CBS Sunday Morning Celebrates the Catskills and Jewish Humor

A few months ago, the weekly CBS television news magazine Sunday Morning had a funny and poignant report on the Rise and Fall of the Borscht Belt. We usually watch the show every week but somehow missed this one. So we were delighted to find the segment on YouTube and wanted to share it with our joke-loving and Catskills-loving readers.

In the segment, Richard Schlesinger of 48 Hours reports on the Catskills phenomenon. Comedian Stewie Stone reminisces about his days at Grossingers, the Concord, and Kutsher's. Photos of the hotels in their heyday are shown followed by views of the now empty land where they once stood. Of all the hotels, only Kutsher's survived, and its owner Milton Kutsher recalls the old days when Wilt Chamberlain was hired as a bellhop before he became famous as a basketball player.

The segment highlights a revival of the jokes as performed in the New York off-Broadway show Old Jews Telling Jokes, which recently ended its long run and moved on to Chicago. You can't do a report like this without showing the jokes, and if you watch the video you'll get eight of them at no extra charge.

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)