Dirty Dancing Wasn’t Its Original Title
Eleanor Bergstein, Dirty Dancing‘s director, grew up in the 1950’s and was a dancer herself. She used to join dancing competitions. Although her dancing was not as wild as the ones we see in clubs or bars these days, it was seen as something provocative in that era. To be more specific, Bergstein was a huge fan of Mambo. That must have been what inspired the producers to initially call the movie I Was a Teenage Mambo Queen. They thought that calling the film Dirty Dancing was much too provocative. The first title doesn’t feel quite right, does it?
The Movie Setting
The setting of the film was in the Catskill Mountains, in the southern New York State, where the Houseman family goes on a vacation in 1963. The place is where our heroine, Baby, meets Johnny, and the rest, well, you know what happens after. However, the Catskills, known for the beautiful wildlife and scenery, is not the actual place where the film was shot. The cast was filmed at a lodge with the same vibe in Virginia instead. Their only problem was that they were supposed to shoot a scene for a summer vacation right at the end of summer. So, the crew had to spray paint the autumn leaves with green paint to make it look like summer!