Leisurama
Long Island Readymade
By Jake Gorst
Although Roger Goodman gleefully tells people that it was a bra, it was, in fact, a set of towels that his wife Laura set out to purchase at Macy’s Herald Square that October day in 1963. Laura loved shopping, and she happily rummaged through the home furnishings department looking for bargains and admiring new and comfortably affordable products, such as the new Melmac dinnerware. “This is the beginning of Melmac,” Laura later recalled. “There were plastic dishes that were lovely.”

Suddenly Laura’s eye caught something that would forever change her life: a small sign pointing to the 9th-floor escalator reading “To the Model Home.” Curiosity got the better of her and she stepped onto the escalator. At the top was a full-scale model house consisting of a living room, dining room, kitchen and bathroom and a den fitted with a Murphy wall bed. It was completely furnished, down to the toothbrush. A salesman identified the open-plan dwelling as “Leisurama,” a weekend, vacation or retirement house meant for families that would typically spend about $1,000 a year for vacations and leisure pursuits. This appealed to Laura, who worked as a librarian at Hudde Junior High School in Brooklyn, New York. Roger was an English teacher at Manhattan’s Stuyvesant High School. They had the summer off each year, and would take a trip with their two sons. Laura carefully examined every square inch of the display.

The small ranch-style beach house was covered with redwood Plantex siding. The interior was paneled with a mahogany-look plywood composition. The kitchen included a General Electric range and oven, a dishwasher, a refrigerator and a clothes washer-dryer combination.
The furnishings had been selected by Matthew Sergio, then head of Macy’s decorating department. Customers could select from 60 upholstery and drapery fabrics in a wide range of colors. Melmac dinnerware, glassware, blankets, towels, bedspreads, placemats, napkins, shower curtains and many more accessories could be chosen to coordinate.

The basic Leisurama home, known as “The Convertible,” sold for $12,990, and included a 75 x 100 foot plot of land, plus all the furnishings. An expanded model, that included two separate bedrooms and a half bath, was $15,990. The majority of the homes were to be built in the sandy Culloden Beach area of Montauk, New York, at the end of Long Island in East Hampton township. Eight thousand Leisurama units were anticipated. Conceived by Herbert Sadkin of All-State Properties, the development was designed by