Wilt Chamberlain: Borscht Belt Bellhop
Caroline Laskow, Ian Rosenberg / USA
(8 min)

In 1954, before his senior year of high school, Wilt Chamberlain took a summer job that would change his life. He worked as a bellhop at Kutsher’s Country Club, a Jewish resort in the Catskill Mountains. By day he was making $2 an hour and getting great tips from the awestruck guests as he lifted their luggage through a second floor window while standing outside on the ground. At night, he played on the Kutsher’s basketball team and was coached hard by the resort’s athletic director, the soon-to-be legendary Red Auerbach. Mixing rarely-seen archival video and interviews with people who lived and worked with Wilt during that magical summer, this documentary short reveals an unexplored and pivotal chapter in the life of one of basketball’s greatest players, and a fascinating glimpse of a time when a very different era of basketball met the Borscht Belt in its heyday.

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  • Official Selection: Tribeca Film Festival

hsdff Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival sports hot springs shorts sports shorts wilt chamberlain borscht belt bellhop