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Detail of a Macy’s poster advertising the Leisurama product. |
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Leisurama 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.
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