Catskill Mountains

Catskill Mountains, an area in New York State northwest of New York City and southwest of Albany, are a mature dissected plateau, an uplifted region that was subsequently eroded into sharp relief. They are an eastward continuation, and the highest representation, of the Allegheny Plateau. They are sometimes considered an extension of the Appalachian Mountains into Upstate New York, although they are not geologically related. The Catskills are west of the Hudson River and lie within the bounds of six counties (Otsego, Delaware, Sullivan, Schoharie, Greene, and Ulster). The Catskill Mountains are also considered a physiographic section of the larger Appalachian Plateau province, which in turn is part of the larger Appalachian physiographic division. The mountains lie within the Allegheny Highlands forests ecoregion.

Catskills are famous in American cultural history for being the site of the so-called Borscht Belt, a Jewish resort area where many young Jewish stand-up comics got their start.

The Catskill mountains and their inhabitants play an important role in the stories My Side of the Mountain and its sequels by Jean Craighead George and in H. P. Lovecraft's "The Lurking Fear" & "Beyond the Wall of Sleep".

The town of Palenville located in the Catskills figures in Washington Irving's story as the home of "Rip Van Winkle".

The Catskills are mentioned in The Band's song "Time to Kill." The Band was also photographed there for their first album, Music from Big Pink The Band in the Catskills.

The Catskills are also mentioned in Beck's song "High Five (Rock the Catskills)" on his 1996 album Odelay.

Mercury Rev's song "Opus 40" on their 1998 album Deserter's Songs contains the line "Catskill mansions buried dreams/ I'm alive she cried but I don't know what it means". The band and their studios are based in the Catskills, and the area is often referred to in interview.

The Catskills are mentioned as well in Pela's song "Rooftops (Moth Song Outro)" on their 2007 album Anytown Graffiti.

Much of the present-day (as of publication) action of Art Spiegelman's award-winning graphic novel Maus is set in the Catskills.

Kid Rock Mentions The Catskills In His Song 'Low Life'

The Catskills is the setting for much of the King of Queens episode "Paint Misbehavin'."

Referenced in John Green's Paper Towns.

A Home Box Office miniseries is planned that will dramatize the a New York magazine article on natural gas drillers coming to the region. Richard Russo, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is writing a script for the project.

Catskills Mountains is also referred to in the introductory monologue of the 1977 movie Annie Hall, directed by Woody Allen. The line, spoken by movie's main character Alvy Singer, goes like this: "There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, 'Boy, the food at this place is really terrible.' The other one says, 'Yeah, I know; and such small portions.' Well, that's essentially how I feel about life - full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly."

The town of Bethel, New York, located in the Catskills was home to the famous Woodstock Music festival in 1969

The 1973 novel Nickel Mountain: A Pastoral Novel by John Gardner takes place in the Catskill Mountains.

===Films set, or filmed in, the Catskills===F)U: 

The Tears of Julian Po (1997) Christian Slater - filmed in FleischmannsC

99 Geiger Road  2007 - Documentary abouKt a bungalow colony of Holocaust survivors

The Cake Eaters (2007)

Casper Meets Wendy (1995) Wendy and her aunts run into Casper and his uncles at a resort in the Catskills.

The Catskill Chainsaw Redemption (2004) A horror movie.

The hit 1987 film Dirty Dancing was set in a Catskills resort in the summer of 1963 (though filmed at Mountain Lake in Virginia and at Lake Lure in North Carolina.)

Four Seasons Documentary (2006 - in production) Follows the lives of Holocaust survivors in a Borscht Belt colony

The Gig (1985) Director: Frank D. Gilroy, character study, amateur musicians get a gig.

Goyband (2008) Dirty Dancing meets My Big Fat Greek Wedding with a touch of Fiddler on the Roof.

Having Wonderful Time (1938) Red Skelton's first movie, set in a Catskills hotel.

Heavy (1995) An independent film starring Liv Tyler, Debbie Harry, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Shelley Winters, and Joe Grifasi was filmed partially in the southern Catskills in Barryville and Highland Lake.

Kaaterskill Falls (2001) Award-winning independent film about a young urban couple befriending a local hitchhiker. Mountain country version of Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water. (Actually filmed in the Catskills.)

Manny & Lo (1996)

Rip Van Winkle (1921) Silent film version of the classic story

Stagedoor (2006) Documentary on life at a teen camp

Sweet Lorraine (1987) story of an aging Catskill resort in its last days, filmed at the former Heiden Hotel in South Fallsburg.

Taking Woodstock (2009) -- The story of how Elliot Tiber helped bring the Woodstock Festival to Bethel, New York.

Magic, the 1978 film starring Anthony Hopkins is set in the Catskills.

Tootsie (1982) - Features scenes in the "Hurley Mountain Inn" located in Ulster County.

Parts of the movie Transamerica (2005) starring Felicity Huffman were filmed in Callicoon though in the movie it's referred to as Callicoon, Kentucky.

A Walk on the Moon (1999) Set in Sullivan County, but filmed in Quebec, Canada.

Part of the movie War of the Worlds was filmed in Athens at the foot of the Catskills (the burning train and ferry scene)

WaterFall in the Catskills (1897, the Edison Studio)

Wendigo (2001) Filmed in West Shokan and Phoenicia area.Starred Maureen Stapleton.

Woodstock, a 1970 documentary about the Woodstock Festival of 1969, was filmed at the festival in Bethel.

You Can Count on Me (2000) Award-winning independent film set in the village of Scottsville, in western New York near Rochester, but filmed in the Catskills, in and around Margaretville and Phoenicia.