The screenplay was written by Eleanor Bergstein and is based upon her summers as a teen in the 1960's spent at the resorts up in the Catskill Mountains. Bergstein drew upon her own life, growing up as the daughter of a Jewish doctor and enthusiastically participating in dirty dancing contests at the resort. Like Jennifer Gray's character in the film, Bergstein also had the nickname "Baby." Originally, the film was rejected by major studios. Finally, a relatively new studio known as Vestron Pictures agreed to make the film for a very low budget of $5 million. The filming took 44 days, and the Mountain Lake Resort in Pembroke, Virginia doubled for the Catskill Mountains.
The plot of "Dirty Dancing" revolves around Frances "Baby" Houseman during the summer of 1963. Baby and her well-to-do family are vacationing at Kellerman's, a resort in the Catskill Mountains. During the course of the summer, Baby becomes involved with Johnny, a dance teacher at the resort who comes from the "wrong side of the tracks." In order to help another dancer at the resort--Penny, who is pregnant and needs to get an abortion--Baby finds herself stepping in to learn the dance routines. As Baby becomes increasingly involved with Johnny, she asks her father for money and he unknowingly pays for Penny's abortion. Because of a series of misunderstandings, Johnny is ultimately accused of theft and is fired. Baby's father, who believed Johnny was the man responsible for Penny's pregnancy, is also against him. At the end of the film, all is resolved and forgiven and the movie ends with a show-stopping musical production number.
The film garnered multiple awards, primarily for music and the vastly popular song, "The Time of My Life." The song won the Academy Award for best Original Song in 1987. Additionally, the film was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1988 for Best Picture Comedy/Musical as well as earning Globe nominations for Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray as best actor and actress in a Comedy/Musical. Finally, the singers of "The Time of My Life," Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley, won a Grammy award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo.
The soundtrack for "Dirty Dancing" spent 18 weeks as the number-one album on the Billboard album sales charts. The album sold more than 39 million copies worldwide, and went platinum 11 times. A second album, "More Dirty Dancing," which consisted of additional songs from the same era, was released in February 1988. The second album went on to sell 32 million copies worldwide.
Eleanor Bergstein adapted the movie as a musical for the stage in 2004. "Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story" debuted in Australia with subsequent performances in Germany, England and the Netherlands. Box offices records continued to be broken in Toronto in 2007. "Dirty Dancing" continued its stage tour in 2008-2009 with performances in Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles.