Max and Louis Kutsher started the Kutsher's Brothers Farm House in 1907 and began expanding in the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1940s, at the request of his aunt Rebecca, Milton Kutsher took over the hotel. He oversaw the hotel's significant expansion in the 1950s-1980s that created a premiere Catskills vacation destination: a " property that included a 400-room resort, condos, two bungalow colonies, two summer camps, an 18-hole golf course and lakefront." Milton Kutsher and his wife Helen operated the hotels with Helen serving as the head of reservations and doyenne of the resort. The two ran the hotel until Milton's death in 1998, at which point, his son Mark took over management of the hotel.
Sports
Milton Kutsher was active in sports circles, making the hotel the Catskills home of legendary CelticscoachRed Auerbach and Hall of FamerWilt Chamberlain, who worked as a bellhop there. There was the Maurice Stokes Benefit All-Star Game, a charity basketball game that once attracted the top pro players. Muhammad Ali trained at Kutsher's, as did other world boxing champions, such as Floyd Patterson and Leon Spinks. He was an avid sports fan, and also saw sports as a way to bring young people to the resort. The Maurice Stokes Game, which raised funds for the injured professional basketball player Maurice Stokes and raised funds for needy former players from the game's earlier days, was sponsored in part, by Kutsher's and played at either the hotel or the Kutsher's Sports Academy. The game is said to have "rivaled the NBA All-Star game in talent." In the 1990s, the basketball exhibition spawned the Maurice Stokes/Wilt Chamberlain Celebrity Pro-Am Golf Tournament. Part of the hotel's empire included the Kutsher's Camp Anawana and Kutsher's Sports Academy.
Accommodations and entertainment
In its heyday, the Borscht Belt resorts were home to premiere entertainment. Performers such as Louis Armstrong, Dean Martin, Woody Allen, and Jerry Seinfeld all spent their early career at Kutsher's. The hotel offered an all-inclusive vacation: meals were included, as well as entertainment and activities. Activities available at the hotel included golf, tennis, indoor ice skating, indoor and outdoor pools, a health club, and various kids and teen programs. There were also winter sports such as snow tubing and downhill skiing.
Decline
For many years there had been negotiations, which broke off in 2005, with the St. Regis Mohawks and Park Place Entertainment to develop an on-site casino. Kutsher's sent a letter to its long-time guests in November 2007 informing them there would be no availability for the coming summer, and Kutsher's closed for renovations. In late winter/early spring 2008, the Kutsher family entered into an option agreement with Louis Cappelli of Westchester County, New York to bring management changes and/or ownership of the hotel. The sale was not finalized, but renovations were carried out, and the establishment was re-opened as The New Kutsher's Resort & Spa' Kutsher's hosted the 2008, 2009 and 2010 U.S. edition of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival. It also served as the location for the annual district convention for New York'sKiwanis International and associated organizations. Helen Kutsher died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 19, 2013. Kutsher's closed in 2013. The property was sold to Veria Lifestyle, a company owned by Indian billionaire Subhash Chandra, for $8.8 million. The new owners demolished the hotel and will be constructing a health and wellness destination based on the Indian discipline of yoga. The new resort will feature 265-rooms.
Legacy
A documentary about Kutsher's Country Club involving three generations of the Kutsher family titled Welcome to Kutsher's: The Last Catskills Resort was released in 2012.
Kutsher's served as an inspiration for the 1987 movie Dirty Dancing. In the film Wet Hot American Summer, the M.C. of the talent show worked at Kutsher's. Kutsher's also appeared in the second season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
