Eleanor Bergstein

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Eleanor Bergstein
BornEleanor Bergstein
(1938-04-17) April 17, 1938 (age 86)
New York, New York, U.S.
Alma mater University of Pennsylvania
Subject American film
Spouse
Michael Paul Goldman
(m. 1965;died 2023)

Eleanor Bergstein (born April 17, 1938) is an American writer, known for writing and co-producing Dirty Dancing , a popular 1980s film based in large part on her own childhood. [1]

Contents

Life and career

Bergstein was born in 1938 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. She has one older sister, Frances, in her Jewish family. Their father, Joseph, [2] was a doctor who left much of the care of the girls to their mother, Sarah. The family spent summers in the luxury resorts Grossinger's Catskill Resort Hotel in the Catskill Mountains; and, while her parents were playing golf, Bergstein was dancing. [3]

Bergstein was a teenage Mambo queen, competing in local competitions. While at college, she worked as a dance instructor at Arthur Murray dance studios. [4] Bergstein graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1958.[ citation needed ]

In 1965, she was married to Michael Paul Goldman. They were married until his death in 2023. [5] She worked as a novelist, including Advancing Paul Newman. This novel contains many of the themes of her famous movie. She also tried her hand at scriptwriting and had success with It's My Turn , a film starring Michael Douglas and Jill Clayburgh. During production, the producers cut an erotic dance scene from the script. That sparked Bergstein into writing a more extensive story, focusing on "dirty dancing".

The movie Dirty Dancing was released in theaters in 1987. [6]

In 2004, Bergstein also adapted the movie into a stage version of Dirty Dancing, which became a musical. [7] The show opened in 2004 in Australia.

Works

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References

  1. Stannard, Lauren. "Behind the Scenes of Dirty Dancing: An Interview with Eleanor Bergstein". Greenwich International Film Festival. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  2. 1940 United States Federal Census
  3. Ann Kolson: Fairy Tale Without An Ending auf nytimes.com
  4. Posner, Michael (November 14, 2007). "Dance dirty with me". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved December 20, 2018.
  5. "Michael Goldman Obituary". www.dignitymemorial.com. October 17, 2023. Retrieved December 3, 2024.
  6. "Interesting Facts about Dirty Dancing | Her Campus". www.hercampus.com. 2020-02-29. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  7. "To Live & Dialogue in LA: Eleanor Bergstein – Dirty Dancing Screenwriter on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 2022-01-23.