The Fans' Love Story -- Part 4

Following Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

======

In her book The Fans' Love Story, Sue Tabashnik claims that the movie's character Penny Johnson was based loosely on a real dancer named Jackie Horner. I already have written about this claim in a previous article titled Penny Johnson was based on Jackie Horner.

In her book, Tabashnik claims also that the character Johnny Castle was based partially on a real dancer named Steve Schwartz. I already have written about this claim in a previous article titled Sex and the Married Bungalow Bunny.

The book includes interviews of both Horner and Schwartz. Both interviews mention that the character Johnny Castle was based partially also on another dancer named Michael Terrace. The book does not include an interview of Terrace. I already have written about Terrace in a previous article titled Eleanor Bergstein's Research for Dirty Dancing.

Tabashnik deserves credit for pointing out Bergstein's use of stories told by those three real dancers. Their stories seem to be sources of various elements in the movie.

* the watermelons

* the wigs

* practicing the lift in a lake

* the expression "dirty dancing"

* the talent show

* the couple stealing wallets

* sexual affairs between dancers and guests

* Penny being a former Rockette

* Johnny's alternative career in construction

* bungalow bunnies

* breaking the car window

* female dancers becoming pregnant

* the popularity of the mambo in that period

More generally, Tabashnik's interviews of Horner and Schwartz depict the lives of professional dancers at resorts during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

======

Tabashnik's book includes interviews of three resort employees who were present while the movie was being filmed.

* Buzz Scanland, General Manager of the Mountain Lake Hotel

* Mike Porterfield, Executive Chef of the Mountain Lake Hotel

* Gary Wilson, Head of Security at Rumbling Bald Resort

Filming was done at Mountain Lake during September 5-20, 1986, and included scenes in the kitchen, dining room, gazebo, Houseman cottage and on the beach and lawn and in the lake.

Rumbling Bald Resort was where the golf scene was filmed.

These interviews include some trivial details about the filming. For example, in the scene where Johnny breaks the car window, it was not really raining -- crew members on a roof used hoses to spray water. These interviews are interesting to super-fans who are fascinated by any trivial details about the movie.

I was amused by Porterfield's remarks about the actor Matthew Broderick, who was Jennifer Grey's boyfriend at that time. Broderick stayed with Grey at the Mountain Lake Hotel for several during the filming. Since Broderick recently had become famous from his staring role in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, young women staying or working at the hotel would take, as souvenirs, various items that he touched -- silverware, saucers, coffee cups -- "anything he touched, they took".

======

Tabashnik's book ends with an eight-page bibliography of articles and books related to the movie. I intend to use this bibliography in my own future research about the movie.

======

This book is worth buying and reading -- especially for people who have watched the movie dozens of times and for anybody who writes a blog about the movie.

The book can be ordered from various booksellers, including directly from its publisher, Outskirts Press.

======

Here I conclude my series of posts reviewing this book.