On a recent weekend at Mountain Lake Lodge the rain is relentless but that hasn’t dampened visitor’s spirits. Heather and Jonathan Blankenship are visiting from Tennessee. Heather sports a custom-made pink tulle dress and her husband, Johnathan, is clad in all black. They’re here to celebrate the nostalgia of the 80s, and the film Dirty Dancing.
"Honestly, I really thought I was going to cry pulling up here," Heather Blankenship admitted. "It was such a big part of my childhood. I think my mother had to buy me the VHS like, three times because I watched it so much that I wore the VHS out. So, the thought of Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze, they set foot on these grounds, it’s just kind of cool."
Heidi Stone has been President and CEO of Mountain Lake Lodge since 2013.
"It’s a huge cult classic. And so we refreshed the Dirty Dancing weekends to what they are today," Stone said.
When Stone took over there was talk of doing away with the association with the film.
"And at the time it was suggested that Dirty Dancing essentially needed to be abolished from the property. The perception was that the property had lived and died on Dirty Dancing and that it just needed to go away."
But Stone surveyed her customers to find out what they actually wanted.
"That essentially some of our consultants that were old white guys, you know, they just didn’t have the connection to the film.
Capitalizing on Nostalgia
Stone further cemented the lodge’s relationship with Lionsgate, the film’s distributor since 2003, by licensing branded merchandise. Now visitors can browse a retail gift shop, with items like t-shirts emblazoned with memorable quotes.
Other economic indicators related to Dirty Dancing-inspired events hosted by the lodge speak to a broader impact that reverberates through local coffers.
"Our tourism industry in Giles County is actually our second largest industry," said Cora Gnegy, director of tourism for Giles County. "It comes second only to agriculture, and the direct and indirect total impact that tourism has is close to $54 million."
Since 2019 the economic impact of tourism dollars directly to Giles County has risen 21.2%.
"A lot of that is attributed to Mountain Lake because they’re the largest lodging property, they’re our, largest tourism operators. So that's huge," according to Gnegy.
The Enduring Appeal
While tourism growth in the county can be directly associated with Mountain Lake Lodge and its connection to the film, questions remain as to what makes a teen film from 1987 endure as it does around the world and across cultures.
"The soundtrack is anachronistic," says Yannis Tzioumakis, professor of Film and Media Industries at the University of Liverpool. He grew up in Greece and was caught up in Dirty Dancing fever there in the 80s.
"What happens here is that we have this anachronistic soundtrack that bridges really, really well the 60s with the 80s."
Tzioumakis also posits the film’s popularity has endured because we actually don’t know what becomes of Baby and Johnny’s relationship in the end.
"So, there is all these open endings that contributes to the film’s mystique. Because most of the films from Hollywood, they have this like, you know, tight closure.
Apart from the soundtrack, the film itself is a good example of a Hollywood outsider aesthetic without, at the time big name actors, a little-known Eleanor Bergstein as the screenwriter, and Vestron, the film’s original production company that was known for producing B-movies. Tzioumakis thinks that’s what sets Dirty Dancing apart from its contemporaries, it’s DIY aesthetic and heritage.
"You think of independent cinema you think of Jim Jarmusch, Steven Soderbergh, and Richard Linklater. You don’t think of Dirty Dancing," according to Tzioumakis. "But if you start looking at Dirty Dancing you will find that you know it is very much a type of film. If Jennifer Grey, or anyone would do a film the way they want to do then I will be very interested in watching it."
Tzioumakis may get his wish. Jennifer Grey has been working on a sequel since 2020.
Mountain Lake Lodge will host its Dirty Dancing Days Summer Festival on August 16th.