From THE CATSKILLS INSTITUTE (Organization to Promote Research and Education on the Significance of the Catskill Mountains for American Jewish Life:
My father (Chick Rosnick) was the golf pro at Napanoch Country Club from approx 1950-1960. We were poor and because my father had this position, my 2 brothers and I had the benefits of country club golf, swimming, and more. My father passed away this year and I am attempting to find any literature, pictures, articles, maps, or anything else about the resort. It became a “fat” girls resort.
“Fat farms” settings were attractive, but the programs were grueling. The daily food intake was limited to between 400 and 900 calories. Some camps used “slimming powders” and other extreme methods to get a movie a woman in shape for her next movie role or to slim down a wealthy woman for her wedding.
Camp Napanoch in Napanoch, N.Y. opened in 1963 and was the first to specialize in weight loss, but it went out of business in 1966. Despite that failure, by 1988, there were 84 weight loss camps mostly located within driving distance of New York City. Weight Watchers operated about a dozen of them.
