Leisurama: An Exhibit Showcasing the Iconic Beach House of the 1960s Debuts This June

Leisurama was a concept so connected to its era that it’s hard to imagine anything like it happening at any other time in history. I mean, the name alone: Leisurama. Suggesting not just leisure time, but a specific place where it would be enjoyed. And the place was Montauk, in the mid-1960s.

The Leisurama story has become popular enough to have been told in a documentary (2005, by Jake Gorst) and a book (2008, by Paul Sahre). And this summer, thanks to a generous gift of original furniture from the heirs of Florence Donohue, it will be the subject of an immersive, interactive exhibition at the Carl Fisher House in Montauk.

Leisurama was the brainchild of Herbert Sadkin, a Long Island developer who had made his name in the USSR, of all places. Already a successful builder, in 1959 Sadkin and his All-State Properties were invited to create a “typical American house” for the American National Exhibition in Moscow as part of a cultural exchange between our two nations. The month before, the Russians had mounted their exhibition at the New York Coliseum, focusing on aerospace, agriculture, music and art. Americans, lagging behind in the space race, chose instead to shine their light on consumer goods, communication, and the capitalist lifestyle.

Sadkin’s house was based on an actual house he had built in Commack, rendered snazzier by designer Raymond Loewy and his in-house architect Andrew Geller, and then split in two so that Soviet visitors could comfortably meander through it. (“Splitnik,” the papers called it, in a play on the Russian “Sputnik” satellite.) It was entirely furnished by Macy’s in the latest mid-century modern style, and boasted an all-electric kitchen by GE, complete with range, dishwasher, fridge, washer-dryer, and every conceivable labor-saving device.

It was the kitchen that stole the show, sparking verbal sparring between Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in what would later be known as the “kitchen debate.” When he wasn’t insisting that Russian kitchen gadgets were at least as good as ours, if not better, Khrushchev complained that our appliances were decadent — “do you also have a machine that puts the food in your mouth and pushes it down?” he asked, heavy on the irony.

We don’t know what average Russians thought of American modern conveniences, but when Nixon returned home from behind the Iron Curtain, he and the all-electric kitchen were hailed as winners.

So, back on Long Island, buoyed by his success, Sadkin decided to create another affordable house for the average middle-class American — but this time, it would be a vacation home. (That would really show the Russians.) The same team came together — Andrew Geller, Raymond Loewy, and Macy’s — to present Leisurama, “the greatest advance in housing since the invention of bricks!”

It’s hard to believe in light of today’s eye-watering prices, but back in the early 1960s, land in Montauk was cheap. And a large parcel near Culloden Point had been slated for this type of subdivision way back in the 1920s, when Carl Fisher planned his dream resort of Montauk Beach. So in collaboration with local real-estate agents Frank Tuma and Ed Pospisil, Leisurama was launched. There were three models and color schemes to choose from, and each house came fully furnished by Macy’s, including linens, cookware, tableware, appliances, and — famously — toothbrushes, on a lot of your choosing, with deeded access to a private beach. The prices were beyond reasonable — $12,900 for the smallest version, and $15,900 for the “expanded” one, slightly more if you wanted a fireplace.

If the idea was good, the marketing was even better. Entire Leisurama houses were built at the 1964 World’s Fair, on the Plaza in Montauk, at Macy’s Roosevelt Field, and on the 9th floor of Macy’s Herald Square, so prospective buyers could walk through them and be beguiled. In the words of architect William Morgan: “The Leisurama story is rarely told without some tale of a woman going to Herald Square to buy a bra and coming home with a house instead.”

You’d think that the houses would sell overnight, but they didn’t, and Sadkin’s company was forced to file for bankruptcy. Montauk was still remote and unfamiliar, and you needed foresight to invest your money in a second home out here at the end of the world. (Foresight, and a down payment: $490 for the smaller house or $940 for the one that had bedrooms.)

Only about 200 Leisuramas — far fewer than originally planned — were built in Culloden Shores for those brave souls who figured that the deal was so good, they couldn’t possibly lose. And they were right: The houses are now selling for well over $1 million, and some have appreciated more than 100-fold.

But we who were Leisurama kids, we know their real value. In 1965 we entered a ready-made neighborhood with a built-in gang of friends, all of us new kids at the same time, growing up together, summer after summer. We spent June to August out-of-doors, on the beach, at the pond, in the woods, down the docks, on our bikes. We had our first jobs in Montauk, and our first crushes; we learned to drive here; we made friendships that have lasted to this day. Even as children we knew how lucky we were, and the memories only grow more precious as the years pass.

Change, of course, is inevitable. In 2024, almost every Leisurama has been altered and added onto, and about 20 of them have been replaced by dwellings two and even three times larger than the originals. The empty lots of our childhood (those unsold properties!) have long since been built on, and the neighborhood’s mid-century ranch character has been adulterated, if not lost.

But somehow there remains, maybe in the slope of the rooflines, or in the modest size of the lots, some of the spirit of 1965, when we knew for sure that the future held promise, and what was good today would be even better tomorrow.

“Leisurama!” will be on view at the Carl Fisher House in Montauk from June 30 through Labor Day.

Mia Certic is the Executive Director of the Montauk Historical Society.