Eleanor Bergstein
{{short description|American screenwriter}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Eleanor Bergstein
| image =
| imagesize =
| caption =
| birth_name = Eleanor Bergstein
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1938|4|17}}
| birth_place = New York, New York, U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| subject = American film
| spouse = {{marriage|Michael Paul Goldman|1965|2023|end=died}}
| alma_mater = University of Pennsylvania
}}
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.{{Cite web|last=Stannard|first=Lauren|title=Behind the Scenes of Dirty Dancing: An Interview with Eleanor Bergstein|url=https://www.greenwichfilm.org/founders/behind-the-scenes-of-dirty-dancing/|access-date=2022-01-23|website=Greenwich International Film Festival|language=en-US}}
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,1940 United States Federal Census 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.Ann Kolson: [https://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/17/movies/fairy-tale-without-an-ending.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm Fairy Tale Without An Ending] auf nytimes.com
Bergstein was a teenage Mambo queen, competing in local competitions. While at college, she worked as a dance instructor at Arthur Murray dance studios.{{cite web|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/dance-dirty-with-me/article697823/|title=Dance dirty with me|last=Posner|first=Michael|work=The Globe and Mail|date=November 14, 2007|accessdate=December 20, 2018}} Bergstein graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1958.{{cn|date=January 2022}}
In 1965, she was married to Michael Paul Goldman. They were married until his death in 2023.{{Cite web|date=October 17, 2023|title=Michael Goldman Obituary|url=https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/new-york-ny/michael-goldman-11412150|access-date=December 3, 2024|website=www.dignitymemorial.com|language=en-US}} 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.{{Cite web|date=2020-02-29|title=Interesting Facts about Dirty Dancing {{!}} Her Campus|url=https://www.hercampus.com/school/mt-holyoke/interesting-facts-about-dirty-dancing/|access-date=2022-01-23|website=www.hercampus.com|language=en-US}}
In 2004, Bergstein also adapted the movie into a stage version of Dirty Dancing, which became a musical.{{Cite web|title=To Live & Dialogue in LA: Eleanor Bergstein – Dirty Dancing Screenwriter on Apple Podcasts|url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/eleanor-bergstein-dirty-dancing-screenwriter/id1336612971?i=1000425266865|access-date=2022-01-23|website=Apple Podcasts|language=en-US}} The show opened in 2004 in Australia.
Works
- Dirty Dancing: The Musical, 2004 stage production
- Let It Be Me, 1995 film
- Ex-Lover: A Novel, 1989 novel
- Dirty Dancing, 1987 film
- It's My Turn, 1980 screenplay
- Advancing Paul Newman, 1973 novel
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/jewcy-dirty-dancing “A Conversation with Eleanor Bergstein, Writer and Producer of ‘Dirty Dancing,’ on its 30th Anniversary”], Sophie Aroesty, [https://jewcy.com/arts-and-culture/conversation-eleanor-bergstein-writer-producer-dirty-dancing-30th-anniversary Jewcy], August 28, 2017.
- [http://www.theage.com.au/news/Arts/Private-dancers/2005/06/14/1118645804253.html "Private Dancers"], June 15, 2005, The Age
- Dirty Dancing, The E! True Hollywood Story, television documentary, first aired September 3, 2000
- [https://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2007-04-23-dirty-dancing_N.htm "Dirty Dancing: Baby's Out of the Corner"], May 2007, USA Today
- {{IMDb name}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergstein, Eleanor}}
Category:20th-century American screenwriters
Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:20th-century American Jews
Category:21st-century American Jews
Category:Jewish American screenwriters
Category:People from the Catskills