The Grossinger's resort in Catskills, upstate New York is a stunning reminder of how things come and go, how fashion change and new trends creates prosperity with one hand and bankruptcy with the other. This is really the Capitalist Art of Creative Destruction as it what was outlined by Marx and later became the trademark of the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter.

The resort was built in 1919 and appears to have been driven in a strict Jewish fashion, attracting primarily New York jews. During the post WWII prosperity boom, the resort was expanded to provide top-class entertainment and sports activities for the upper class. During the 1950s the place gained popularity among the New York chic and became a waterhole for celebrities. As a Swede, one can notice that "The Hammer of Thor" boxer Ingemar Johansson trained here and when he showed up with his girlfriend in 1960, it was announced as a great attraction. Most likely, a representative celebrety of that time.

The resort is an amazing pastiche of various styles, reflecting the mainly German- and east European roots of the New York jews, merged with the 1950s United States and completed with some 1970s Theo Kojak-style dullness. This to me somewhat forms an overlay outlining the trajectory of prosperity at Grossinger's, where the dark clouds probably started to form already in the early 1960s. Appart from a stiffening competition in the vicinity, the increased mobility of the upper-class in the early days of the jet-era suddenly allowed the celebrities to get down to the Carribean in the same time trains and cars of the 1950s brought them from Manhattan to Catskills. It seems fair to guess that the aura of luxury faded with the celebrities disappearing and it probably became obvious within a broader audience that far more exotic and cooler places were available elsewhere. It appears like the approach at Grossinger's was to transform the concept to attract the middle-class instead, which is reflected in the utterly boring large hotel complexes with a distinct brownish 1970s flavor.

As even the middle-class became more mobile when the jet-age hit the masses, combined with an aging Ms Grossinger, the resort became a sinking ship. Not even the winter sports could compete and it was clearly more attractive to go to modern ski resorts in Aspen, Colorado than go upstate New York to find something that suddenly had become a relic of the past. One can imagine that all this accumulated needs for modernization as the cashflow was on the decline, all making the matters worse. When the resort finally closed in 1986, one can imagine the last decade had just been a painful journey towards the bottom. Although there are some evidence of more recent repair efforts, it appears like the resort has been abandoned since then where some parts have been demolished and the rest being in a late stage of decay, almost painful to watch. The large golf course is however still open.

It is thoughtful to reflect on the fact how great entrepreneurs almost always pass a point where great determination and leadership becomes destructive. When the once disruptive ideas and concepts no longer work, it is painful and thereby very difficult to realize that times have changed while years have passed and the mind has lost some of its former agility. Nothing to make fun of, just a reflection that this day will come for all of us...