More Love from a Camp Eva Fan

I've said it before, but the folks from Camp Eva still hold this place near and dear in their hearts. I just received a great note from Artie North. He can be reached at artienorth@att.net and here's what he has to say:

I went to Camp Eva for many years. I began as  Blue Bird and went there until I became a camper waiter. My parents had a bungalow on the oval.

Manny Rothchild was the head counselor when I began there. There was also Dave Bernstien.

I remember Eddie Bieber, the Wunches, the Seidens, the Kerners, the Weissmans, Howie Atkins, June Forbes, the Nigros, the Bernstiens, etc. Color War was the best! I never won...LOL!

They were great years!

Looking for Dance Teacher, Frances Fields

Linda Marks is trying to find info about her aunt and uncle, Frances and Monte Felder, who went by the name Fields professionally, and taught dance at one of the small Sullivan County hotels back in the late 50's and early 60's. Linda says, "I've asked my cousins if they know the name of the hotel or where it was located, but they don't know and no one else is around for me to ask. If any of you have any knowledge of them, Aunt Frances was my very favorite aunt and was a great dancer." So I tried to do a little research, thinking that if Frances Fields was well known in her day, then she might have been pals with Jackie Horner who is thought to be the prototype for the Penny Johnson character in the hit movie, "Dirty Dancing," which was set locally in the Catskills resort area. Of course, Jackie Horner is also known as the wife of Lou Goldstein, the famous Social Director & Simon Says guy of Grossinger's. Here's an interesting ancecdote that I came across from "It Happened in the Catskills," written by the husband and wife team of Myrna and Harvey Frommer as described in a very detailed Dartmouth.edu web review:

We hear from and learn about Neil Sedaka, who showed up at Esther Manor at the age of 19 with his band, the Nordanelles (for Norman, David and Neil), and ended up marrying Esther's daughter, much to the chagrin of her family; and of Eddie Fisher, who came up to Grossinger's in 1946 at 19, got "discovered" by Eddie Cantor on Labor Day 1949 and married Debbie Reynolds there in 1955.

Lou Goldstein, legendary social director at the hotel for many years, remembers the kid singer very well. "Eddie Fisher and I were roommates for a while -- the Playhouse at Grossinger's, Room 5. We were both single and looking. We made up a signal between us. If one of us was in the room with a girl, we would wrap a towel around the outside door knob so the other guy wouldn't barge in ... I had a lot of trouble getting into that room. It seemed like there was always a towel there."