Grab that Borscht Belt, Next To The Suspenders

Grossinger's

Borscht - A Russian or Polish soup made with beets and usually served with sour cream.

Borscht Belt humor refers to the rapid-fire, often self-deprecating style common to many of (the) performers and writers.

Borscht Belt, or Jewish Alps, is a colloquial term for the mostly defunct summer resorts of the Catskill Mountains in parts of Sullivan, Orange and Ulster counties in upstate New York that were a popular vacation spot for New York City Jews from the 1920s up to the 1960s.

Borscht Belt hotels, bungalow colonies, summer camps, and קאָך-אַליינס kuchaleyns (a Yiddish name for self-catered boarding houses, literally, "cook-alones") were frequented by middle and working class Jewish New Yorkers, mostly Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe and their children and grandchildren, particularly in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Because of this, the area was also nicknamed the Jewish Alps and "Solomon County" (a modification of Sullivan County), by many people who visited there. Well-known resorts of the area included Brickman's, Brown's, The Concord, Friar Tuck Inn, Gibber's, Gilbert's, Grossinger's, Granit, the Heiden Hotel, Irvington, Kutsher's Hotel and Country Club, the Nevele, The Laurels Hotel and Country Club, The Pines Resort, Raleigh, the Overlook, the Tamarack Lodge, Stevensville and the Windsor.

• Joey Adams
• Marty Allen
• Woody Allen
• Morey Amsterdam
• Bea Arthur
• Benny Bell
• Jack Benny
• Gertrude Berg
• Milton Berle
• Shelley Berman
• Al Bernie
• Joey Bishop
• Mel Blanc
• Fanny Brice
• Mel Brooks
• Lenny Bruce
• George Burns and Gracie Allen
• Pesach Burstein
• Red Buttons
• Sid Caesar
• Eddie Cantor
• Jean Carroll
• Jack Carter
• Myron Cohen
• Bill Dana
• Rodney Dangerfield
• Phyllis Diller
• Totie Fields
• Fyvush Finkel
• Betty Garrett
• Estelle Getty
• Jack Gilford
• George Gobel
• Shecky Greene
• Buddy Hackett
• Mickey Katz
• Jay Jason
• George Jessel
• Danny Kaye
• Alan King
• Robert Klein
• Harvey Korman
• Mal Z. Lawrence
• Thelma Lee
• Jack E. Leonard
• Sam Levenson
• Jerry Lewis
• Charlie Manna
• Chico and Harpo Marx
• Jackie Mason
• Lou Menchell
• Gary Morton
• Zero Mostel
• Jan Murray
• Molly Picon
• Charlotte Rae
• Alan Reed
• Carl Reiner
• The Revuers (Judy Holliday, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Alvin Hammer and John Frank)
• Don Rickles
• Joan Rivers
• Freddie Roman
• Benny Rubin
• Rowan & Martin
• Mort Sahl
• Soupy Sales
• Dick Shawn
• Allan Sherman
• Phil Silvers
• Arnold Stang
• Jerry Stiller
• Larry Storch
• Renee Taylor
• The Three Stooges
• Jackie Vernon
• Jackie Wakefield
• Bert Wheeler
• Jonathan Winters
• Henny Youngman

Source: Wikipedia

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Excuse Me, Can You Give Me Directions To Vaudeville?

"Take that first left on your right and drive until you pass the sign that is about 3 miles past the last sign before the first big oak tree (you can't miss it), until you are out of state. Then go back one mile to the trailer park near the burned-out street light (its gotta be night time of course), unless you get out of the car and its windy 'cause the pole sways, that's a dead giveaway that you are close. Stop the first Jewish person you see and ask him where to go, he will definitely know the rest of the way."

When I was a kid I thought vaudeville was a place, a town, somewhere in the Poconos, the Catskills, or New York for sure. And it had a big stage.But now, I stand corrected. And Wikipedia has done it for me. 

The origin of the term is obscure, but is often explained as being derived from the expression voix de ville, or "voice of the city." Another plausible etymology finds origins in the French Vau de Vire, a valley in Normandy noted for its style of satirical songs with topical themes. The term vaudeville, referring specifically to North American variety entertainment, came into common usage after 1871 with the formation of Sargent's Great Vaudeville Company of Louisville, Kentucky. It had little, if anything, to do with the Comédie en vaudeville of the French theatre. 
Read more here.

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