Grossinger's Hotel

     After our successful stint at Gilbert's, Sammy booked us for a week in the Terrace Lounge at the Grossinger's Hotel.  

     Man, let me tell you that pulling up to the front of Grossinger's was quite the experience for us. None of us had ever seen such an imposing place. We all thought, "this is gonna be fun!"

     First we met with the Staff Director who gave us a basic course in expected behavior, a key to our room and instructions on how to drive over there (Grossinger's was a very big place).

Grossinger's Lobby

Terrace Lounge

     So, we drive to the other side of Grossinger's Mountain and pull up to a rather rundown looking Tudor style building where some summer staff was housed. After the Gilbert's experience the sight of this place gave us pause to reconsider the situation.

     Our room was in the basement. There were two beds and green moss growing on two walls. Once again with the two bed scenario!  I remember a communal bathroom and shower on the ground level floor. It was starting to dawn on the three of us that his was not going to be as much fun as we had envisioned we'd be having at a first rate hotel.

     After we dropped our suitcases on the three chairs that we dug up, we headed back to the other side of the mountain to meet with The Social Director Lou Goldstein.

     Now, Lou was quite famous for his epic games of "Simon Says". I remembered that as a kid I'd seen him do that on "The Mike Douglas Show" . Watching him on TV he seemed like an amiable character but, in his office it was all business and no small talk.

     So, in we go and Lou hands each of us a daily schedule of events where we were to play background music. To the best of my recall here's something of what that schedule looked like.

     The first thing we noticed and I'm sure that you dear reader, have noticed as well, is that the only break in the schedule is from 6 pm - 8 pm. What we didn't realize was that the hotel grounds encompassed an entire moutaintop and the pool was not on the same side as the tennis courts. We didn't fully grasp the logistical dilemma of moving our equipment from one site to another and maybe even fitting a lunch in, until we started the following day.

     We were'nt able to get to Lou after that first meeting to discuss the schedule thing so we basically said screw it and took our time moving two amps, Tom's drums and Frank's keyboard. No one seemed to notice or care ... all was well.

     One nice thing about the gig was that there were two bands in the Terrace Lounge and we alternated sets and whenever there was a show was going on in the big room we were on break.

     We finished our week to, I guess OK reviews and were hired back for another one week gig a bit later. This time however, we only played in the lounge and we were'nt housed in the basement green room.

     It was  here at Grossinger's that I learned what an "Egg Creme" was.

Band Schedule

9 am - noon ..... pool side dancing

1pm - 3 pm ...... tennis court dancing

4 pm - 6 pm ..... Terrace Lounge cocktail hour

8 pm - 1 am ..... Terrace Lounge dancing