Lou Goldstein led a group in a game of Simon Says at Grossinger’s, where he worked from 1948 to 1986. Below, with his wife, Jackie Horner, and comedian Milton Berle in Liberty, N.Y.
(suzanne dechillo/new york times/file 1985)
Lou Goldstein, entertainer, Simon Says impresario; 90
Lou Goldstein led a group in a game of Simon Says at Grossinger’s, where he worked from 1948 to 1986. Below, with his wife, Jackie Horner, and comedian Milton Berle in Liberty, N.Y.
(suzanne dechillo/new york times/file 1985)
Lou Goldstein was the consummate tummler, one of a zany species of entertainer who kept them laughing, or tried to, long ago in the borscht belt hotels of the Catskills. A tummler - the job title, pronounced TOOM-ler, comes from a Yiddish word for someone who stirs up tumult or excitement - was a jack-of-all-trades social director who was supposed to amuse the hotel guests with jokes, songs, and shtick that might be better described as slapshtick, as they sat by the pool, emerged from lunch, or headed for bingo.
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