Grossinger’s Hotel, Long a Retreat for Tired New Yorkers, to Be Sold

Grossinger’s Hotel and Country Club, the Borscht Belt retreat that launched Eddie Fisher’s career and helped Jack Dempsey develop his punch, will soon be little more than a summer memory.

The Catskills hotel, which entertained 100,000 guests a year in its heyday in the 1940s and ‘50s, probably will be sold off piecemeal to end years of financial trouble.

The 812-acre resort in the town of Liberty has been empty since 1986, when it was closed for a $30-million renovation and expansion project that was never completed.

Before air conditioning and convenient air travel, a getaway for hot, tired New Yorkers meant a two-hour drive to the Catskill Mountains. But like many resort areas close to big cities, the Catskills faded as other parts of the world became more accessible and an extended summer siesta became unfashionable. Grossinger’s went into a slide with other hotels in the region.

During its heyday, boxers Dempsey, Rocky Marciano, Ken Norton and Michael Spinks trained there. Lucille Ball performed at the resort’s two nightclubs.

Fisher, who made his debut at Grossinger’s 41 years ago and was discovered there--as legend has it--by Eddie Cantor, returned to help kick off the face lift in 1986, which was halted in 1989.

The owners, a group of New York City investors, had bought the resort from the Grossinger family in 1985.