Published: September 15, 2009 10:11 pm      

After Swayze death, Lamb recalls set of ‘Dirty Dancing’

PEMBROKE, Va. — When he responded to a casting call for extras in a film starring a then up-and-coming actor named Patrick Swayze, Randy Lamb was surprised to learn that the movie being filmed at the Mountain Lake Hotel in rural Giles County had no official name.

“At first we heard it would be called ‘Nomad and the Dirty Dancer,” Lamb, director of the Bluefield Dance Theater, said. “We were all like — that doesn’t sound too hot. The director, as well as the entire casting staff, really hadn’t even chosen a name yet. So we were a little skittish about being in this movie where we didn’t even know what the name would be.”

Lamb’s fears were quickly silenced. The movie went on to be called “Dirty Dancing,” and became a cult classic of modern cinema. Lamb, who is visible as an extra in two scenes, was saddened after learning late Monday night of Swayze’s death following a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

“Last night, I was teaching dancing, and went in to sit down, and just turned on the computer, and it was the first thing I saw,” Lamb said. “I was very sad.”

Lamb said Swayze was friendly to everyone on the movie set.

“Patrick was just very young,” Lamb said of the 1987 movie set at Mountain Lake. “He had not been married for too long. He was a great guy — very nice and very personable to everyone. The whole cast was very young.”

Lamb, along with his daughter Leslie, were both chosen to be in the film as extras.

“We were in two scenes,” Lamb said. “Leslie and I were very noticeable in the restaurant scene where Jennifer Gray talked to her mother. And then Jerry (Rose) and I are both in a nighttime gazebo scene toward the end of the movie.”

Twenty years after parts of Dirty Dancing were filmed at Mountain Lake, the modern film classic continues to attract large crowds to the resort.

“In fact, we tried to talk to Patrick Swayze’s agent to see if we could get him to come back to Mountain Lake (for the film’s 20th anniversary in 2007),” Mountain Lake General Manager Buzz Scanland said. “I think he made the movie, and I think the movie made him. It was one of those movies that really jelled, and just had a good ending to it. Everyone, and particularly women, just really loved it. People watched that movie so much — they just couldn’t get enough of it.”

Scanland said Swayze was still just an up-and-coming actor when he arrived in Pembroke for “Dirty Dancing.” Swayze’s previous movie credits had included “Red Dawn” in 1984 before his arrival in Giles County.

Today, more than 20 years later, regular tours and activities dealing with “Dirty Dancing” are still held at Mountain Lake. Recently, a reality show from England based on “Dirty Dancing” was filmed at the resort, along with a “Dirty Dancing” documentary.

“Honestly, I didn’t know Patrick Swayze, but the employees who had anything to do in the movie would say he was probably the nicest guy of anyone in the movie,” Scanland said. “The fellow who is now the chef at Mountain Lake, at the time they made the movie, he was a cook. One night, Patrick Swayze had missed his ride, and he went back into the kitchen, and asked if anyone was going back to Blacksburg. The fellow’s name was Mike Porterfield. He (Swayze) asked could I get a ride to the Marriott”

Scanland said Porterfield gave Swayze a ride to Blacksburg on the back of his motorcycle. Scanland said Porterfield still owns the prized motorcycle used to drive Swayze to Blacksburg in.

He (Swayze) told all of the people he was friends with up there not to call him Patrick — that he always goes by the name Buddy,” Scanland said.

When the filming of Dirty Dancing was completed at the Mountain Lake resort, Scanland said many locals had been hired as extras. However, many were surprised to see that they didn’t make it into the final cut of the film.

“It was funny — one of the women I know — she came up here and spent two or three nights (filming),” Scanland said. “But when they watched the movie, and they were extras, one of them said I might have seen my hand in the movie. And that was it.”

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com