THE FANS' LOVE STORY: How The Movie 'DIRTY DANCING' Captured The Hearts Of Millions! (2 page)

Even with the passing of Mr. Patrick Swayze, I would encourage you to sit back, relax, reminisce, and indulge yourself during this
Dirty Dancing
trip because what a great way to honor a man who loved and lived life to its fullest and did a phenomenal job in portraying the character of Johnny.

“That was the summer of 1987,” and I followed my usual weekend passion of going to a movie. Little did I know how much watching this particular movie would change my life. The movie happened to be
Dirty Dancing
. Need I say more? I confess that I was one of “those women” who saw the movie multiple times. Yes, I became a member of the “100 club.” At that “time of my life,” I had recently gone through a very difficult break-up with the man that I thought was my soul mate. Watching this movie not only provided a very nice escape, but also seemed to impart that all again would be right in the world—that true love could exist against tremendous odds. I came to the conclusion that watching this movie was very soothing, even better than reading self-help books, and in a way just as good as counseling. The story was great, the music was fantastic, and the dancing was powerful. Finally, there was this sizzling, passionate actor/dancer by the name of Mr. Patrick Swayze, who played the lead heartthrob (the “Nobody puts Baby in a corner” guy). I was hooked into becoming a huge fan of Mr. Swayze. The more I watched his work, heard him give interviews, and read about him, the bigger my connection became to him.

After one contact with a fan club in 1987 (I received an autographed picture of Mr. Swayze), the years went by with me still being an avid fan. While searching the Internet in 2000, I struck gold, and found an active fan club—The Official Patrick Swayze International Fan Club—and big surprise, I joined! I really didn’t have any idea what to expect. Was I living out some adolescent fantasy by joining? What the heck! The dues were reasonable, and I would be receiving quarterly magazines and pictures—and hopefully could learn more about Mr. Swayze. After all, I didn’t have to tell anybody that I was a member. I had never contemplated contacting a Hollywood star before, and I had certainly never pictured myself belonging to a fan club. Was I now a groupie? I had a picture in my mind of Elvis fans swooning at Graceland and of hysterical women following stars around the country. After mailing in my dues, I had an immediate response from the club president, Mrs. Margaret Howden from Scotland, and felt welcomed into this group. Soon, I could see that this was serious business, and that there were others who had “this thing” for Mr. Swayze. Maybe I wasn’t losing my marbles after all.

Actually, as it has turned out, I have enjoyed many different activities through the fan club. I met Mr. Swayze four times—and had the opportunity to hold conversations with him individually and as part of a group. I met him at two dance benefits for the extraordinary dance company Complexions Contemporary Ballet—right here in Detroit—in 2002 and then again in 2004. I also met Mr. Swayze and Ms. Niemi at two film festivals—WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival in 2003 and Nashville Film Festival in 2004—that were showing their magnificent dance movie,
One Last Dance
. Their accessibility to us fans at both of the film festivals was really amazing. Then, in 2005, I had the opportunity to call in a question to Mr. Swayze on
The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch
CNBC television show.

Throughout the years, I have had the good fortune to make some long-lasting, great friendships with some of the other fans in the club. I have also been able to develop my writing skills and use my creativity by writing twelve articles that were published in the fan club magazine. Finally, it has been very special and wonderful to be part of a community supporting someone who was not only enormously talented as an actor, dancer, singer, song writer, producer, and choreographer, but who was also about traditional values, family, a solid work ethic, integrity, spirituality, passion, and activities (such as advocating for the arts, conservation, and cancer research) to make the world a better place. And I need to mention how Mr. Swayze loved animals, especially Arabian horses, and his support to The Arabian Horse Association.

As mentioned in the Introduction, I started writing this book in 2007, long before Mr. Swayze was diagnosed with cancer. It was absolutely heartbreaking and devastating to find out about Mr. Swayze’s Stage IV pancreatic cancer diagnosis. As part of the community supporting him prior to the cancer diagnosis and after the diagnosis, I have always considered it to be a privilege. I was and will continue to be amazed and inspired by him—by his wonderful spirit and heroic battle for life.

I have read Mr. Swayze’s guestbook since becoming a fan club member in 2000, and read it more closely and more often following Mr. Swayze’s cancer diagnosis. I can tell you that there are thousands and thousands of messages that were sent to him from fans of all ages (five and up) and from all over the world, telling how much they love
Dirty Dancing
and what a special part
Dirty Dancing
has played and will continue to play in their lives.

In addition,
Dirty Dancing
has scored very high in numerous polls and surveys. In February 2008, the
Daily Mail
in the United Kingdom reported that
Dirty Dancing
has the number one most romantic quote ever: Baby saying, “I’m scared of walking out of this room and never feeling for the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I am with you.” Also, the
Daily Mail
printed a story on May 6, 2007 that listed
Dirty Dancing
as the number-one movie that women watch. In July 2005,
The Scotsman
ran a story that reported the water lift scene was voted number one as the most favorite scene of all time in a poll answered by almost 1,200 people. In February 2008, per
ananova.com
, an online DVD rental delivery service,
LOVEFILM.com
listed
Dirty Dancing
as the second best feel-good movie. Per an E! Entertainment Television 2007 poll of industry executives and celebrities,
Dirty Dancing
was named as one of the Top Ten Date movies of all time. In 2004, around 200,000 people in the United Kingdom voted out of 100 movies,
Dirty Dancing
, as their favorite movie per ITV. In May 2009,
Dirty Dancing
won as Britain’s favorite film in an online poll conducted by the Cinema Advertising Association. Finally, there are three other fun examples of the continuing popularity of
Dirty Dancing
that I just cannot leave out. In a February 21, 2008 survey done by UK Cinema Industry for the ‘‘best movie couple,” Ms. Grey and Mr. Swayze came in third place
.
Among female voters,
Dirty Dancing
took second place (lost to
Ghost)
in the best screen kiss poll conducted in the UK by Denplan in honor of the 13
^th
annual National Kissing Day in July 2008. In a 2009 Valentine’s Day poll done by HMV,
Ghost
was number one for the best love film, and
Dirty Dancing
placed second.

The stage version of
Dirty Dancing
, written by Ms. Eleanor Bergstein, the writer/co-producer of the movie, has been a brilliant success in Australia (the world premiere was in Sydney in 2004), New Zealand, Germany, and London’s West End. In November 2007, the stage show opened in Toronto—with 1.65 million in first-day ticket sales. Next, the production opened in the Netherlands and then in the United States—first stop was Chicago (September 28, 2008), then Boston (February 8, 2009), and finally Los Angeles (April 28, 2009). There is speculation that the next US stop will be Broadway, and by the time that you are reading this book, maybe that will have occurred.

Multiple sources indicate that for about seventeen years, Ms. Bergstein resisted doing the stage play, but then realized that the audience wanted to be there—to be more intensely involved in the experience—and thus she determined that this would be satisfied by a theatrical experience. In an interview “Dirty Dancing: A Legendary Story on National Tour” that Ms. Bergstein gave to The Broadway Fan Club in August 2008, Ms. Bergstein was asked, “What was your starting point when you set out to reconceive this hit movie as a stage production?” Ms. Bergstein answered, “I wanted to find a way to transform it into a new kind of theatrical event . . . I wanted a form that would honor our open-hearted audience . . . And one that might bring into the theatre a new audience that has had its most profound experiences at movies and rock concerts.”¹ Rick Schultz in
The
Jewish Journal “‘
Dirty Dancing’ Comes Alive on Stage” on May 20, 2009 wrote, “Bergstein said she waited until 2004 to do a stage adaptation because ‘it seemed that the film stood by itself, and I never wanted the audience to feel I was taking advantage of them just to make money.’”² Furthermore, Mr. Schultz reported, “ . . . despite being two decades old, the movie’s continuing popularity suggested to Bergstein that ‘people might want to step through the flat screen and have it happen around them, and that meant live theater.’”
²
Finally, Mr. Schultz wrote that Ms. Bergstein said, “Everybody has a secret dancer inside them . . . It’s dancing that makes you feel, ‘That could be me.’”² To sum up, Eleanor Bergstein was asked in the Broadway Fan Club interview—Q: “What has made this story appeal to audiences for so long?” EB: “I think it’s that everyone has a secret dancer inside them that they dream will connect them to the physical world in the way they desire. It is in all of us waiting to be tapped.”
¹
A final note is that the hopeful, change-oriented political climate of the ’60s is focused on more in the stage version than in the movie.

Several sources report that Mr. Josef Brown from Australia, who has been playing Johnny in the current stage show all over the world since 2004, has stated that the
Dirty Dancing
movie influenced him to pursue and to commit to a dance career. Per Sid Smith in the
Chicago Tribune
, September 28, 2008, Josef Brown said, “For kids like me, in a tough, all-boys school, the movie told of this guy who was a street kid and yet vulnerable too. It’s OK to be masculine. But it’s OK to dance as well.”³ There have been many other comments in the media as to how Mr. Swayze’s portrayal of the character Johnny has encouraged and inspired men to dance.

On May 1 and 2, 2007, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of
Dirty Dancing
, there were showings of the Lionsgate new digital re-mastered 35mm print of
Dirty Dancing
with a twenty-minute clip about
Dirty Dancing
in about 330 theaters across the US, and 45 in Canada. Of course I attended, and was really struck by the varied age group of the audience and how everyone was really getting into the movie—myself included. From August 24–30, 2007,
Dirty Dancing
was shown at The Ziegfeld in New York (with a special Q & A with Kelly Bishop) to once again celebrate the twenty-year mark. In September and October 2007, a new show,
The Music of Dirty Dancing
, toured around the United Kingdom. On November 6, 2007, Mr. Swayze made a wonderful surprise appearance on
The Oprah Winfrey Show
to dance with Julia Boggio from the You Tube couple, Julia Boggio and James Derbyshire (from the United Kingdom). This couple’s wedding video—which shows them doing the
Dirty Dancing
finale dance—had at that point been seen by more than two million You Tube viewers. At the end of 2007,
Dirty Dancing—The Video Game
was released by Codemasters.

Regarding other recent and/or ongoing
Dirty Dancing
activity, people from all over the world visit the locations where
Dirty Dancing
was filmed—Mountain Lake Hotel (Virginia) and Lake Lure Inn (North Carolina)—on a regular basis. (See separate sections on each location.) Mountain Lake Hotel has had
Dirty Dancing
weekends for years. In August 2007, Mountain Lake Hotel was the host of a United Kingdom television show—
Dirty Dancing: The Time of Your Life Reality Series-Season 1
in which ten one-hour episodes were filmed in thirty days. In June 2008, the filming of the second season of the show occurred. Ms. Miranda Garrison, the assistant choreographer and Vivian in the movie, was one of the judges for the shows. One of the most popular activities for guests at Mountain Lake throughout the years has been to have their picture taken with a life-size cutout picture of Patrick Swayze per Mr. H. M. “Buzz” Scanland, Jr., General Manager at Mountain Lake Hotel. In October 2007,
Seriously Dirty
Dancing
(parts filmed at both Mountain Lake Hotel and Lake Lure Inn) a British documentary narrated by Dawn Porter (who reportedly saw the movie around 200 times) was aired.

In November 2008,
Dirty Dancing
:
The Ultimate Girls’ Night in Collector’s Pack
(DVD of movie, commentary, outtakes, and a night dress, washbag, eye mask, etc.) was released by Lionsgate. Also, in December 2008, the Lionsgate DVD,
Dirty Dancing: Official Dance Workout
became available. In March 2009, BBC aired
Let’s Dance for Comic
Relief
created by Whizz Kid Entertainment (United Kingdom). The show had contestants re-enact famous dances, which included a performance by Paddy McGuiness and Keith Lemon to “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from
Dirty Dancing.
Money received from callers who voted for their favorite routines was given to Comic Relief. On August 19, 2009, multiple sources reported that per
Production Weekly
, Lionsgate is doing a remake of the movie. Only time will tell if this is indeed true. I think that you will find it interesting to read what the fans in this book say about a
Dirty Dancing
sequel—which may give some insight as to how popular a remake would be.