Elaine Grossinger Etess (Courtesy Grossinger Etess family)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Etess, who died at her home in Florida, was the daughter of Jennie and Harry Grossinger, the couple who grew the resort from a small boarding house to a 35-building, 600-room luxury complex.<\/p>\n
Inheriting the property along with her older brother Paul, Etess continued the resort\u2019s legacy as the \u201cWaldorf in the Catskills.\u201d Grossinger\u2019s served three kosher meals per day and provided top-tier entertainment and athletic activities. Many Jewish comedians and entertainers of the so-called Borscht Belt got their start at Grossinger\u2019s, including Mel Brooks, Sid Caesar, Jackie Mason and Joan Rivers. Jewish boxers also found a place to train there.<\/p>\n
Born in 1927, Etess worked as a teenager as a \u201ckey girl\u201d at the golf club and ran the resort switchboard. But she was initially set on finding a life outside the hotel industry.<\/p>\n
She married her high school sweetheart, David Etess, in 1947, at her family\u2019s resort. \u201cMy plan was to be a typical doctor\u2019s wife and join the garden club while staying home with our children,\u201d she recalled in an interview in 2017. \u201cThe problem was that I was bored.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Etess increasingly took on more roles at the resort. One of her trademark additions to the resort was the expansion of youth activities and the creation of a children\u2019s day camp.<\/p>\n
As a celebrity hotspot, Grossinger\u2019s was known as the place where Jewish actor and comedian Eddie Fisher was discovered. As Yom Kippur ended on Sep. 26, 1955, Fisher and actor Debbie Reynolds celebrated their wedding in the Etess house on the resort property.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy home was chosen as the location for the nuptials because my husband David and I had just moved in and there was no furniture, so we had the space,\u201d Etess told the Florida Jewish Journal in 2022. \u201cAbout 40 people were present at the ceremony. The guests were mainly family and friends of the couple. My family served as hosts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Etess also had fond memories of how Grossinger\u2019s served as a refuge for non-Jews who were not permitted into or welcome at other resorts.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe talked about Jackie and Rachel Robinson finding sanctuary from ugliness at Grossinger\u2019s. How the first black man to integrate Major League Baseball was able to escape the rabid bigotry he received from the fans in the stands, opposing players on the diamond and even teammates in the clubhouse, when he and his wife would travel up to the mountains and share dinners with Elaine and her family,\u201d Barry Lewis, a local journalist who visited Etess in Florida, wrote in a remembrance published in the Sullivan County Democrat.<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cShe said the hotel guests, nearly all Jewish and many who had escaped Europe, were open to Jackie and Rachel because of the bigotry and the horrors of hatred they had experienced in their own lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Jennie Grossinger, the heart and soul of Grossinger\u2019s, died in 1972, Etess took over as hostess. In 1985, following a general decline in occupancy and a decline in Jewish vacationers to the resort, she and Paul sold Grossinger\u2019s to a group of New York City investors, after which she and David moved to South Florida. The property was demolished in 2018.<\/p>\n
In 1989, Etess was elected the first woman president of the American Hotel and Motel Association (now called the American Hotel and Lodging Association). During her tenure as president, she was appointed to the U.S. President\u2019s Committee on Employment of People With Disabilities, as well as the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee\u2019s Travel and the Tourism Industry Advisory Council.<\/p>\n
Elaine and David had three children, Mark, Mitchell and Susan. Mark and Mitchell continued in the hospitality industry, pivoting to the casino business. Mark died in a helicopter crash in 1989. David Etess died in 2008.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother left a long legacy, both in the hotel industry and, of course, the whole Catskills area,\u201d Mitchell Etess told the Sullivan County Democrat. \u201cShe continued to remain connected long after we sold the hotel; she always felt being a part of the community was important.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the years since the Catskills episodes of the Amazon Prime Video hit series \u201cThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel\u201d in 2018, the Borscht Belt has found a new generation of fans engaging with the time period and Jewish character of the mountainous region. The Borscht Belt Festival was founded in 2023; the Borscht Belt Museum (which hosts the festival) officially opened in 2025; a documentary was released the same year; a scripted series about Jennie and Elaine is currently in the works; and a cracker based on Jennie Grossinger\u2019s rye bread recipe is even available for purchase online.<\/p>\n
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