't understand the way it is for somebody like me. Last month I'm eating candy to stay alive. This month, women are stuffing diamonds in my pockets. I'm balancing on shit, and I can be down there again.

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After Johnny became Baby's lover, he began to fantasize about joining the Houseman family. He insisted that Baby tell her parents that he was her boyfriend. He literally dreamed that her father would embrace him as a new member of the family.

Last night, I dreamt we were walking along, and we met your father. He said, "Come on," and he put his arm around me. Just like he did with Robbie.

By this time, however, Baby had decided to terminate their relationship because she realized he would not fit well into the Houseman family.

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In these circumstances, Johnny's fantasy about marrying Baby and thus joining the Houseman family was motivated largely by the family's wealth. The anxiety he felt about his precarious economic situation might be relieved by his expectation that the family's wealth might provide him a safety net in his dance career.

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