This blog discusses the movie Dirty Dancing, which was released in 1987 and starred Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze. The articles discuss:
* literary aspects, such as characterization, motivation, interactions;
* the music and dances;
* the production of the movie;
* critical reactions.
I am summarizing and discussing Eleanor Bergstein's 1973 novel Advancing Paul Newman, which still can be purchased through Amazon. The novel's length is 373 pages, of which 19 pages were covered in my Part 1.
Bergstein was born in 1938. In the novel's first two chapters, the story switches back and forth between the years 1959 and 1968 -- years when Bergstein was 21 and 30 years old.
The novel contrasts the two main characters -- Ila Rappaport and Karen "Kitsy" Frank -- who seem to be about the same age. Kitsy surely is based on Bergstein.
The novel's theme is stated explicitly at the end of its Chapter 1.
This is the story of two girls, each of whom suspected the other of a more passionate connection with life.
These two girls -- Bergstein calls them girls, and so will I -- will compare themselves with each other during the years 1959-1968, when they mature in age from 21 to 30.
The novel was published in 1973, when Bergstein was about 35 years old. Perhaps the novel continues into the 1970s, when Kitsy was in her early 30s.
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I am reading Bergstein's novel in order to find insights about Baby Houseman, who proceeded through the following ages:
The movie's story takes place in 1963, when Bergstein was about 25 years old (Penny's age?)
Bergstein began writing the screenplay in about 1985, when she was about 47 years old (Vivian's and Marjorie's ages?).
Of course, the character Baby is based on Eleanor. The Bergstein family -- a doctor father, a housewife mother, and two daughters -- spent summer vacations in Catstills resorts when Eleanor was young. Eleanor was 17 years old in 1955 -- about eight years before the Dirty Dancing story.
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Consider three personas.
Eleanor Bergstein
Kitsy Frank
Baby Houseman
They are not identical, but they must share similarities -- in various experiences, concerns, attitudes and family relationships. I am developing my own insights about Baby.
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Front cover (click on the image to enlarge it)
Back cover (click on the image to enlarge it)
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I myself was born in November 1952. I was ten years old in August 1963, when the Dirty Dancing story takes place.
During the years 1959-1968, I lived in Seward, Nebraska, -- the town's population was about 2,500 -- where my father taught at Concordia College, a Lutheran college. During those years, I attended a Lutheran elementary school and a Lutheran high school that were closely associated with the college. My family lived across the street from the campus. I tell about those years of my life in another blog, Seward Concordia Neighborhood.
Although I was only ten years old in 1963, I was involved already with the Concordia high-school students and college students. I observed their clothing, music, activities and attitudes. They were quite religious, but all of American culture was much more religious in 1963 than it is now in 2019.
In 1968, my Dad was hired by the University of Oregon, and so my family moved to Eugene, Oregon. We moved during the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school, when I was 15 years old.
My resettling in Eugene, Oregon, in 1968 was a culture shock for me. Before then, my entire education had been in Lutheran schools. My sophomore class in Seward had about 25 students. My junior class in Eugene had about 250 students. On my first high-school day in Eugene, I was amazed to see my fellow students wearing jeans and tennis shoes -- gross violations of the dress code at Concordia High School.
I soon found myself arguing about religion -- in particular about abortion -- with other students.
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I was very interested in the 1968 Presidential election. I liked Senator Eugene McCarthy. He had grown up attending Catholic parochial schools and even prepared to become a monk. I loved his self-assurance, demeanor and wit.
During the primary elections, the Democrats' two main contenders were Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy. I favored McCarthy. After Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968, Hubert Humphrey entered the race against McCarthy.
I watched much of the Democrat Party's Convention on television during August 26-29. The convention ended in a riot between Chicago's police and anti-war demonstrators. A few days later, I began attending my new high school, and my speech-class teacher got all the students in the class arguing about that riot and about the Vietnam War.
Some of my fellow high-school students took me to a coffeehouse in downtown Eugene, where people the customers were dressed like hippies and sang songs at the open-mic. I spent many evenings there. There was incense and marijuana smoke in the air.
I read about the Vietnam War and decided that I opposed the US involvement. I participated in demonstrations against the Vietnam War. I wrote a leaflet opposing the war, paid for 1,000 photocopies of my leaflet, and rode a bus by myself to Portland, Oregon, and distributed my leaflets at an American Legion convention in 1969.
That is my own experience during the years 1963-1968 as I am reading Bergstein's novel based on her own participation in McCarthy's election campaign in 1968.
The cover of Sue Tabashnik's book The Fans' Love Story: Encore
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The book's Chapter Ten is Sue Tabashnik's interview of Betty Rollins, a who worked as a dancing extra in the movie. She did not as an hotel employee in the "dirty dancing" scenes. Rather, she acted as a hotel guest dancing in the ballroom.
I will summarize this interview.
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Betty Rollins is the sister of Patt Rocks, who was interviewed in the book's Chapter Nine. The parents of Betty and Patt were avid dancers, and so Betty and Patt grew up to be avid dancers too. Betty and her husband Jack White earned much of their living by teaching and performing ballroom dance.
When Patt, who was living in South Carolina, was hired to work as an extra in the movie, she called her sister Betty, who was living in Alabama. Betty decided that she too wanted to work as a dancing extra in the movie, and so she and Jack traveled to South Carolina to join in the fun.
Betty Rollins
Jack White
Betty and Jack did not interact with Patrick Swayze or Jennifer Grey. They said that Cynthia Rhodes (Penny) and Max Cantor (Robbie) visited the extras' tent and chatted with extras. Rhodes and Cantor were very pleasant.
One of the extras was a thief who stole stuff in the extras' tent. The thief stole Rollins' earrings. Of course, the extras had no idea that the the movie's story included a couple of thieves.
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The main theme of Tabashnik's book is depicting and explaining ordinary people's love for the movie.
Betty remarked that as avid ballroom dancers, she and her husband ...
... looked down our noses at that type of [dirty] dancing. ... Of course, that's not the way we danced. I think it was just kind of a rebellion.
I ask myself: "Why would that hokey movie be the sensation that it's been? ...
To me, that movie had a purpose -- whether it was shallow or whatever. It was just the beginning of a different era. The music is not the same as it ever was. ....
It was about the the music and dancing -- the kids rebelling or wanting their own style.
Betty did not like the movie much and was puzzled by its popularity. Betty then questioned Sue Tabashnik about her love of the movie. Betty's questioning of Sue is the book's Chapter Eleven. This chapter is essentially a rehash of the first chapter of her two books. Sue explains how she saw the movie in 1987 and later joined a fan club that provided her with many opportunities to meet other fans, to meet with people involved in making the movie, and to write about the movie.
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The book includes many photographs. In particular, Rollins provided photographs of behind-the-scenes activities on the filming location. She was photographed posing with various actors and production people. The photographs are of rather poor quality.
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The book includes a reprint of as leaflet that was distributed to all the extras. The leaflet's first two paragraphs:
WELCOME!! Thank you for coming to our open call. We are casting for extras to be in the movie DANCING! which is shooting in the Blacksburg [Mountain Lake, Virginia] area September 5-19, 1986.
DANCING! starring Patrick (The Outsiders) Swayze and Jennifer (Ferris Bueller's Day Off) Grey, is the story of a young girl's summer in the Catskills in 1963 in a glamorous family resort where she falls in love with a handsome young dance instructor from "the other side of the tracks," learns to dance and grows into a responsible and mature young woman.
That is all that the extras were told about the movie's story. Notice that the title Dirty Dancing was not revealed to the extras -- perhaps because many people might not want to participate in a "dirty" movie.
The rest of the one-page leaflet provides instructions about the extras reporting their availability, showing up on time and staying until the day's end, dressing appropriately, etc.
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The book includes a list of Dirty Dancing Music Trivia. The list comprises 20 items. Here are two items (10 and 11) right in the middle of the list.
In 1989, "She's Like the Wind" won a the BMI Film and TV Awards for most performed song from a film.
"Hungry Eyes," performed by Eric Carmen, was $4 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1988 and #2 on Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary.
The entire list of 20 items is like that.
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The book includes 16 pages of fans' statements telling why they love the movie. I liked the following excerpts (all from women):
Age 38
When I listen to the radio and hear the music of “The Time of My Life”, at times it is a real time-travel into the past, where I was a teen and I had an easy and unworried life with less responsibility. … I can relive impressions of youth life with holidays, independence, love, truth, music, and lots of dance. The feeling gives me the strength I need to be able to cope with everyday problems.
Age 58
25 years ago, as I sat in the darkened theater day after day, finding refuge from devastating illness … I could forget the pain and depression ... I could enjoy beautiful dancing ... These dancers were young, vibrant ... Despite the incredibly horrible state of my health, what I remember most clearly is the joy I felt each day as I sat in that theater.
Age 21
This movie is by far my favourite movie ... The story in general is very natural, a typical young girl’s life as a teenager; going through changes and cutting ties with family, accepting people from different parts of society, knowing what matters and what doesn’t in life, and learning values and lessons in life that are important.
It’s impacted my life by going back to being 17 years old, the changes you discover in yourself, breaking away and individuating on your own, not wanting to let your parents down, always being the good girl who does the right thing by everybody.
Age not stated
It has deep, multi-faceted meanings to me.
When I was young, Dirty Dancing was a fun love story where the “not so pretty” girl stole the heart of the “bad boy.” It was the soundtrack that I listened to on long family car rides and the movie I would play when my girlfriends spent the night. ...
As I grew o1der, I wanted to be just like Baby — smart, witty and a great dancer. I wanted to be on center stage and show that I had so much more to offer than anyone realized. I would watch Dirty Dancing and try to act out the dance moves in my bedroom. The love story between Baby and Johnny became my idea of the ideal love story.
With time, Dirty Dancing became a coming-of-age story that I related to. I’ve found myself in Baby’s shoes — falling for the “bad boy” and making decisions that felt right in my heart, even if it defied my parents’ wishes. Dirty Dancing comforted me as I grew from the quiet girl to become a strong, confident woman. ...
Dirty Dancing has also been a lesson in humility empathy, and equality. Baby falls for Johnny with no regard to social class or education. I’ve tried to model myself on these principles and look for the best in everyone.
Dirty Dancing will always hold a special place in my heart. I feel connected to the movie because it’s grown deeper as I’ve grown. With time, I believe my connection with Dirty Dancing will only grow — it will become a movie about family values and how times may change, but families and love prevail.
Age 61
It takes me back to a time in my life where a very similar romance occurred. Only difference was, he was a singer with band, rather than a dancer at a resort. But much of the rest of the story is the same. ... I don’t think you ever forget that first magical romance. ...
Age 56
I lived in that time period. There was no talking back to your parents, sex before marriage was not acceptable, and families vacationed together. Young people rebelled by smoking, drinking, and “dirty dancing” because those were things their parents would never approve of. As I look back, I think of those things as harmless fun.
I think the movie still has appeal today, generations later, because our young people today have no outlet for “harmless fun.” ...
A great number of children come from single-family households who probably never had a family vacation. … There is much less personal contact in our lives today. There is very little face-to-face time. … We have lost the art of conversation and personal interaction. Many families don’t sit down for a meal together. A lot of kids stay out all hours and don’t function within their family. A lot of kids have no boundaries in place, or rebel violently if they do.
I think that’s where the movie Dirty Dancing comes in. … Life seems to slow down as we watch a family enjoy each other’s company and watch a young girl experience her first crush. The purity of the fun and romance is refreshing and probably a little corny to young people today ... but they watch the film because it makes them feel better. ...
I love the film because it reminds me of my own childhood. … I like the simplicity of life at that time, when the worst thing a girl had to worry about was getting a date for the prom. I watch the movie over and over. I love being transported back to the times I wrote in my diary, rolled my hair, was expected to be dressed appropriately for dinner, and rode my bike everywhere.
Today’s young people don’t know what that’s like, and I think it’s a shame because they don’t know what they’re missing.
In her 60s
It must have been the mid ‘90s when I became injured and wound up spending many days and evenings on the couch watching movies. … I really enjoyed it. I was intrigued by the concept, loved the singing, and was wild about all of the dancing. I was enthralled with Patrick’s sensuous performance and loved the story etween him and Baby. I also loved the locations ...
I started watching Dirty Dancing more and more after that because it lifted my spirits and made me very happy. … I’ve watched Dirty Dancing at least fifty times since then. ....
The biggest impact Dirty Dancing had in my life was inspiring me to learn how to dance. I really enjoyed learning the mambo …. I still have fond memories of my [dance] classes ...
Patrick’s passion, intensity, integrity, and love for life made a big impression on me and have inspired me in small ways to live by his example.
Woman, 41 years old
He [Swayze] was so gorgeous in that film, and what girl doesn’t like a good-looking guy that can dance! Dancing is intimate; if you’re a guy reading this — girls love it! … Patrick could dance. He made this movie so sexy! I mean it was so sexy that it was very erotic ...
I love that time period too. It was of family closeness, going on vacation, and enjoying simple things in life that make you smile and be entertained. It wasn’t perfect, but it showed how people were there to help each other out of a bad situation, and how being honor able really does pay off in the end.
I have seen Dirty Dancing around 50 times!
I love to dance, and watching them dance and seeing how cute Baby was when she was learning the dance reminded me of myself at times, but she had the hot partner. …
This is just a sampling of the fans' statements, which are much more in the book.
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The book can be ordered from various booksellers, including directly from its publisher, Passion Spirit Dreams Press.
Eleanor Bergstein's novel Advancing Paul Newman was published in 1973, when she was about 35 years old. The novel was read and liked by Claudia Weill, an aspiring movie director. Weill asked Bergstein to write a screenplay, which became the 1980 movie It's My Turn. Thus the novel led to Bergstein's screenwriter career.
I have not read this book until now. I will read the book and summarize it in a series of posts.
Hardback Cover of Advancing Paul Newman
by Eleanor Bergstein (click image to enlarge it)
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The novel's preface:
Ila dreamed Kitsy's young man sliced a cat at the lunch table and blood spurted all over. The slices were neat like filet de boeuf only the red center was liquid blood and it spurted all over. Ila jumped up making a scene -- making Kisty upset. Ila blamed herself -- for she knew Kitsy had wanted her to think well of the young man -- and she blamed herself for not having sat pleasantly at the big wooden sunny table for lunch saying oh what an interesting thing to do. When she woke up, she thought she had dreamed of Kitsy's pain.
This novel is 373 pages long.
If you were in a bookstore and picked up this book and looked at its cover and then read this preface, would you buy the book? Claudia Will did!
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The preface introduces three characters (not counting the cat):
1) Ila (Rappaport)
2) Kitsy (Frank)
3) Kitsy's young man
Ila is dreaming so horribly about Kitsy's young man that Ila jumps up, which upsets Kitsy. It seems that Kitsy had introduced the young man to Ila at lunch. Apparently, Ila only pretended to like Kity's young man at the lunch.
Ila had this horrible dream and woke up because she perceived that Kitsy felt pain about the young man. Two possibilities:
1) Kitsy felt embarrassed that he was her young man
2) Kitsy was hurt that Ila did not like her young man.
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Chapter One
The third-person narrator informs the reader:
Ila Rappaport is a woman in love with a psychiatrist turned orthopedist, who is "strong but not insensitive". She is a very talented writer who has written a story that was published in The New Yorker magazine, but now she is suffering from writer's block.
She has heavy breasts and skinny legs that look spectacular in short skirts.
She is flying on a passenger airliner and reading leftist materials (for example, Howard Zinn's Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal). She was able to buy the flight ticket because she had collected donations from other people.
When Ila gets out of the airplane, she realizes that Richard Nixon had been a fellow passenger.
Ila rides in a taxi in darkness. On the way, she sees some banners against the Vietnam War. One banner favors anti-war candidate Senator Gene McCarthy in the 1968 Presidential election.
The taxi delivers Ila to her destination. She climbs the stairs to a fourth-story apartment. Inside, some people are lying on the floor. Among them is Kitsy ...
.... crying and twitching and moaning, her arms and legs jerking, mumbling "work to do ... up ..."
Someone explains:
... her husband ... killed in Vietnam a few months ago.
In the room there's a guy named Jerry Palumbo. He gives Ila a damp cloth and motions her to approach Kitsy. As Kitsy murmurs and moans, Jerry remarks: "Kitsy always said she'd end up on a lunatic fringe".
Ila kneels and puts Kitsy's head on her knees and uses the damp cloth to sponge Kitsy's forehead and cheeks.
This is the story of two girls, each of whom suspected the other of a more passionate connection to life.
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Chapter Two
The narrator returns in time to 1959.
Karen "Kitsy" Frank has just graduated from college and is vacationing in the French Alps. She is riding a tour bus. In the seat behind her, another girl (the narrator regularly uses the word girl) complains to Kitsy that she is suffering from a cold and that Kitsy has opened her bus window.
The two girls -- Kitsy and Ila -- become friends on the bus. They discuss European philosophers. On the bus tour, the two girls find themselves taking care of an elderly woman, Mrs. Jorganssen, the widow of the martyred publisher of a Danish resistance newspaper.
In Paris, the two girls go to a bookstore to buy two pornographic novels written by Henry Miller (illegal to buy in the USA). Because of this bookstore visit, they almost miss their departing train.
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The narrator returns to 1968, where Ila is sponging Kitsy's forehead and cheeks.
Ila, Kitsy and Jerry leave the fourth-story apartment and walk to the hotel room where Ila is staying. Jerry is a poet who will perform a poetry reading in the morning.
On the way to the hotel, the three stop at a luncheonnette to eat waffles. They are joined by two male acquaintances -- law students -- one black and one white. Ila tells the others about being with Richard Nixon on her airliner. Their subsequent conversation is incoherent for the reader. They mention having to write a press release about "the Senator".
Ila and Kitsy leave the luncheonnette and arrive at the hotel. There they are informed that they will share a room with three other girls -- Alice, Susan and Dorothy.
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The narrator returns in time to 1959. [Bergstein was about 21 years old in 1959.]
Ila and Kitsy are sharing a compartment in an overnight train from Paris. In the upper berth, Ila begins to cry. Kitsy climbs up to the upper berth and joins Ila. It seems to Kitsy that Ila began crying because the train had crossed the France-Germany border, where Ila saw a German train conductor for the first time.
Ila and Kitsy talk about their both being Jewish and about the Nazi period.
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The narrator returns to 1968.
Across the street from the hotel there is a movie theater showing the movie In Cold Blood. The movie ends, and the crowd comes out onto the street, where some of the boys joke about mass-murdering the girls.
Kitsy remarks that she suffers from bad dreams. If she seems to be having a nightmare, she remarks, then the other girls in the hotel room should wake her up. Then Kitsy falls asleep.
Ila was on a different time schedule. She lay awake remembering when she heard about Louis and gone running to see Kitsy, and Kitsy had come to the door of her room naked but with no nipples or pubic hair and Ila had thought that grief had turned her pale -- made her neuter -- but it was an opaque body stocking.
That paragraph makes no sense to the reader. Louis had not been mentioned previously in the novel.
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The narrator returns to 1959.
Ila and Kitsy are on a beach at Bad Godesberg, Germany. Kitsy is writing about Paris in her notebook.
Kitsy remembers a crazy old Jewish woman who lived in her childhood neighborhood. The old woman had fled from Germany to the USA. The old woman's two adult daughters asked Kitsy's father to commit their mother to an insane asylum. Kitsy's father (a psychiatrist?) declined to involve himself in that family's problems.
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The narrator returns to 1968.
Jerry comes from his poetry reading to the girls' hotel room. The poetry reading was in a nursing home. The old people there were incoherent. During his poetry reading, some girls who were McCarthy supporters tried to convince the old people to support McCarthy. The old people did not understand the poetry or the politics.
As Jerry tells the girls about his poetry reading, the narrator mentions that Jerry and Kitsy had been married "a long time ago".
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The narrator returns to 1959.
The tour group is in a hotel restaurant. An American journalist is lecturing about Germany. He is asked about ex-Nazis in the West German government. He says there are some.
The tour group will travel into Berlin, which is inside East Germany.
Music plays in the restaurant. Ila gets up and dances. Kitsy admires Ila's dancing.
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The narrator returns to 1968.
Kitsy is sitting in a political-campaign office, preparing to mail invitations to a fund-raising party. She throws a temper-tantrum because a young man there left a half-eaten apple on her desk. The apple juice and his spit had spoiled some of the invitations.
It turned out that the young man was a former student of Louis's.
The reader still does not know who Louis is.
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The narrator returns to 1959.
The group's tour bus enters Berlin. That evening "Eric the photographer" (apparently a German) takes Ila and Kitsy to a party. There, he invites Ila to come with him to his apartment. Kitsy goes back to the hotel, and Ila goes to Eric's apartment.
In their hotel room, Kitsy washes her own clothes and then washes Ila's clothes.
Ila comes back to the hotel room and tells Kitsy: "When I was frightened he was very gentle."
Kitsy felt like a dirty-minded virgin, was very angry at everyone, and wondered how she could not have realized before that Ila tan, flat, slightly runny nose ... had turned into a golden beauty.
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The narrator returns to 1968.
Kitsy and Ila leave the political-campaign office in order to distribute some political flyers. The apple guy -- the former student of Louis -- drives them to a supermarket.
While handing out fliers, Kitsy and Ila chat. Ila tells about a dinner date, in her past, with a guy named Stephen. Kitsy asks whether Stephen was Ila's boyfriend "after Loren and before Warren". Kitsy says she dropped Stephen after just one date because he learned that he made model bridges out of toothpicks.
It turns out that Jerry too is handing out flyers at the supermarket.
Also, the apple guy -- the former student of Louis -- is standing by the supermarket's exit ramp, watching people coming out with full shopping carts.
The sun glinted on his hair, and for a moment the ramp seemed electrified, so full of pleasure and sun was he .... Altogether it was that he was alive and Louis wasn't.
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The narrator returns to 1959.
Eric takes Ila and Kitsy into East Berlin. They are accompanied by another German man, Claus Pieter.
East Berlin policemen stop the four-person group repeatedly, especially questioning the two American girls and checking their documents. Kitsy is exhilarated by the German policemen's attention, but Ila weeps in fright.
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The narrator returns to 1968.
Ila, Kitsy and Jerry continue to hand out political flyers at the supermarket. Many of people respond negatively to the flyers.
It turns out that the flyers are advertising a visit by the actor Paul Newman at the supermarket on the following Thursday. Newman will speak in support of Senator McCarthy's election campaign.
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The narrator returns to 1959.
Ila and Kitsy are late to their airplane flight out of Berlin. Eric comes to the airport and takes Ila to his apartment. Kitsy goes shopping in Berlin. Kitsy tries to phone Eric's apartment, but some problem prevents a connection.
Kitsy thinks that her being lost is bad, but it's not as bad as it would be "to lie inside four walls and have sexual intercourse with an ex-Nazi storm trooper."
It turns out that Ila had told Kitsy that Eric the photographer had belonged to the Hitler Youth when he was 19 years old.
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The narrator returns to 1968.
Still handing out flyers at the supermarket, Ila and Kitsy talk about the fact that many women shoppers are wearing hair rollers so that they will look lovely for their husbands later that evening.
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The narrator returns to 1959.
Kitsy tells Ila that she wants to keep trying to become a professional writer.
Ila responds that she might want to become a writer in the future, but she still did not know what she might want to write. In the meantime, Ila wants to learn how to play the French horn.
Kitsy writes in her diary:
So the lines are drawn. I'm the dirty-minded little virgin and she's the one who really lives.
