It’s been 35 years since Dirty Dancing hit cinemas and became an instant classic, gaining cult status due to its infectious soul soundtrack, seductive dance scenes, and the undeniable chemistry of lead stars Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey.
But the coming-of-age love story between Johnny Castle and Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman was also set against a backdrop of stark social commentary that shone a spotlight on the issues that plagued 1960s America.
In fact, the film’s central love story hinges on an illegal backstreet abortion. And following this year’s overturning of Roe V Wade – a 1973 decision in the US to legalise abortion – the film’s screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein speaks exclusively to Metro.co.uk about how her fight for a woman’s right to choose remains as pertinent as ever.
‘[The abortion] was always part of my story about one of the things that happen to young women who have little money and few choices, however glamourous they may seem from the outside,’ she said.
‘Baby wanted to join the Peace Corps and help disadvantaged people around the world. I wanted her to experience it for the first time close to home, and have her try to help.
‘When I put in the illegal abortion, people questioned me and asked why, because Roe V Wade had been in place for a long time by then.
‘But I always thought it might be overturned someday, and I’m sorry, so very sorry to have been right,’ she said, reflecting on the Supreme Court’s decision to end constitutional protections for abortion, prompting widespread protests in the US and around the world and a feeling of abject fear for the rights of women.
Set in the year 1963, Dirty Dancing is based on Bergstein’s own teenage holidays and focuses on Baby and the Houseman family spending a three-week vacation at an upscale Catskills resort. Baby meets Johnny and the rest of the professional dance crew and becomes entranced by their late-night parties and raunchy dance routines.
But she soon discovers that Johnny’s dance partner Penny (Cynthia Rhodes) has fallen pregnant by resort waiter Robbie (Max Cantor) and needs an abortion.
It’s made clear from the outset that there is a socioeconomic divide that exists between the entertainment staff, typically from working-class backgrounds, and the wait staff, who are hand selected from Ivy League colleges.
Penny doesn’t have the financial means for an abortion or to miss a day of work and Robbie refuses to pay, insisting, ‘I didn’t blow a summer hauling toasted bagels to bail out some little chick who probably balled every guy in the place.’
Baby borrows money from her unsuspecting doctor father for Penny’s procedure and volunteers to stand in for her performance with Johnny at a nearby resort.
But like so many abortions performed in those days, things don’t go as planned and Penny is left bleeding heavily and writhing in agony. The film doesn’t gloss over the horrifying reality of the situation, with the ‘doctor’ described as using a ‘folding table and a dirty knife’.
‘I could hear her screaming in the hallway,’ Johnny’s cousin Billy tells him. ‘I swear to God, I tried to get in. I tried.’
Bergstein says the graphic choice of language was very much intentional. She wanted to shock her young audience and even enlisted the help of an on-set doctor to ensure the terminology was correct.
‘When we shot the movie in 1987, the cast of young women had never heard of coat hanger backstreet abortions,’ she revealed.
‘They’d grown up with Roe V Wade always in their lives. When I explained it to them they were horrified and distraught. Because of this, I took care to have purple language I usually avoid, such as “dirty knife”, “folding table” and “I could hear her screaming in the hall”. Otherwise, I felt the young women who saw it would think it was a Planned Parenthood safe procedure that had somehow gone wrong.’
Recently, Jennifer Grey spoke of her own experience with abortion as a teenager and praised Bergstein and Dirty Dancing for their brave portrayal of the issue.
‘We saw someone who was hemorrhaging,’ Grey said of the film. ‘We saw what happens to people without means — the haves and the have-nots. I love that part of the storyline because it was really a feminist movie in a rom-com. It was a perfect use of history.’
Once filming had wrapped, there was strong pushback to ditch the abortion storyline altogether. A major national sponsor appeared and offered to put a tube of acne cream on every poster if it was taken out.
The studio asked Bergstein to remove it, but she stood firm and refused to budge.
‘The producers asked me to go into the editing room and take out the abortion,’ she explains. ‘I’d always known this day would happen so I’d rhythmed it very precisely into the plot. “Oh I’d be happy to, ‘ I told them, “but I can’t. It’s the reason for Baby to learn to dance with Johnny, for them to fall in love, for the whole story to take place.” So the abortion stayed in and the national sponsor disappeared with their tube of acne cream.’
It wasn’t the only stumbling block Dirty Dancing faced. Early screenings fared poorly with test audiences and the distributors planned to let it run for a weekend, then release it to home video. Everyone feared it would be a flop. But audiences turned out in their droves and Dirty Dancing became one of the megahits of 1987 – thrusting Swayze and Grey into superstardom.
Sadly, Swayze lost his life to cancer in 2009 but Bergstein still has fond memories of her time with the actor on set.
‘Patrick wanted most of all to be a good man and that he surely was,’ she says. ‘I have only lovely memories of him. He had a dog named Derek with him whom he brought to the set every day. Derek was perfectly well-behaved except when Patrick had a love scene with Jennifer. Derek hated that and would begin to howl. The only thing that quieted him was when I held him and whispered in his ear ‘Derek, he’s only doing this because we paid him to. You’re the one he really loves.’
Aside from writing, Bergstein has remained a staunch political advocate and campaigned strongly for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 campaign. Asked at the time what she believed Baby and Johnny would be doing now, she said, ‘If they were here they’d be working their asses off for Hillary – and we hope you will be too.’
Dirty Dancing is also set for an anticipated sequel in 2024 that will star Grey, and Bergstein is partnering with Lionsgate to bring a new version of the stage play to Broadway.
So over three decades on, there’s no question that Dirty Dancing’s global appeal has stood the test of time. But what does Bergstein hope the 1987 original’s lasting legacy will be?
‘I would like people to understand how pure and lovely girls like Penny, who want children of their own, get in situations they cannot get out of without shame and sorrow,’ she tells us.
‘And what I’d like people to understand most of all is that if your heart is pure, there is a chance you can make – if not the whole world – your world a little better. Especially young people who have their minds and hearts understandably on love and even on dancing. They have to think also of honour, hope and courage. It’s the only hope we have to turn the world around.’
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