Borscht circuit

This is the name for a group of predominately Jewish hotels in the Catskill Mountains of New York State. In the 1930’s it was customary for entertainers to “play the circuit,” traveling from one hotel to another very few days. Today, these hotels, which then were little more than glorified rooming houses, are multimillion-dollar establishments, running year round and employing very highly paid entertainers. Still, the nickname persists, especially inside show business. The borscht in the title is in reference to the kind of Russian beet soup once a staple on the menus at these hotels.