Episode 8

I recently posted the first four Dirty Dancing Episodes, but they all have been removed from YouTube. They have been removed from all the relevant YouTube accounts known to me.

For a while, I had a link to Episode Five, but I did not post it on my blog, because it lacked music, and I was waiting for someone else to post Episode Five with music. Alas, that Episode Five has been removed too.

Yesterday someone posted Episode Eight -- but no other Episodes -- on YouTube.

Watch it right now, because this Episode Eight surely will be removed soon.

These Dirty Dancing Episodes are brilliant.

Agencja GAAN

Agencja GAAN is a Polish entertainment business.

Miscellaneous Videos - 136

"Dirty Dancing" and "The Merchant of Venice"

Some people -- for example, movie reviewer Roger Ebert -- have compared the movie Dirty Dancing with William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. The main idea here seems to be that the Jewish parents of Baby Houseman (i.e. Juliet Capulet) would disapprove of her romantic relationship with Christian Johnny Castle (i.e. Romeo Montegue), and so the relationship must be hidden and cannot develop naturally.

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Dirty Dancing should be compared rather, however, to Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. There, the relevant young couple is:

* Jessica, the daughter of the Jewish money-lender Shylock (i.e. Baby)

* Lorenzo, Jessica's Christian boyfriend (i.e. Johnny)

Jessica violates her father's expectation that she will marry a Jewish man and will remain within the Jewish faith. Jessica tricks her father out of a large amount of money and elopes with Lorenzo.

Jessica falls in love with Lorenzo because he is a brilliant poet who performs his poems beautifully. Jessica loves Lorenzo for his artistry just as Baby admires Johnny for his artistry.

Because Jessica's love for Lorenzo is forbidden by her father, Jessica and Lorenzo meet secretly on many occasions.

Jessica's father Shylock trusts Jessica, believing that she never would deceive him. However, she lies to his face so that she can take his money and give it to Lorenzo. She lies to her father so that she can escape from their home and run away with Lorenzo.

When Shylock discovers Jessica's lies, she blames him.

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The story of Jessica, Lorenzo and Shylock is a subplot within the play's larger story, which involves a failing business. Antonio -- The Merchant of Venice -- has become successful in the shipping business, but now some of his ships, full of cargo, have sunk. Furthermore, Antonio has borrowed a lot of money that he will not be able to repay.

In that regard, Antonio is similar to Max Kellerman, whose hotel business is descending irrevocably into bankruptcy.

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The Merchant of Venice culminates in a trial, where there is a debate about the punishment of Antonio for his failure to pay a large debt. Antonio is accused by the businessman Shylock and is defended by a girlfriend Portia (Bassanio's girlfriend), who wins an acquittal.

Dirty Dancing culminates in an employer's accusation, where there is a debate about the punishment of Johnny for stealing a hotel guest's wallet. Johnny is accused by the businessman Max Kellerman and is defended by his girlfriend Baby, who wins his exoneration.

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At the end of The Merchant of Venice, the father Shylock is compelled to approve the romantic relationship of his daughter Jessica with Lorenzo.

At the end of Dirty Dancing, the father Jake Houseman is compelled to approve the romantic relationship of his daughter Baby with Johnny.

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Advancing Paul Newman -- "Goodbye, Columbus" Videos

Advancing Paul Newman -- Part 7

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6

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I have discussed the first eight chapters of Eleanor Bergstein's novel Advancing Paul Newman. I have read  through page 102 of the 373-page novel.

I am critical of the novel, but I enjoy reading it. Much of it is difficult to understand, but so is much of Shakespeare and Joyce. I am reading the novel leisurely, stopping to figure out puzzles and re-reading.

I have become interested in the characters Kitsy and Ila -- two young women who have graduated from college and are trying to make their ways in New York City during the early 1960s.

The novel continues to jump back and forth between the early 1960s and 1968, but now I am focusing only on the 1960s parts and just glancing at the 1968 parts, which I will read later. I am interested in the insights into Eugene McCarthy's 1968 election campaign, but I prefer not to jump back and forth now between the two time periods.

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During the novel's first four chapters, I was puzzled  by 1) whether the man killed in Vietnam was the husband of Kitsy or of some other woman and 2) a mysterious character named Louis. These puzzles were solved for me in Chapter Five, which mentions that Kitsy, by 1968, had had two husbands. So, Kitsy's second husband was killed in Vietnam and his name was Louis.

I expect that the death of Louis in Vietnam will cause Kitsy to join McCarthy's election campaign.

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I am becoming more and more convinced that the novel is largely autobiographical. One indication is that many events in the novel happen at the same time as specific real events.

* Nikita Khruschev spoke at the United Nations

* Nelson Rockefeller announced that he intended to divorce his wife.

* The movies or Broadway plays Cold Blood, Savage Eye, Gigi, etc. were playing.

* Marilyn Monroe died.

I take these examples off the top of my head. If I went went through the book carefully again, I could make a much longer list and develop a detailed chronology of the novel's story. It's apparent that Bergstein wrote a diary during her twenties and thirties and used it constantly while she wrote this novel.

As one consequence, the novel is cluttered with thoughts and incidents that distract the reader from grasping a main narrative.

As an example of unnecessary distraction, the novel tells in some detail how Kitsy went to buy a ribbon from a milliner named "Mr. Louis". This name appears when the reader still is puzzling about the mysterious Louis. I had to stop and wonder whether the Mr. Louis and the Louis are the same character (they are not). I assume that Bergstein simply copied the name Mr. Louis from her diary, not realizing that the name might confuse readers.

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So far, the novel has not discussed Kitsy's family. By the end of Chapter Eight, only Kitsy's father has been mentioned -- and only very briefly a couple of times.

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The fact that Kitsy and Ila are ethnically Jewish is discussed during Chapter Two, when they are touring Europe in 1959. Otherwise through Chapter Eight, their Jewish ethnicity is not mentioned and seems to be irrelevant to their lives. During those chapters, each girl has one serious boyfriend. Ila has Loren (last name never mentioned), and Kitsy has Arthur Cornell. Neither boyfriend seems to be Jewish, and neither girl seems to care.

 Both girl want to have boyfriends, but neither girl obsesses about getting married soon. Ila seems more interested in marrying than Kitsy does. Kitsy's main aspiration is to become a professional writer. Kitsy clearly wants to postpone marriage and motherhood.

Ila is rather sexual and even promiscuous, and sexual enjoyment is a major reason why she wants to have a boyfriend. Kitsy seems to want a boyfriend rather more for intellectual, social, status and appearance reasons. She enjoys sex, but considers it to be a secondary consideration in her boyfriend relationship and sometimes criticizes him along sexual lines to herself and even to other women.

Neither girl is eager to give birth and raise children. In particular, Kitsy's basic conflict with Arthur seems to be that he wants her to become a housewife soon and then to write at home only in her spare time.

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I continue to develop the idea that Ila represents a manic-depressive mood disorder. For example, Ila seems to become depressed after Kitsy moves into Ila's apartment. Then, impulsively, she goes on a round-the-world trip. Ila is drifting through her life, with no clear goals beyond having a boyfriend.

In contrast, Kitsy is rather self-controlled in pursuing her ambitious career to become a professional writer. She writes a detailed diary. She improves her personal appearance and conduct in order to earn promotions in the literary agency that employs her. She is calculating and somewhat exploitative in her relationship with Arthur. She delays in her decision to dump him, as long as she continues to benefit from the relationship.

Ila is a girl who swings back and forth between manic and depressive states, and Kitsy is a girl who remains largely in a normal mood state.

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Although Jewish ethnicity has been mentioned only in Chapter Two, Philip Roth's 1959 novel Goodbye, Columbus is mentioned in Chapter Eight. The circumstances are that Kitsy, Ila, Arthur and some of their acquaintances are spending time at a beach house in August 1962. A paperback copy of the book happens to be in the beach house, and it becomes the subject of a discussion. It seems that most of the people there have read the book or at least are familiar with it.

Paperback cover of Goodbye, Columbus

This general familiarity with Roth's book indicates subtly that many of the people at the beach house are ethnically Jewish. In this and other books, Roth mainly portrays secular Jews.

According to the Wikipedia article about Goodbye, Columbus, the book "deals with the concerns of second and third-generation assimilated American Jews as they leave the ethnic ghettos of their parents and grandparents and go on to college, to white-collar professions, and to life in the suburbs." In particular, the book is cynical and mocking about such Jews' romantic relationships, marriages and families.

I assume that Bergstein herself was such a secular Jew and that she admired Roth's novels, which were critically and commercially  successful.

Goodbye, Columbus is summarized and analyzed superbly by the Shmoop website. I have not read the novel itself (or watched the 1969 movie), but I did study the Shmoop treatment. I relate that novel to Bergstein's character Kitsy as follows.

The protagonist of Goodbye, Columbus is 23-year-old Neil Krugman (born in about 1935) who studied literature and philosophy in college, but did not graduate and now is working in a public library. He becomes romantically involved with Brenda Patimkin, a wealthy family's beautiful, intelligent, capable daughter, who is attending a prestigious college but is spending summer vacation at home with her family.

The romance between Neil and Brenda lasts through the summer. She would be happy to marry him, and he would be hired into the family business and would enjoy a financially comfortable married life with Brenda. However, Neil and Brenda break up at the end of the summer, right before she returns to college. He remains working at the public library, philosophizing about his life.

The apparent reason for their breakup is an argument about whether she should use a diaphragm when they engage in sexual intercourse. They apparently had used condoms during the first weeks of their sexual relationship, but he wants to enjoy direct skin-to-skin contact between his penis and her vaginal walls. Brenda eventually relents to getting a diaphragm, which she uses for a while, but then she "forgets" it at home when she meets him at an out-of-town event. Neil gets mad at Brenda. In addition, Brenda's mother finds the diaphragm in the home, and she too gets mad at Brenda. These diaphragm arguments ultimately cause Neil and Brenda to break  up.

When I compare Goodbye, Columbus with Advancing Paul Newman, I see some similarities between Neil and Kitsy. Like Neil, Kitsy is conflicted about an opportunity to marry well into a family that surely will be happy and prosperous. Neil and Kitsy really want to become independent, deep thinkers who are willing to defer happiness while they struggle to become writers who will "make waves" in the reading public.

Neil allows his promising relationship with Brenda to break up over a selfish, silly argument about using a diaphragm. Kitsy is breaking up her own promising relationship with Arthur, using a concocted excuse that he should go back to his previous girlfriend, who has married another man.

Both Neil and Kitsy are subverting their own marriage prospects in devious manners. The subversions are partially conscious and intentional, but also are largely selfish and reckless. They essentially are manipulating their romantic partners into breaking up the relationships -- as if the partners were the culprits.  

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I will continue my discussion of Advancing Paul Newman in my Part 8.

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Scenes from the 1969 movie.

(In the 1959 novel, the alternative to the diaphragm was condoms, but in the 1969 movie, the alternative becomes birth-control pills.)

Dancing "Time of My Life" in a Mini-Dress -- 24

Advancing Paul Newman -- Part 6

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5

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I have discussed the first four chapters of Eleanor Bergstein's novel Advancing Paul Newman. In this part, I will discuss Chapters Five through Eight.

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A recapitulation:

After Karen "Kitsy" Frank returned from her European tour at the end of the summer of 1959, she resumed living with her parents. She began dating an intelligent, successful lawyer, Arthur Cornell, who is several years older than Kitsy and who wants to marry and begin raising a family in the near future. Since Kitsy wants to write professionally, Arthur figures that she will be able to write in her spare time while staying home as a housewife.

In the meantime, Kitsy works for a while in the publishing business and then gets a job in public television. There she aspires to adapt classics of literature into television dramas.

Kitsy become disenchanted with Arthur and intends to dump him. By snooping in his stuff, she discovers that he has been corresponding with his former girlfriend, who has married another man but regrets her marriage and wants to return to Arthur. Kitsy intends to advise Arthur to break up with herself and to return to that girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Ila Rappaport has fallen in love with an artsy man, Loren, who has dumped her and moved to Europe in the autumn of 1960.

Kitsy and Ila agree that Kitsy will move into Ila's apartment at the end of January 1961.

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Kitsy becomes disenchanted with her public-television job. She would rather work in the written-literature business. She gets a job as a secretary to literary agent and loves the job. Furthermore, the agent's personal assistant is pregnant and intends to quit her job when she approaches her due date. Kitsy hopes that she will be promoted into that personal-assistant job.

At her new job, she now goes by her proper name Karen, not her nickname Kitsy. She puts much more effort into her professional appearance, improves her wardrobe, her hairstyle and her cosmetics.

Kitsy struggles to cope with the demands of working for the literary agent. She has to master, for example, the legalities of contracts between publishers and writers. She has to manage many communications

Kitsy had become avaricious, competitive, fully engaged in her work, ....

Glancng down a contract, Kitsy made crisp notations in the margin. Later she couldn't understand them ... She was bewildered, it was gibberish.

... Her mind [was] full of itchy little reminders of options coming up, clauses to be checked against those in previously negotiated contracts, percentages to be figures against grosses. ....

She had .... evenings when she had a lump in her throat and she went home and stayed with her parents and her father drove her to work in the morning.

Gradually, however, Kitsy did learn to cope with her work.

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Kitsy and Arthur agree to a three-month separation (not their first separation). They stay in contact, but they no longer date each other and are free to date others.

Kitsy and Arthur disagree about the New York City election for mayor, which took place on November 7, 1961. Kitsy supports the re-election of the incumbent mayor, Robert Wagner, and Arthur opposes the re-election. Arthur has not obtained a job in the Kennedy Administration, so instead he has gone to work as a lawyer for the New York state government.

Kitsy has difficulty making up her mind about whether she should get back together with Arthur. She has come to depend on his confident knowledge about politics and other subjects. She feels that he is intellectually superior to herself and does admire that quality in him.

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Meanwhile, Ila lets her own appearance go. Living together, Kitsy and Ila gradually get on each other's nerves. One morning, Kitsy and Ila are talking with each other in a disagreeable manner, and Kitsy remarks that she would like to be able to travel around the world.

Kitsy's remark gives Ila the idea of traveling around the world herself. Ila happens to received $35,000 (the equivalent of $300,000 in 2019) as an insurance benefit after her father died. Therefore, Ila uses some of that money to travel around the world. The novel tells about her visits to Hawaii, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, India, Israel, Greece, Spain, Italy, France and England.

As soon as Ila returns to the USA, she travels to Florida, where she spends a month with her mother. Then Ila returns to New York City, where she resumes living in the apartment she shares with Kitsy.

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Soon after Ila returns from Florida to New York City, Marilyn Monroe dies, on August 5, 1962. Therefore, I figure (from the month in Florida) that Ila ended her around-the-world trip at about the beginning of July 1962.

At about the time when Ila returns from her round-the-world trip, Kitsy begins to write a short story. She writes it in the first person, as if she is describing her own trip around the world. She intends to question Ila about the trip and then to use some of Ila's observations and stories in the short story. Since, however, Ila goes immediately to Florida for a month, only the first few paragraphs of Kitsy's short  story get written.

In early August 1962, about the time when Marilyn Monroe dies, Ila has returned from Florida. Although Kitsy has intended, for months, to break up with Arthur, she still spends some time with him. Kitsy, Arthur and Ila travel to visit some friends who have a house near a beach. Some of the women friends are pregnant or are raising young children. Kitsy is somewhat repulsed; she does not want to get pregnant and become a mother in the near future.

At the beach they [Kitsy and a female acquaintance] went into special cabanas where they changed their suits, and Nikki's nipples were huge and spreading out and uneven -- she was nursing -- and her stomach was still blue, and the baby had crossed eyes and shrieked till her skin turned purple and pink and blotchy.

Kitsy figures that she has been involved with Arthur for about three years -- since she returned from her European tour in the late summer of 1959. She decides yet again that she must break up with him.

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While Kitsy, Arthur and Ila are at the beach house, they and their mutual friends discuss Philip Roth's novel Goodbye, Columbus, because a copy of the novel happens to be in the house. It seems that the book has been read by -- or at least is familiar to -- several of the people at the beach house.

Kitsy has read Roth's novel, and in her discussion of it she focuses on a description of a refrigerator being full of fruit. Others in the discussion focus on a situation where a young woman "forgot" to bring her diaphragm along to a vacation with her boyfriend.

(I will discuss Roth's novel Goodbye, Columbus more in my next post.)

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At the beach house, Ila becomes infatuated with a psychiatrist (he is not named) who is among the guests. Ila catches his eye. She puts a record onto a record player and demonstrates some twist-dance moves she learned during her recent visit to Europe. She talks with the psychiatrist briefly and arranges to ride back into Manhattan alone with him in his car.

Kitsy is annoyed because she herself had been looking forward to spending uninterrupted time with Ila in order to question her about her round-the-world trip. Kitsy foresees that now Ila will be spending all her time instead with the psychiatrist during the coming days.

Kitsy has to ride from the beach house back to Manhattan alone with Arthur in his car. She has become repulsed by him.

... if Arthur touched her she might not be able to keep herself from shuddering.

During the car ride, Arthur insults Kitsy and badmouths a new mother who had been at the beach house.

He said "all right what was going on today Kitsy, I saw that look on your face, what was going through your mean ambitious little mind?

... "That cow [the new mother] wheeling around and around [with a baby carriage] afraid she'll have to talk to the other mothers ... who is she anyway that any of the other girls would want to talk to her that homely cow."

Kitsy was frightened by the tone and said "I'm sorry I was a little off. I mean somehow it really upset me about Marilyn Monroe -- ridiculous I know but it stayed with me all day."

"You're kidding," Arthur said, "You've got to be kidding."

And she wasn't sure if he was sarcastic and if so how.

Kitsy and Arthur are still in their three-month separation, but they still find themselves spending time with each other -- for example, during this visit to the beach house.

Kitsy and Ila still share an apartment, but Ila has been gone on a round-the-world trip and then on a month-long visit to her mother in Florida and now is going off alone with the psychiatrist.

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I will continue in Part 7.

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Weirdos Wasting Our Time - 39

Advancing Paul Newman -- Part 5

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4

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I have studied the first four chapters of Eleanor Bergstein's novel Advancing Paul Newman. Before I continue into Chapter Five, I will continue to recapitulate here what I have learned so far.

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After Kitsy and Ila return from Europe to the USA in the late summer of 1959, they keep in touch. Kitsy resumes living with her parents, and Ila moves into a New York City apartment that she shares with a roommate.

Ila soon is hired to work as an assistant to a casting director. On behalf of Hollywood movie studios, he recruits and evaluates actors in New York City.

Ila meets and falls in love with a man named Loren, who grew up in an artistic family and lived much of his life in Europe. Loren soon loses her virginity to Loren (she had not lost it to the German photographer). Loren intends to marry Ila, and she is happy. Her manic-depressive swings -- which previously had happened without apparent cause -- seem to end. Instead, her emotions became linked reasonably to her relationship with Loren.

All at once the free-floating feelings that Ila had detested ... that Ila knew counted for nothing because they were attached to nothing were attached to Loren. Depression rage happiness were no longer in limbo -- there was something to pin them on.

Loren would like to become an architect, but he does not want to study the prerequisites, such as drafting. He seems to be unemployed, living off his mother's money. For a while, Loren intends to marry Ila, but eventually he becomes disenchanted with her. In the summer of 1960, Loren breaks up with Kitsy and moves to Europe.

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Living with her parents, Kitsy begins to work in the publishing business in New York. She is promoted within the business, but slowly.

Meanwhile, Kitsy becomes romantically involved with a lawyer named Arthur Cornell. He is several years older than her, successful and very knowledgeable about history, current affairs and most other subjects. In that regard, Kitsy feels inferior to Arthur.

They met each other accidentally while waiting in line for a Broadway play. He asked her whether she wanted "to make waves" in her life, and she replied that she indeed wanted to make waves through her writing.

Arthur is looking for a wife who will give birth and raise his children. He figures that she can stay at home and write in her spare time while being a housewife. Kitsy eventually wants to get married and raise children -- but not now. Arthur is an attractive and nice man, but she cannot fall in love with him.

However, Kitsy becomes involved with Arthur romantically and sexually, because she likes her lifestyle with him -- visiting museums, watching Broadway plays, socializing with his sophisticated friends.

Arthur advises Kitsy to apply for a job at a local public television station. She is hired. She looks forward to a possible opportunity to get involved in developing public-television adaptations of literature classics.

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During 1960, Kitsy becomes involved in the political campaign of Adlai Stevenson, a candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. In July 1960, however, Stevenson drops out of the race and asks his supporters to support John Kennedy. Arthur had supported Kennedy from the beginning of the campaign and expects to get a good job in the Federal Government if Kennedy wins the election.

Ila has been dumped by Loren, and Ila's roommate is away, going through a long medical treatment. In the autumn of 1960, Ila invites Kitsy to move into her half-empty apartment. Kitsy agrees, but for unexplained reasons cannot move into the apartment until January 1961.

Although Kitsy intends to break up with Arthur, she stays with him into January 1961. Her 23rd birthday is on January 20, 1961, the day of President Kennedy's inauguration, and Arthur takes her from New York to Washington DC to attend an inauguration ball. Kitsy enjoys the experience. She greatly admires Jacqueline Kennedy and is thrilled to see her briefly at the ball.

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After January 20, 1961, Kitsy moves in with Ila. Kitsy gripes to Ila about Arthur, and Ila gripes to Kitsy about Loren, even though he moved away to Europe several months ago.

Although Kitsy is living with Ila, she is trying to figure out a good excuse to break up with Arthur. She cannot simply tell him that she does not want to quit her public-television career in order to become a house, even if she might be able to write at home.

Kitsy tells herself that Arthur lacks appreciation for the arts. He is interested only in history, politics and law.

Arthur is applying for various lawyer jobs in the new Kennedy Administration. If he does get such a job, then he will move to Washington DC and will expect Kity to relocate with him.

When Kitsy is in Arthur's apartment, she snoops through his stuff and finds his correspondence with his previous girlfriend. When Arthur had been attending Yale Law School, he had become romantically involved with Rosalind, a student at Vassar women's college. Gradually Arthur had become less attentive toward Rosalind, however, and so Rosalind had dumped him and married another man. On her honeymoon, Rosalind had regretted her decision and had begun writing letters to Arthur asking him to take her back.

Kitsy is glad to discover this situation. Now she will be able to dump Arthur, advising him to go back to Rosalind, his true love.

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That is the situation at the end of the novel's Chapter Four.

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I will continue my analysis of the novel in my Part 6.

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Advancing Paul Newman -- Part 4

Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

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I have studied the first four chapters of Eleanor Bergstein's novel Advancing Paul Newman. Before I continue into Chapter Five, I will recapitulate here what I have learned so far.

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Karen "Kitsy" Frank was born on January 20, 1938 -- in the same year when Bergstein was born.

Kitsy's father is a doctor, perhaps a psychiatrist. On one occasion, two Jewish young women in the neighborhood came to her father at home and asked him to commit their mother to a facility. He refused to do so, saying that he "didn't want the responsibility".

Kitsy's family is ethnically Jewish, but is not involved in religion. When Kitsy was 11 years old, she became involved briefly in a Young Zionist group, which was led by an Israeli female named Dina, who seems to be somewhat older. From Dina, Kitsy learned to dance the hora and heard stories about how Jewish refugees were smuggled into Israel.

Kitsy did not belong to the group long, because it soon disbanded. Shortly before that happened, the group performed at a school assembly. During an intermission of the performance, Kitsy went into the room where the performers were changing costumes. Dina had removed her upper clothing and was bare-breasted briefly in the presence of a male performer who likewise was changing costumes. Kitsy's glimpse of Dina -- "thin and not pretty" with that male -- impressed Kitsy negatively. "Being Jewish was something ... sadly sexual".

Ten years later, in 1959, Kitsy remembered her brief involvement with the Young Zionist group as "the most Jewish thing she'd ever done".

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It seems that Kitsy attended a women's college. She had applied to attend Vassar, a women's college, but she was not accepted there (she was put onto the waiting list) and so had to attend another college. Kitsy graduated in the spring of 1959. In the summer of 1959, Kitsy participates in a bus tour in Europe with some other graduates of women's colleges.

The tour was advertised as a "traveling seminar of ideas with statesmen and journalists in informal settings". The tour guide is "the elderly widow of the martyred publisher of a Danish resistance newspaper". The widow is conducting such a tour for the first time. The girls (Bergstein calls her young-women characters "girls", and so will I) travel about nine hours a day in a Volkswagen bus. Then in the evenings, after dinner, this guide engages the girls in conversations along the lines: "Shall we talk together of what we have seen this day. The people by the road, their faces were not happy ones, yes?"

The girls soon become dissatisfied that they were not experiencing a "traveling seminar of ideas".

The tour begins in Switzerland and proceeds through France and into Germany. Already in Switzerland, Kitsy becomes friends with another girl, Ila Rappaport. I assume that Ila had attended a different women's college than Kitsy attended. Since Ila too is Jewish, I assume also that the tour was organized specially for Jewish graduates of women's colleges.

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Kitsy has pink cheeks and dark hair, which she wears in a pageboy with bangs and with a pink hairband. Her best dress on the tour was "a pale blue linen sack, hung straight and chaste from her neck except for  the two sweet thumps of her breasts and buttocks". Kitsy is a "sturdy rounded lively girl".

Ila is taller and her hair is light-colored -- "silvery tan". She has Slavic cheekbones. She has "heavy breasts" and skinny legs that look "spectacular" in short skirts.

In encounters, men are attracted to Ila much more than than to Kitsy.

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In Paris, the Kitsy and Ila go to a bookstore and buy two pornographic novels -- still illegal in the USA -- written by Henry Miller. Kitsy buys The Tropic of Cancer, and Ila buys The Tropic of Capricorn.

Kitsy intends to become a writer and spends much of her time during the tour writing her detailed observations in a notebook.

Ila says that she might want to become a writer too, but she shows no effort and does not know what she might write about. For now, she prefers to talk about learning to play the French horn.

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Neither Kitsy nor Ila know of any relatives who suffered during the Nazi period in Europe. It seems that both their families have lived in America for generations and have become prosperous.

Ila is emotional -- sometimes bursting into tears -- about visiting Germany as a Jew, and Kitsy is relatively objective. Sometimes Kitsy even treats the experience as a lark.

While traveling in West Germany, Kitsy and Ila escape from the tour group and travel together to Berlin, which was located in the middle of East Germany. In West Berlin, Kitsy and Ila become acquainted with a couple of West German, who take them on a one-day excursion into East Berlin.

After the group returns to West Berlin, Ila goes alone with one of the men  to his apartment, while Kitsy returns to her hotel room. Kitsy still is a virgin and is angry and that Ila has involved herself so quickly with this German man, who is 31 years old and who served in a  Hitler Youth militia during the War.

In the German photographer's apartment, Ila undresses, gets into bed with him and (I assume) poses for nude photographs. She does not, however, engaged in vaginal intercourse with him. After her sexual adventure, Ila returns to Kitsy in the hotel room.

Kitsy and Ila buy tickets for an airplane flight out of the West Berlin airport. Because they dawdled at their hotel, though, they miss their flight. Ila calls the German photographer and goes back to his apartment for more naked fun with him. Meanwhile, Kitsy wanders in downtown Berlin. When she tries to call the German photographer, he does not answer her phone calls.

Eventually Kitsy and Ila fly out of West Berlin on another flight.

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In earlier articles in this blog, I have developed the idea that Baby Houseman suffers a manic-depressive disorder, Type 2. While reading Advancing Paul Newman, I already am developing the idea that the novel portrays such a disorder in the two leading characters.

* Kitsy is a character in a normal emotional state.

* Ila is a character alternating between depressive and manic states.

At the end of Chapter One, Bergstein states her theme explicitly:

This is the story of two girls, each of whom suspected the other of a more passionate connection with life.

Kitsy lives her life in self-disciplined, objective manner -- practicing her writing skills with a goal of becoming a professional writer. Ila bursts into tears at the thought of being a Jew visiting Germany, but then she impulsively gets naked and into bed with a 31-year-old German man. Which girl has the "more passionate connection with life"?

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I will continue this series in Part 5.

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The Real Dirty Dancing

Australian television will begin to broadcast a reality show, The Real Dirty Dancing, on September 30.

Channel Seven is producing an event series based on the iconic 80’s film Dirty Dancing.

The Real Dirty Dancing gives eight Australian celebrities the chance to travel to the United States where “Kellerman’s Resort” was filmed in Virginia and will undergo an immersive Dirty Dancing experience, learning the dance routines from the film under the guidance of choreographers Todd McKenney and Kym Johnson.

The winners will be chosen to perform as Baby and Johnny in a one-off theatre performance back in Australia, where they will recreate the final dance to ‘(I’ve Had) The Time of my Life’, including that famous lift. All eight celebrities will take to the stage that night showcasing dance sequences from the film.

The celebrity cast dancing dirty are:

Hugh Sheridan, Actor

Anne Edmonds, Comedian

Firass Dirani, Actor

Anna Heinrich, Media Personality

Jamie Durie, Presenter

Jessica Rowe, Journalist/Presenter/Author

Jude Bolton, AFL Commentator

Stephanie Rice, Retired Olympic Swimmer

Seven’s Director of Network Programming, Angus Ross, said: “Steeped in nostalgia, this heartfelt, funny and sexy series will give our celebrities and viewers at home the time of their life.”

CO-CEO of Eureka Productions, Chris Culvenor, said: “We’re thrilled to be celebrating one of the most-loved movies of all-time with this epic event series on Seven.”

Lionsgate’s President of International Television and Digital Distribution, Agapy Kapouranis, commented:

It’s exciting to see one of our beloved properties revived in such a fun and unique way on Channel Seven through the creativity of our partners at Eureka Productions. The Real Dirty Dancing underlines the power of Lionsgate’s content catalogue, including formats that travel the world and resonate with a global audience.

The Real Dirty Dancing is a Eureka Productions production based on a format by global content leader Lionsgate. Filming commences next month in Virginia. Seven will release ticketing details for the Australian stage performance soon.

The show looks like fun. I hope that it might be broadcast eventually in the USA too.

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One of the show's choreographers is Kym Johnson, famous in the USA because of the show Dancing with the Stars.

Miscellaneous Videos - 135

Miscellaneous Videos - 134

Lift at 5:40

Eleanor Bergstein's Decision to Develop the Stage Musical

Excerpts from an article written by Michael Posner and published by The Globe and Mail website in 2007.

.... A few weeks ago, with the tacit blessing of her husband, Shakespeare scholar Michael Goldman, [Eleanor] Bergstein and I went dancing at a Toronto nightclub. ... A week or so later, I met Bergstein again, to hear the story of her incredible journey with the [Dirty Dancing stage show] show.

Bruce Springsteen's legion of fans will be surprised, I expect, to learn this, but it turns out the Boss is the guy who inspired Bergstein to adapt the movie for the stage. Producers had wooed her for years for just such a project, but she had always declined.

But one year after the attacks of 9/11 [i.e. in 2002], she attended a Springsteen concert at Shea Stadium in New York. It was a cold rainy night and, Bergstein recalls, "we were all feeling pretty awful. He was very tiny -- we were sitting far away from the stage -- but his energy just filled the place with an ecstatic presentness. It was very moving and emotional. And at the end, when the musicians were packing up, he came back on stage to play more and many of us were just weeping, like a community. And I knew at the moment exactly what I wanted to do -- to create a live theatre experience as intimate as a movie, to make it a community experience with all the lines of ecstasy and sorrow."

Bergstein has been in Toronto for the past month [October-November 2007], overseeing the fourth installation of a show that has shattered box office records in all its previous incarnations: Sydney, Hamburg and London. The Toronto advance sale is now more than $17-million ...

A few weeks ago, as it happened, Bruce Springsteen was playing Toronto's Air Canada Centre and Bergstein arranged tickets for about 12 members of the cast. "And I saw again everything that had made me want to do this."

Michael Posner is the author of several plays and five books.

The Acquisition of Vestron by Live Entertainment

An article titled Vestron selling films to Live Entertainment, written by The New York Times, was published by The Pantagraph newspaper on August 10, 1990.

The article's text:

Vestron Inc., which rose to prominence with the 1987 hit Dirty Dancing and then suffered a series of box-office flops, has announced that it is selling its extensive film library to Live Entertainment Inc.

The offer for Stamford-Connecticut-based Vestron calls for Live to acquire all operating assets and liabilities in exchange for an undisclosed package of Live securities, according to Stephen L. Einhorn, Vestron chief financial officer.

The deal requires approval by Vestron's major bondholders. The company has about $115 million in subordinated debt outstanding.

In February [1990], when preliminary talks were under way, Einhorn estimated the value of the deal at $63 million. He did not specify a price, though he said it was worth "considerably less than $63 million."

Vestron's assets are 24 unreleased feature films, including Cat Chaseer, Love Hurts and Class of 1991, about 50 unreleased non-theatrical titles and a library of about 1,500 titles, including Dirty Dancing, Prizzi's Honor, Hoosiers and Platoon.

"The deal simply increases the number of titles Live can pump through its distribution pipeline," said Keith Benjamin, an analyst with Siberberg Rosenthal and Co. in New York. "Vestron's films are high-quality "B" titles and low-quality "A" titles. There aren't many libraries like that on the planet."

Separately, Vestron said that it had sold its wholly owned Vestron Pictures Japan Inc. film distribution subsidiary to ASCII Corp. for the equivalent of $1.3 billion yen (about $8.6 million).

"We have been selling off our foreign divisions on a territory basis for about a year," said Jon Peisinger, president of Vestron Video. "Japan was our last foreign operation to be sold."

Vestron also announced that it sold its last large block of its 81-store retail video chain. Super Club Retail Entertainment bought 15 stores in New Jersey for a price believed to be between $3 million and $3.6 million.

Founded in 1982, Vestron's first independent film production was Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. Vestron went public in 1985 and scored its biggest hit in 1987 with Dirty Dancing.

===============

An article titled Vestron Inc. agrees to be bought by distributor, written by by Linda Matys O'Connell, was published by the Harford Courant newspaper on November 1, 1990.

The article's text:

Moving a step closer to a deal that has been in the works since early this year [1990], hard-pressed Vestron Inc. announced Wednesday that it has entered into a formal acquisition agreement with Live Entertainment Inc.

The agreement calls for the Los Angeles-based video distributor to acquire substantially all of Stamford-Connecticut-based Vestron's operating liabilities and assets, including its home-video library, in exchange for a package of Live Entertainment preferred stock.

The agreement comes about one month after Vestron, a video and movie company, disclosed that three of the largest holders of its $115 million subordinated debt had agreed to the proposed plan.

"Closing of this transaction will provide Live Entertainment with distribution rights to Vestron's video library of approximately 1,200 titles, which will further strengthen Live's position as the leading independent supplier of home videos," said Wayne H. Patterson, Live Entertainment's chairman and chief executive officer.

Vestron's agreement with its California suitor requires that Vestron file what both companies called a "consensual," pre-negotiated Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and have a reorganization plan confirmed by the courts before the acquisition can be completed.

Live Entertainment said in a statement that it expects Vestron to file a bankruptcy petition this week.

Vestron officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Entertainment industry analysts say that the Vestron video library is the only thing the beleaguered company had to sell. The company quit making movies in June of last year [1989]. Dirty Dancing was its only big hit.

Under the terms of agreement, Vestron's debenture holders will receive Live Entertainment convertible preferred stock with a liquidation value of $21 million, plus a $5.2 million cash dividend due from Vestron.

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An article titled Live Entertainment to Close Vestron Buyout was published by The Los Angeles Times on July 16, 1991.

The article's text:

Live Entertainment Inc., a Van Nuys home-video concern, said it expects to close its delayed acquisition of Vestron Inc. on Wednesday. Live said the deal to acquire Vestron, a Stamford, Connecticut, video distributor and film production company, was delayed to raise additional financing.

Vestron filed for bankruptcy-court protection last November [1990]. In a reorganization plan that was approved by the court early this year, Live agreed to purchase the rights to Vestron's 1,200-video library for $27.25 million in cash and preferred shares.

In addition, Live was to put up about $20 million in cash at the closing of the transaction, which Live said would be offset by Vestron's pending sale of foreign video rights from its catalogue. But Live said the sale of the rights was taking longer than expected, and Live had to come up with $30 million in cash -- instead of $20 million -- to cover the foreign video sale and complete the acquisition.

======

I found the articles on Newspapers.com

Episode Helper -- Episode 4 Added

Episode Helper

Miscellaneous Videos - 133

The 10th Annual "Dirty Dancing" Festival

Jennifer Grey's Screen Test of Baby's Monologue

Miscellaneous Videos - 132

Video's Bonanza for the Entertainment Industry

An article subtitled Video's bonanza for big and small screens, published by The Philadelphia Inquirer on September 8 1987 -- a couple weeks after the release of the movie Dirty Dancing -- discusses the growing impact of video rentals on the entertainment industry.

The article includes the following passages:

... Perhaps no one know that [the growing impact of video rentals] than Jon Peisinger, president of Vestron Pictures, the first and now the largest company releasing movies on videotape.

"Theatrical box office this year will be in the $4 billion range, an of that, about $1.6 billion will come back to the distributors," says Peisinger. "That compares to $2 to $2.5 billion that will come back from home video.

"In only five years, we have a revenue stream that is larger than any of the existing ones, including box office. And we have eclipsed every other form of entertainment, bigger than records and the book industry, and any of the previously existing revenue streams for motion pictures.

"So you can get a picture of why this has had such a dramatic impact on the industry. The consumer has expressed an enormous appetitite for the product, and the industry is responding by creating more product."

In addition to the increase in the number of films, the advent of home video has caused a realignment in the way movies are financed.

Whereas movies were once financed by studios or wealthy investors, producers now almost always find themselves approaching video companies -- or being approached by them -- to pre-sell the home-video rights to raise additional capital.

This is a curious development, considering that only a few years ago the major studios feared that having weathered the onslaught of television, they would now meet their demise at the hands of home video. They hated the VCR, fearing, among other things, that the convenience of watching movies at home wojuld keep movie buffs out of the theaters.

But the opposite has been true -- video has apparently whetted Americans' appetitites for going to the movies. If the current trend holds true, box-office receipts will be higher this year than ever before.

Moreover, major studios and distributors have joined the home-video game themselves, creating their own home-video division to compete with such independents as Peisinger's Vestron. Now, instead of selling video rights to companies such as Vestron, most major film companies market their movies no videocassettes bearing their own labels.

Indeed, says movie industry analyst A.D. "Art" Murphy, many film producers now consider the theatrical release of a film, with its attendant advertising and film reviews, as the launching pad for the future revenues from home video. And just as movie executives once worried exclusively about how long a movie would last in the theaters, they now fret over how long it can command shelf space in video stores. ....

Perhaps nothing illustrates the transformation within the [movie] industry than the development of Vestron.

In the past, Vestron did business by buying the video rights from major studios and independent producers. But now, because of the competition, Vestron also has been forced to get into the actual financing and making of movies (the company has helped finance "a few hundred" movies according to Peisinger). In the past couple of years, Vestron has learned that it may be wiser to totally finance movies itself -- a lesson the company learned the hard way, through the success of the mega-hit Platoon.

As most film buffs know, Oliver Stone bounced around Hollywood for ten years without success, trying to get financing for Platoon. Eventually he approached a company named Hemdale, which in turn was able to get much of its backing for the film by selling the future video rights to Vestron.

But that was while Platoon was still merely a script, long before anybody had any idea it would win last year's [1986] Oscar for Best Picture. When Platoon became a runaway success, Hemdale resold the video rights to HBO. The result has been a long and complicated lawsuit -- still in litigation -- over who will get the home-video profits from the still-unreleased-in-video Platoon.

In addition, Vestron has just theatrically released the $6 million film Dirty Dancing -- its first totally financed theatrical offering -- to encouraging reviews and good box-office action. Small wonder that Vestron recently has drastically reduced its video-rights acquisition division and dramatically beefed up its movie-production division. Vestron, based in Connecticut, will partially underwrite 30 films within the next year and totally underwrite about 40 during the next two years, Peisinger says. ....

I found this article through Newspapers.com

Vestron bites the dust

An article titled Another Indie Bites the Dust, written by Anne Thompson, was published by the LA Weekly on August 10, 1989 -- almost two years after the movie Dirty Dancing was released.

The article includes the following passages:

Back in the summer of 1987, Vestron Pictures president William Quigley, anticipating the company's first major opening, Dirty Dancing, told this column: "Dirty Dancing's wide release may be foolhardy. We're playing with our own money. If it doesn't work it will be very hard to ramp up another one."

Dirty Dancing turned out to be the biggest independent hit of its year, earning $25 million in domestic theatrical rentals (the share of the gross returned to the distributor), plus $36 million in domestic video revenues. It was also probably the worst thing that could have happened to the fledgling production-distribution company.

"After Dirty Dancing it was easy to think that lightning would strike again," observes Universal acquisitions director Sam Kitt. "It didn't."

Vestron has followed the pattern of success breeding failure that has struck so many independent companies in past decades, from American International Pictures to Island, Alive and Atlantic. The companies start small, raise money, have a success or two -- and begin to think too highly of themselves. They abandon caution, overreach and overspend, betray the canny strategy or blind luck that got them where they are, and go under.

The companies that survive tend to stick to their original game plan (Skouras Pictures), have libraries or subsidiaries (the Goldwin Company) or a lucrative franchise (New Line Cinema's Nightmare on Elm Street sequels) to buttress their risks.

Industry veterans recognize that the business is cyclical and dangerous: boom periods yield to recessions. they don't risk capital they can't afford to lose. But many novices, after a hit or two, think they can compete with the majors.

In February 1988, Quigley hosted a lavish, studio-style presentation of upcoming product for 4,000 or so attendees of Las Vegas' ShoWest exhibitor convention. He told the theater owners that the company that brought them Dirty Dancing would not only deliver a sequel (applause), but would provide a constant stream of top-notch product to their theaters. ....

The exhibitors were ... impressed by a personal appearance by Patrick Swayze.

Industry watchers wonder why Vestron didn't go into production on Dirty Dancing II right away. (It still has no start date.)

"Vestron went too quickly," says Kitt. "They didn't develop properly and, except in budget terms, they lacked a vision of the kind of movies they wanted to make. Their films ere off-center and review-dependent. A promsing movie like Parents just didn't get the reviews."

After ten unsuccessful released in 1987, another 16 in 1988 and eight in 1989, on June 30 [1989] the entire Vestron company was up for sale. Yet another indie had lost the gamble on trying to produce and distribute its own movies.

Vestron was unique in that it was a home-video company first and went into production in order to feed its video pipeline, hungry for A-titles.

"If you want to go bankrupt," states Skouras president Jeff Lipsky, "go into production. You can't produce movies as an independent. There is this mythical belief that making movies for $3 million to $5 million is safe and secure. But if you're spending seven figures, you're competing with the majors. And you can't risk money on projects shepherded by less than top, experienced production talent." ....

I found this article through Newspapers.com

The "Dirty Dancing" Sequel and Security Pacific National Bank

An article titled Vestron strapped for cash was published by The Hartford Courant newspaper in Connecticut (where Vestron was headquartered) on June 30, 1989 -- almost two years after the movie Dirty Dancing was released (August 21, 1987).

The article's text:

Vestron Inc., running out of cash after losing a $100 million line of credit, said Thursday that it had severely curtailed its film production and distribution business and laid off about 140 employees.

"This is a cash squeeze put on by Security Pacific National Bank revoking their loan," said Stephen Einhorn, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Stamford [Connecticut]-based Vestron. He said the layoffs were effective immediately.

Vestron has been working to establish new sources of financing by Monday, the day its short-term credit line from Wells Fargo Bank expires.

The eight-year-old company's domestic home-video business will not be changed and some motion-picture projects will continue, Einhorn said. ...

Despite the cutbacks, the company will continue to push forward with production of Dirty Dancing II, the sequel to Dirty Dancing, Einhorn said.

Dirty Dancing grossed $60 million in 1987 and was Vestron Pictures' sole major success.

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An article titled Vestron Sues Security Pacific Over the Loss of Its Credit Line, written by Kathryn Harris, was published by the The Los Angeles Times newspaper on August 18, 1989 -- two years after the movie Dirty Dancing was released.

The article's text:

In an unusual move, financially ailing Vestron Inc. has filed suit against Security Pacific National Bank because the bank last year [1988] pulled out of a deal to provide a six-year $100-million line of credit to the entertainment company.

The bank's action last October [1988] forced Vestron -- the producer of the hit film Dirty Dancing -- to withdraw a $50-million public offering of debt securities and sent the company scrambling for short-term financing. The company fired one-fourth of its employees this summer [1989] and is currently trying to liquidate its assets.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, contends that the bank's abrupt cancellation led directly to Vestron's current woes. Vestron is seeking unspecified damages for allegations that range from breach of contract and business defamation to fraud.

According to court documents, Security Pacific pulled the line of credit because it decided there had been a "material adverse change" in the company's financial condition in the two months following its August [1988] offer to extend $100 million in credit. Vestron's suit contends that the bank's excuse was false.

The situation is unusual because, as one banking industry source observed, "banks will generally do anything not to withdraw a commitment." The same executive noted that lawyers would generally advise a client not to sue a bank as powerful and prestigious as Security Pacific unless they believed that the suit was well founded.

Security Pacific Executive Vice President Richard A. Warner said: "The Vestron lawsuit is absolutely without merit, and we will defend against it vigorously and successfully.

Vestron, based in Stamford, Connecticut, got its start eight years ago as a videocassette company but branched into other entertainment fields after most film studios decided to retain control of the video rights of the movies they were distributing in theaters and television networks.

One of the bones of contention with Security Pacific appears to have been Vestron's purchase of video stores, although in its court filings, Vestron said the bank had initially applauded the move.

Earlier this week, Vestron finalized a short-term $65 million borrowing arrangement with Chemical Bank and Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland. The company promptly used $25 million to pay off a Wells Fargo loan on which it had missed a payment last month.

"We're providing them with working capital while they arrange to liquidate assets," said John W. Miller, a Chemical Bank managing director.

Vestron shared closed Thursday at $3 on the New York Stock Exchange, up 12.5 cents. When the company went public four years ago, its shares were priced at $13.

The company's founder, Austin Furst, received a $4.3-million dividend after Vestron went public, and also kept about 85% of the company's shares for his family. ...

I found the two articles through Newspapers.com

The Cross-Promotion of Vestron and Nestle

An article titled Tapes hear a word from the sponsor, written by Mary Stevens, was published by The Chicago Tribune on August 5, 1988 -- about one year after the movie Dirty Dancing was released in movie theaters.

The article in The Chicago Tribune on August 5, 1988

The article includes the following passages:

.... Paramount Home Video broke new ground last summer [1987] when it included a special, lushly produced commercial for Diet Pepsi on the blockbuster hit Top Gun. Pepsi-Cola's sponsorship involvement (which involved collaborative advertising on network TV) enabled Paramount to release Top Gun at the then-unheard-of low price of $26.95 (most brand-new titles sell for $80 to $90 and are not marked down to an affordable sell-through price until months or years later).

Consumers were happy because they got to own Top Gun at a bargain price. Paramount was hapy because consumers bought more than two million copies of Top Gun. And, of course, Diet Pepsi got more exposure in every household that rented or purchased the Top Gun video.

When Vestron Video released its smash hit Dirty Dancing, the tape included a commercial for Nestle Alpine White candy bars. But this time, there was no bargain price tag -- the video was released at $89.95. ....

Video dealers responded with considerable grumbling many thought they and consumers were being shortchanged. Apparently, nearly everyone had assumed that advertising on videos would automatically mean pricing at the sell-through level, simply because that had been the case with Top Gun.

Al Reuben, senior vice president of marketing and sales at Vestron Video, says the public shouldn't jump to conclusions about commercials on videos and how they will or won't affect pricing.

"There are many different ways that commercials and cross-promotions are going to be used by Vestron and other video companies. Right now, it's a whole new, relatively unexplored territory, and there isn't a lot of data yet available," he says. ... But Reuben predicts that as video companies learn more about the potential of this new medium, we'll see a variety of approaches that will be beneficial for everyone, including consumers.

Rather than trying to sell Dirty Dancing with a lower price tag from the start, Reuben says, Vestron concentrated on getting maximum mileage in the rental market first. An aggressive Nestle promotional campaign (using TV spots and store displays) began in the sixth week after Dirty Dancing's debut on video, a time when rentals of new titles traditionally taper off. The promotional boos succeeded in giving Dirty Dancing a second wind on the rental scene.

On September 14 [1988], consumers will get their chance to add Dirty Dancing to their video libraries at a low price ($24.98). Vestron is launching its Dirty Dancing sell-through attack with an ambitious holiday sale program called "Stars and Bars VideoGift Promotion, Act I." Reuben notes, "The 'Stars' are the stars in our hit videos; the "Bars" are Nestle candy bars."

Seventeen more popular Vestron titles will be reduced to $19.98 each. When consumers mail in proof-of-purchase seals and cash register receipts from any two of the 18 selected titles, along with 10 wrappers from Nestle candy bars, they'' get a third VideoGift title of their choice free. ...

[The article lists the other 17 movies.]

Reuben comments: "This is the first time a major packaged goods company has put its marketing power behind a total feature film promotion such as Vestron VideoGift. The combined marketing expertise of Vestron and Nestle, along with the desire to drive consumers to purchase videos during the peak holiday season, will create the most exciting video cross-promotion to date."

The "Stars and Bars VideoGift" campaign has a $10 million budget. There will be national TV advertising during the prime holiday period, ads in major Sunday newspapers, and point-of-purchase materials wherever Vestron and Nestle products are sold, and so on. Nestle candy commercials will be included on approximately ten of the featured titles. Reuben expects Vestron to sell more than two million videos through the campaign.

I found this article through Newspapers.com

"Dirty Dancing" struts its stuff on videotape

An article titled Dirty Dancing struts its stuff on videotape, written by Joe Logan, was published by The Orlando Sentinel on January 17, 1988 -- about five months after the movie was released in movie theaters.

The article published by The Orlando Sentinel on January 17, 1988

The article's text:

Dirty Dancing, the highest-grossing independently distributed movie in history, landed in video stores recently, and plenty of people were glad of it.

Kathy Linus, 45, a Philadelphia office manager, said she had seen the steamy blockbuster twice and clearly plans to see it a lot more. "It is absolutely great, the best movie I have seen in a long time. I had no idea he danced like that, and he is so sexy. I mean, he is really good."

"He" is Patrick Swayze, star of the relatively low-budget film, who brought a professional ballet background and hunky good looks to the story of a hot young couple at a Catskills resort in 1963.

And what Swayze does for many women, his co-star and dance partner, Jennifer Grey, does for many men. In the movie, she is doctor's daughter joining her family on vacation before heading off to college; he is a wrong-side-of-the-tracks dance instructor from South Philadelphia.

Together -- with the help of a soundtrack that shot past Michael Jackson's Bad and Bruce Springsteen's Tunnel of Love to claim the top Billboard spot -- they make beautiful music. It's not raw sex that the movie offers, but romance and sensual delights.

"It is very romantic, and Patrick Swayze is not hard to watch," said Oliva Lombardi, 26, a customer-service coordinator for a Philadelphia company, who has seen the film five times. "It's not erotic; it's more sensual. Their relationship comes through in their dancing, like Fred and Ginger."

Linus and Lombardi are far from alone in their praise of the film. According to Newsweek magazine, since Dirty Dancing opened to overwhelmingly positive reviews on August 21, it has achieved near-cult status -- with audience members, most of them female, who have seen the movie 30, 40 and even 50 times.

Dirty Dancing certainly has been a boon for Vestron Pictures, a branch of the company that also owns Vestron Video, a once-foundering video-distribution company. The film marked Vestron Pictures' entry into producing, a move that the parent company hoped would provide quality products for Vestron Video to distribute.

The movie, made for the relatively low cost of $6 million, has grossed more than $55 million. Its soundtrack, released by RCA Records, has sold more than 3 million copies.

Two songs from the album have emerged as hit singles: Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley's "The Time of My Life," which reached the No. 1 spot, and Eric Carmen's "Hungry Eyes". And Swayze recently did a video for "She's Like the Wind," a number he sings on the soundtrack and the album's most recent single.

With this kind of momentum behind the film, video stores moved quickly to stock their shelves.

"There's been tremendous interest in this move. We've been getting calls for a month," said Harvey Dossick, director of movie purchasing for West Coast Video, which has almost 200 stores.

At Movies Unlimited, which does a large business through its national mail-order sales division, officials said they expect Dirty Dancing to be among the top 10 rentals of 1988.

If anything keeps Dirty Dancing off the shelves of your neighborhood video store, it likely will be the price. These days, video outlets can buy most movies wholesale for about $30, but Vestron, convince of Dirty Dancing's pulling power, already has sold dealers 300,000 copies for a whopping $64 each. If it weren't for that, said Dossick of West Coast Video, he would have ordered en more copies. The movie will list of $89.95 -- even thought the video includes a 30-second commercial for Nestle's Alpine White chocolate candy bar. Many commercial outlets already are offering at a discount, though.

Meanwhile, the folks at Vestron Pictures, which also financed and is distributing the highly praised John Huston film The Dead, are sitting back and smiling.

However, the success of Dirty Dancing, which has exceeded even the dreams of Vestron, doesn't mean that the Stamford, Connecticut, company intends to rush a raft of pictures into production. "That's the easiest way to fail, to get over-confident," said a Vestron spokeswoman.

I found this article on Newspaper.com