The cover of Sue Tabashnik's book The Fans' Love Story: Encore |
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The book's Chapter Eight is Sue Tabashnik's interview of Jim and Karen Myers, who worked, respectively, as the executive chef and the dining-room manager at the Lake Lure resort hotel at Mountain Lake, Virginia, while Dirty Dancing was being filmed in that location.
I will mention only a few aspects of this interview.
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The filming there took place in September, which was after the busy summer season. However, the hotel hosted a bridge tournament every September. Therefore, the hotel wrote into the contract with the movie producers that the filming could not interfere with the bridge tournament.
I wonder if one of the movie's card-playing scenes was inspired by the ubiquitous presence of this tournament. Several people -- including Jake Houseman and Max Kellerman -- are playing cards on the lake shore while Penny is demonstrating wigs.
Guests Playing Cards on the Lake's Shore |
Moe Pressman playing cards |
Filming the scene where Baby saw Penny crying in the kitchen lasted all night. Filming still was going on when Jim Myers came into the kitchen at 4 a.m. to begin preparing the restaurant's breakfast. The movie equipment occupied much of the kitchen space, and the kitchen workers had to be very quiet during filming.
I am surprised that the filming of these kitchen scenes, listed below, lasted so long.
Neil showing Baby food in the refrigeratorIt adds up to only a few seconds.
Baby sees Penny crying in a corner
Johnny picks up Penny and carries her from the kitchen
Often Dirty Dancing tourists are allowed to see the movie's kitchen location, and they always want to see where Penny was crying. Sue Tabashnik was photographed on that spot.
Sue Tabashnik crouching down on the spot where Penny was crying in the kitchen scene |
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Jennifer Grey's famous-actor boyfriend Matthew Broderick stayed at the hotel during much of the filming time. He impressed the Myers as a very nice guy. Jim Myers had a long conversation with him.
Apparently, Jennifer preferred that Matthew not watch while she was acting and being filmed. During those times, therefore, Matthew took the employees' children on fishing trips.
Matthew Broderick and Jennifer Grey |
The scene where Johnny and Baby practiced their lift movement in the lake was filmed in an unrestricted location. Many hotel guests watched. Karen Myers remarked:
… It was cold. I do remember that they had all these makeup tables and different kinds of tables set up on the beach, and as long as the guests did not interfere or come within a certain boundary they were certainly welcome to watch.Of course, the guests did not realize that this boring scene would become famous.
But they got kind of bored, I remember, because, as you probably know, with movie-making: it’s stop-start, start-again, retake, retake, retake, retake, lots of waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. The guests were real excited at first, and then they’re like, this is boring.
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Many of the filming staff were noticeably homosexual, which caused a lot of talk among the local residents of this rural area.
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The Myers had lived and worked at the Mountain Lake hotel for six years, and so they knew the location very well. Since the movie was filmed at two locations -- the other was at Lake Lure, North Carolina -- they were amused by the locations switches when they watched the movie.
The first time we saw it in the theater, we didn't know what to expect. ....=======
It was really fun to go, "Okay, that's Mountain Lake. That's North Carolina. That's Mountain Lake. That's North Carolina."
They turn a corner, and they see Mountain Lake on approaching the corner and they see North Carolina when they went around the corner. That was kind of fun to see.
Tabashnik's book can be ordered from various booksellers, including directly from its publisher, Passion Spirit Dreams Press.
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I will continue my review of the book in Part 5.
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