"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.

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