My Grandparents Had a Hotel

My Grandparents Had a Hotel
Directed by	Karen Shopsowitz
Release date(s)	1991
Running time	30 min.
Country	Canada
Language	English

My Grandparents Had a Hotel is a 1991 documentary film by Karen Shopsowitz that takes a nostalgic look at a Jewish-cultural icon^[vague] that is now gone. Shopsowitz shares the story of the Montieth Inn as a representative Jewish resort. Although it is Canadian, the inn is similar to Grossinger's and the Concord Hotel in the Catskills, which also saw their heyday in the mid-20th century.

With playful 16mm home video footage, interviews with people who once worked and vacationed at the family-run inn, and the filmmaker's father's own memories of the family's prized hotel, the film recreates the magic of this spot while telling the history of how the phenomenon came to be, how it flourished, and, finally, why it declined.

Summary

Segregated Jewish resorts thrived for only a short time. In the 1930s, restrictions against Jews were common in the North American hotel industry. When someone with a Jewish-sounding last name called to make a reservation, hotels would often lie and say they had no vacancies.

Recognizing that Jews needed a place where they could get away without having to worry about antisemitism, one Canadian-Jewish couple sold their deli and bought a beautiful 150-room hotel on Lake Rousseau in the Muskokas, just north of Toronto. The Monteith Inn became a popular vacation spot, where guests could relax in the countryside and enjoy the steady stream of talented entertainers that passed through.

The film shares numerous vacationeer's anacdotes. For example, one old man laughs at his young self, recalling the time he and his teenage friends once stirred up trouble by showing up to the formal dining hall wearing dress shirts, ties, and suit jackets — but no pants.

For better and worse, things have changed. Eventually, the government cracked down on the antisemitic practices that made Jewish resorts necessary. Social reform and a terrible natural disaster spurred the decline of the Monteith Inn, but it and other hotels like it have left their traces in old family videos and memories.

Awards

My Grandparents had a Hotel's original musical score won a Gemini award. Shopsowitz won a Peabody Award for another documentary based on her father's home movie footage, the 2000 National Film Board of Canada production My Father's Camera.^[1]

References

1. ^ Foster, Janice (September 6, 2002). "My Father's Camera". Canadian Materials (Winnipeg: Manitoba Library Association) IX (1). http://www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol9/no1/myfatherscamera.html. 

External links

• Catskills Institute