Apologies if this is the wrong place to post.
I had never previously thought of how odd the setting circumstances of Dirty Dancing was until I saw the exact same thing in Amazon's the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel where they went to vacation all summer at an all inclusive camp with planned activities and fancy cabins. I'm very curious as to if this was the norm for rich American families back in the day and how they were to able to take such long holidays/if PTO was different back then.
Well I think your premise might be off here slightly.
Now you're going to have to bare bear with me as these numbers are kind of spotty due to the time period and the nature of labor statistics. But in the 1950's according to the department of labor only 30% of the workforce was women.
https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2002/05/art2full.pdf
Out of this the highest % of population working for women was the 16-24 demographic with a 43% participation rate of eligible women, the next demographic group 25-34 plummets to a 34% participation rate, compare that to men who increase from 77%(16-24) to 96%(25-34). To sum it up, basically women had jobs before they got married and had kids, then many of them gave up that job. And while there is an uptick for the 35-44 demographic to 39% for women it then deteriorates.
The point I'm trying to make here is that the majority of women did not work. And for example in the context of Mrs. Maisel, Rose does not need to take time of from work because she simply does not have a job. For his part the reason Abe can be there round the clock is because he's a tenured professor and apparently does not need to teach during the summer and his job at bell labs was on hold. The reason I wanted to bring up the demographic shift is it made long term "adult summer camps" more viable when one adult simply didn't have a job, "the women" so to speak would be free to mind the kids at the summer camp and enjoy it for the full duration.
Again in the context of the show many of the men were in fact commuting on weekends. Joel for example mentions how he would be driving back and forth to and from work as does Midge's brother only commuting for the weekend.
As for how Midge is able to so frequently take time off from her job at B. Altmans we would simply have to chalk this up to plot convenience or simply attribute it to her characters ability to sweet talk anyone. Remember she also makes an improptu trip to france to chase her mother and then takes a comedy tour throughout New England. It could also be attributed to the entry level position she was punished with after being removed from the makeup counter. Remember a plot point is that midge must rush back to New York to fill an open shift.
So to sum up it had less to do with people "taking pto" and more of women simply not having jobs and Abe being an example of a man who didn't have to work in the summer.
I'd like to note that this isn't just movies/tv shows based in the 1950s and 1960s, but specifically fiction about upper middle class Jewish families from New York City, going to resorts in the Catskills, a mountain range a couple of hours north of the city.
In the late nineteenth century, the place for wealthy WASPs from the city to travel in upstate New York was the Adirondacks: a larger range north of Albany, over twice as far from the city as the Catskills. The very rich built their own "great camps", rustic-styled lodges with all the amenities - the architect William Durant built Sagamore Camp, probably the most famous today, and eventually sold it to the Vanderbilts - or stayed in luxurious hotels, like the Fort William Henry in Lake George; others made do with less luxurious hotels of varying sizes, from the sizable Adirondack Hotel in Long Lake to various places the size of large houses tucked away in hamlets scattered among the mountains.
While rich Jewish families were able to build their own camps in the Adirondacks, the overall climate was not welcoming to them. Many hotels and clubs simply refused to allow them entry, most notoriously Melville Dewey's Lake Placid Club. In response, they looked to a different area of upstate New York - the Catskills, which was already home to resorts of less prestige than the great camps (its heyday had been earlier in the century). There was a rising Jewish presence in the eastern part of the area, as recently-immigrated Jewish farmers had been settling in Sullivan and Ulster Counties, and these farmers often rented out rooms to help meet expenses (few of them had come with a strong agricultural background); others started building their own hotels and buying up the older ones in the early twentieth century, creating a space that catered specifically and often only to their community. Where tourism to the Adirondacks was largely driven by a desire to get up close and personal with nature, the lure for the Jewish Catskills was more social, which helped to drive the rise of large-scale resorts in comparison to the often isolated camps like Sagamore or Santanoni. The Catskill resorts boomed through the first half of the century, but as American Jews assimilated and American culture became more open to them, they went into decline. The generation brought there as children were not as interested in participating in this style of vacation, which caused the resort-runners to focus on appealing more to older adults, which then of course made the young even less interested in going. By the late 1960s, many had closed the children's areas and family bungalows/cabins, and by now nearly all have closed entirely.
So, to come back to the question, for the purposes of analyzing these pieces of fiction, we should be looking at this as the summer activity of a particular subculture, rather than a generic American practice. It was a norm for rich Jewish American families in the New York metropolitan area.
So this is pretty fun. I can't speak to all of your questions but I can try. I'll focus mainly on the Catskills.
To answer the question about vacation time, the source I cite below mentions that men would leave during the week to work and return on the weekends.
The ultra-wealthy did not need to go to these resorts. They had their own summer homes or compounds. The Bush family had Kennebunkport, the Kennedy family had Hyannis Port. If you had a big family and massive wealth you'd essentially build your own resort.
But the upper middle class families, especially belonging to certain ethnic groups, living in cities without expansive land, would flock to these resorts as a way of getting fresh air and relaxation, and also as a way of socializing with their brethren.
Both Mrs. Maisel and Dirty Dancing focus on upper middle class Jewish families. If you want to learn more about what life was like at these Jewish resorts I'd advise reading Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock And Out.
[Honestly I'd advise anyone who likes rock music to read that book. It's an oral history, and I'm sure some of the later stories are apocryphal, but Bill Graham lived quite an incredible life and has incredible anecdotes.]
Before becoming a legendary Rock promoter, Bill worked as a server at some of the more famous resorts, like Grossinger's and The Concord. Bill himself was very working class, a Holocaust survivor, he had escaped Europe as a child and grew up in a foster home in the Bronx. But the people he served were wealthier.
Speaking of that world he says (at points dripping with sarcasm), "People would go up there for the season with boxes and ropes and mattresses on top of their cars. They trekked and they schlepped and anything they were not sure about, they took with them anyway. 'I don't know... I'm only going up for two days... better pack the large, unabbreviated version of the World Atlas. Just in case. There has to be a use for it' Also the little box refrigerater filled with food. Because Jews must play safe. Why take a chance on all the stores being closed when they got up there."
One resort he worked at he explains "The Flagler back then was garment center people and light manufacturing. People who had come into money."
He also speaks about how some people would go up for a weekend, that's all they could afford, others would spend the full summer up there.
In that book another waiter Joe DeRose says "It was a great place to be at that stage of your life. I would heartily recommend it to any young man. Females were there in abundance. A whole slew of college girls from Boston. Then you had the guests. And the married women whose husbands would go home during the week."
So even when families spent the whole summer there, the men with day jobs would just go back to their respective cities and work and then return for the weekends.
You can see images of Grossinger's decaying facilities here. Many of these resorts peaked in the 1950s and vacation patterns changed, with growth of air travel and air conditioning, and places like Disney Land, the appeal of these resorts, or Niagara Falls, drops. One that survived for years was Kutshers, you can see images of their decaying facilities here.
This NYTimes article talks about struggles employees of The Concord had after the hotel shut down and mentions when other big resorts closed.
This just focuses on the Jewish Catskills. Which was home to what was known as the "Borscht Belt," where these resorts hosted entertainment, be it comedy, or music. Graham mentions seeing and serving entertainers like Harry Belafonte and Tito Puente when he was up there. Comedians like Mel Brooks and Woody Allen cut their teeth working those circuits.
That being said these resorts weren't only for Jews. There's a lot of new work coming out about the Irish Catskills. And recently I learned about the existence of the German Catskills. Additionally in more modern times there are Russian-Americans who have cabins and community out in the Poconos.
Also around this time were Jewish sleepaway camps just for children, that mainly were run by service organizations to take kids out of the tenements and give them a summer experience in nature. Bronx House and the Workmen's Circle are two organizations I know of that sponsored these camps. Those were for poorer children and not full family resorts, but as subsequent generations have attended and Jewish-Americans have moved up the economic ladder, they have grown more expensive and no longer are a social service but are a luxury good.
I know a more about the rise and decline of the resorts than the availability of vacation time, but no other answers remain, so maybe this will give some insight.
It was pretty common for even middle class families to have at least 2 weeks worth of vacation in the 60s 1 and the combination of increased incomes, more desire to see the world and wanderlust following the exposure to more of the world during WWII and larger families because of the "baby boom" made family resorts and road trips common.
Pre-1978, air travel was still expensive, limiting destination vacations that required flying, and the interstate highway system was very large but not yet congested. Air-conditioning was also not widespread, so resorts and camps in places that could be driven to like Maine, Minnesota, & upstate NY flourished. Keeping in mind that many of the resorts catered to certain ethnic groups (the Jewish "Borscht Belt" & "Irish Alps" of the Catskills), one writer cites "the three A’s — air-conditioning, airlines, assimilation" 2 as the reason for the resorts' decline.
In Catskill Culture[3](Catskill Culture: A Mountain Rat's Memories of the Great Jewish Resort Area), Phil Brown names the Catskill resorts as a place that were already becoming more of a spot for older people than families by the late 1960s, and says younger families preferred camping, RVs, several shorter vacations instead of one longer one, maybe to places they child now afford to travel to by airline. He also points out that the growth of air conditioning meant there was no longer a need to escape the city heat and that families with 2 wage-earners could afford second homes instead of resort cabins or rooms.
Kim Bowen's History of Minnesota Resorts4 lists similar reasons for the rise and fall of Minnesota's lakeside resorts: Growth from post WWII prosperity, the rise of automobiles, and suburban family's fleeting the summer heat, then a decline as people could fly or drive the interstate to other destinations, including hotels with air conditioning and more exotic locales. She also mentions land values - as the resorts became less popular, in many locations, it made more sense to sell the land to developers than to keep putting money into renovations to attract a shrinking customer base.
Basically, the average family had at least 2 weeks of paid vacation time, and workers with more time on the job or higher experience could expect more. One resort, Unity House, was operated by a labor union to give the working class a break and leisure experience.
Typically, only one parent was working and kids weren't in activities all summer long, so it was easier to coordinate vacation planning, and resorts flourished in the age of automobiles because they could be be driven to and provided an escape from the heat of the cities and often a haven for people of similar backgrounds.
Ah, "summering in the Hamptons." (And the North Shore, and other fun locations in the Greater New York City Area.)
Beginning with the railway expansion east from NYC in 1840, the Hamptons became a bucolic spot for city people to enjoy themselves. Far from being a long-gone past-time, it still exists-- you can spot the Real Housewives of NYC hopping on the Jitney to head out for some fun in the sun as recently as last summer, or Wall Street types heading there now. It's a reasonably common plot device in stories that occur in NYC; you can hear about it in Gossip Girl, How I Met Your Mother, as well as the stories you mentioned. There is even a Bravo reality show dedicated to just summering in the Hamptons, called Summer House. Sorry, that's my last reality TV ref.
In the more high-minded world of literary fiction, this is also where most of the action of The Great Gatsby takes place in the 1920s:
Fitzgerald's visits to Long Island's North Shore and his experience attending parties at mansions inspired The Great Gatsby's setting. Today, there are a number of theories as to which mansion was the inspiration for the book. One possibility is Land's End, a notable Gold Coast Mansion where Fitzgerald may have attended a party. (x)
The wealthiest people would purchase homes out in the Hamptons-- they still do-- but by the mid-20th century, a new trend was emerging in both the USA and the UK: the "holiday camp," or more often now, the resort. These were often built on the idea of the average visitor getting two weeks' annual holiday; usually, these were less wealthy people, like average workers. In the USA, by the mid-20th century (when both of the fictional stories you mention take place), average weekly hours worked were decreasing, and paid holidays were becoming much more common.
Resorts were initially popular before the emergence of two major innovations: interstates and commercially affordable air travel. The history of the Howard Johnson is not a perfect match for this trend but it's a nice comparison: in 1954, there were 400 of these famous motor lodges across the USA, but by the late 1970s there were 1,500 across the country. x The trend had moved from "going away from the city wherever is closest to us" to "going further afield," even abroad.
Of course, the idea of two weeks' holiday does not seem particularly strange by modern standards; where it becomes unusual is the idea of people taking off the entire summer. First, we can suggest that the fictional shows do use some creative license-- spending four weeks' at a resort, or 19 working days if you snag a statutory holiday, is hardly inconceivable.
Lest we forget, it was also SUPER hot, especially in NYC. Offices would shut down in the heat of the summer because, well, the work of white collar people was not so urgent that it needed to be done in the sweltering heat. The availability of air conditioners made it more common for offices to run all summer long, but if the office is closed? Hey, go to the beach!
What can be observed recently (and I appreciate is running up against the contemporary-ness rule, but only for comparison! I throw myself at the mercy of the court!) is that American paid leaves have reduced since the 1990s (for holiday purposes.) In 1992, a full-time American worker could expect 10 holidays and 8 days of paid vacation-- but far fewer accommodations for sickness and family issues. That has changed somewhat for full time workers, with more leave available in times of crisis and less otherwise.
I would also mention that the patterns of labour make a difference to holiday schedules. In the mid-century, with typically only one member of the household (usually the man) working, a holiday could be built around his schedule, and otherwise quite readily accommodated by the children's school holiday. This is true in Dirty Dancing-- her father is a doctor, her mother is a homemaker, and she is a student. Nowadays, with more women working, there are two sets of vacation to contend with, making it more challenging to head to the Hamptons for a month. In the era of both Maisel and Dirty Dancing, only about 35% of American women held paid work.
Finally, the greatest labour change is the shift in the USA towards white-collar workers, aided by smartphones and laptops, working all the time. While it may seem strange nowadays, a move towards computer-aided work has vastly changed vacation culture. In the mid-century, an employer could wave you off with a "sure, take a few extra days"-- corporate oversight was limited and capacity to process data was too.
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