Interview with Art Samson

Interview with Art Samson

Art Samson

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Interviewers

Alan Hoff

Description

Interview with Arthur Aaron “Art” Samson (1921-2006) recorded on August 9, 1995 in South Haven, Michigan. Originally recorded by Monadnock Media for a Kalamazoo Valley Museum exhibit on Jewish resorts in South Haven. As a child, the youngest of 5 kids, Art came with his family from Chicago in 1928 when his father, Fishl Samson, bought a building, which later developed into Samson's Resort. He recounts his memories of the resort, including:

  • his father calling in family to help build new additions, like a dining hall, and "paying" them only with whisky, herring, and rye bread;
  • working summers at the resort along with his siblings;
  • resort entertainment, open-air dance floors with color lights;
  • how their resort attracted clientele and poached guests at the docks;
  • washing dishes, checking the lights, cleaning the bathrooms, driving the bus, and other jobs on a typical day at the resort;
  • working hard all summer with little downtime, as usual for the resort workers in-season;
  • facing antisemitism;
  • leaving for the Army and WWII in 1942, then returning to South Haven to run a gas station;
  • Samson's Resort closing soon after the death of his father in 1949.

Date of Interview

8-9-1995

Location of Interview

South Haven, MI

Series

The South Haven Jewish Resort Oral History Project

Keywords

Resorts, Hotels, South Haven (Mich.)

Disciplines

Jewish Studies | Oral History | Public History

Notes

Digitized from videocassette.

Language

ENG

Document Type

Interview

Length of video

0:47:21

Length of video log

-

Interview with Art Samson

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Rights Statement

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted.