10/19/2026
One of the highlights of our 20th marker dedication was hearing Judi Kirschenbaum share stories of her dad, Freddie Roman, and the Catskills that shaped him. Funny, heartfelt and full of life, her words brought Freddieās story and the world of Borscht Belt comedy into focus. Sharing her full speech here. Thank you, Judi. ā¤ļø
"Yes, thatās rightā¦my last name is Kirschenbaum. You see, when my father went into show business, we all changed our name to Kirschenbaum. That was his joke, of course. So much of his humor was rooted in his family, and the fertile soil that anchored those roots was here in these beautiful mountains, the Catskills.
Fred Kirschenbaum first took the stage at his grandfatherās tiny Catskill mountain hotel called The Crystal Spring, in Youngsville, NY, when he was 15 years old. He was the self-appointed emcee for their Saturday night shows, and once he felt the warmth of that spotlight, held the microphone in his hand, and made āem laugh, it was clear that show business was his destiny.
He attended NYU School of Drama, where he met my mother, Ethel. YES, they were FRED and ETHEL like the Mertzsā. They married, started a family, and Fred Kirschenbaum joined his father in the ladiesā shoe business, which he hated. The spotlight continued to call to him, and so he sold the store and officially moved from shoe business to show business.
His first job was as social director, or tummler, in Spring Glenn, at the Homowack Hotel. Irving Blickstein, the owner of the Homowack, fell in love with my father, and vice versa. He entertained Irvingās guests by day, leading activities like taking guests on a hike to a teepee on the hotel grounds and making up stories about the made-up Homowacka tribe. At night, he was the emcee in the showroom, introducing other entertainers and honing his comedy craft. He was at home on stage at the Homowack, doing shtick with the maĆ®tre dā in the nightclub, Ben Tabby.
They would plan to have the phone ring in the middle of my fatherās act, and he would shield his eyes from the spotlight, look to the back corner of the nightclub where the maĆ®tre dās stand was, and yell, āBen, if that is my mother, tell her I took a sweater.ā
Our family vacationed at the Homowack every year during the school winter break with the family of comedian Dick Lord. We learned to ski, ice skate, swim, bowl, play miniature golf, and, of course, we kids got to stay up late and watch the shows in the nightclub. With Shirley Temples in one hand and wooden knockers with colored k***s on the end in the other hand, my brother and I watched audiences fall in love with our father. It was always so interesting to me that nobody ever used the knockers when my father was on stage. They were so busy roaring with laughter they forgot all about the knockers.
Freddie Romanās jokes were born from the familiar flavors of the Borscht Belt. For example, thereās the one about the lady who pulled Mr. Blickstein aside in the hotel lobby to complain: āIrving, the food tonight was poisonā¦ and such small portions.ā
As my fatherās career started gaining traction, and he began getting bookings at other hotels, Irving Blickstein told him that he could take the stage at the Homowack any time he wanted. My fatherās comedy career in the Catskills began to take off. The mountains were his stomping ground.
The Concord, Kutchers, Stevensville, Grossingers, Pines, Nevele, Browns, the bungalow coloniesā¦ Sometimes three shows in one night. First, the Imperial Room at the Concord on a Saturday night, then the late show at Browns, and a bungalow colony for a late-late show, before he drove home to us in New City, NY, where so many of the Catskill comedians and some of our familyās closest friends called home. Morty Gunty, Myron Cohen, Dick Lord, Vick Arnell were my fatherās brothers in comedy.
And, of course, Dick Capri and Mal Z. Lawrence, who were his brothers in the show he conceived and produced. Catskills on Broadway ran for 18 months at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, and then toured around the country and the world after that. This show was my fatherās love letter to these mountains. He was so proud of where he came from and never batted an eye when someone referred to him as a āCatskills comic.ā He often talked about the Catskills audiences being the toughest. He would say, if you could ākillā at the Concord, you could make it anywhere. There was no audience harder to make laugh than a bunch of Jews who had just eaten their third all-you-can-eat meal of the day and were looking forward to, and planning, their fourth in the coffee shop right after the show!
My fatherās career took him to Broadway, Las Vegas, and Atlantic City. He became dean of the NY Friars Club for 25 years. He toured with Cher, Dolly Parton, Tom Jones, Steve and Edie, opened for Frank Sinatra, performed for four Presidents, made movies and appeared on television, and worked all over the world. But when he took the stage in the mountains, he was in front of his favorite audiences. He was home.
One last bit about Catskills on Broadway. When my father brought the idea of the show to a group of producers, one producer said he loved the idea of the show but didnāt want the word āCatskillsā in it. Too Jewish for Broadway, he said. My father stood firm and said he would walk away from the show if the name was changed. For my father, it was the whole point of the show. The legacy of the comedy that these mountains gave birth to was the point. And even as he was watching the hotels disappear, he knew that the comedy could, and already had, moved beyond the physical stages where it was born.
This humor, steeped in Jewish culture, characterized by sharp timing, self-deprecation, and family-friendly storytelling, had already migrated to sitcom television, movies like Dirty Dancing and Sweet Lorraine, and stand-up clubs across the country. Freddie Roman wanted to stamp this brand of comedy, its rhythm, its sensibilities, and its hilarity with its true moniker, Catskills comedy, and bring it to Broadway. And he did.
I want to thank you, Marisa, for inviting me to be with you today and for your dedication to this incredible project that will indelibly mark the sites of these hotels that were such a rich part of the history of American Jewish life. I could not be more honored, on behalf of the proudest son of the Borscht Belt, the beloved comedy legend Freddie Roman, and our entire family, for my father to be included on this marker. Thank you."
-- Judi Kirschenbaum-Levin, October 18, 2026
