WOODSTOCK- Willow Mixed Media and Tinker Street Cinema celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Catskill Mountain House with a screening of the award-winning documentary, The Catskill Mountain House and The World Around on June 9, 2024, at 2 p.m. at the Tinker Street Cinema in Woodstock. The film will be followed by a question and answer session with the filmmaker.
Produced and directed by Glenford’s Tobe Carey, the feature length documentary explores the grand Catskills mountaintop hotel which opened in 1824 and led the way for the immensely popular romantic tourism destinations of the 19th and early 20th century. The Catskill Mountain House was the first great mountaintop hotel in America. It was followed by the Laurel House poised at the head of Kaaterskill Falls, the immense rival Hotel Kaaterskill, the Grand Hotel and Woodstock’s Overlook Mountain House.
There’s nothing left of the once-elegant Catskill Mountain House except the view of “…all creation” as noted by James Fenimore Cooper in “The Pioneers.” The lavish resort hotel was perched on a precarious ledge in Greene County for over a century. During its 19th-century heyday, the hotel embodied the peak of luxury for a generation of the rich and famous. But like many resort hotels of the Catskills’ glittering past, the Mountain House fell into disuse in the 20th century and was finally destroyed by the state of New York in 1963 to return its scenic overlook to wilderness.
The Catskill Mountain House and The World Around is a compelling tale of steamboat and railroad empires, bitter rivalries, exclusive private preserves, fabulous art and picturesque landscapes that celebrates the Catskills as part of the American Grand Tour and as America’s “First Wilderness.” The film features 19th century music arranged by Bill Vanaver and remembers the Catskill Mountain House as “…the ultimate combination of civilization and savagery.”
Winner: Gold Remi Award – 44th WorldFest Houston International Film Festival
Ticket information CLICK HERE.
