{{Short description|Resort in Pike County, Pennsylvania, U.S.}} [[File:Tamiment Advertisement 1935.jpg|thumb|right|Advertisement in ''The Nation'' for a summer conference on labor, industry and government at Camp Tamiment featuring several prominent socialist and labor leaders as speakers, 1935]] '''Tamiment''', first known as '''Camp Tamiment''', was an American resort located in the Pocono Mountains of Pike County, Pennsylvania, which existed from 1921 through 2005.
Originally established by the Rand School of Social Science in New York City as a Socialist camp and summer school, Tamiment developed into a regular resort and later fell under private ownership.<ref name=Swanson>{{cite journal| first=Dorothy |last=Swanson | title=The Tamiment Institute/Ben Josephson Library and the Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University | journal = Library Quarterly | volume= 59|issue= 2 |date=April 1989 | page=153|doi=10.1086/602107 |s2cid=143831899 }} [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4308352 In JSTOR]</ref><ref name=Squeri>{{cite book|last1=Squeri|first1=Lawrence|title=Better in the Poconos: The Story of Pennsylvania's Vacationland|date=2002|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|location=University Park, PA|isbn=0271021578|pages=133, 203|ref=Squeri}}</ref><ref name=PoconoRecord1>{{cite news|title=Tamiment is sold in multimillion dollar deal| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/40460120/|access-date=December 21, 2020 | work=The Pocono Record|date=July 3, 1965}}</ref> The Tamiment Playhouse entertained guests with weekly revues and served as a training ground for many prominent Broadway and TV performers and writers. Playhouse alumni have included Danny Kaye, Imogene Coca, Jerome Robbins, Carol Burnett,<ref name=Sweet>{{cite journal| first=Jeffrey |last=Sweet | title=The Tamiment Connection |journal = American Theatre |volume=25 | number=9 | date=November 2008 | pages= 74–79}}</ref> Woody Allen,<ref name=Evanier>{{cite book|last1=Evanier|first1=David|title=Woody: The Biography|date=2015|publisher=St. Martin's Press|location=New York|isbn=978-1-250-04726-7|page=94}}</ref> Neil Simon,<ref name=Simon>{{cite book|last1=Simon|first1=Neil|title=Collected Plays of Neil Simon Volume IV|date=1998|publisher=Simon & Schuster Paperbacks|location=New York|isbn=978-0-684-84785-6|page=361}}</ref> and many others. Tamiment was a popular resort for Jewish singles<ref name=Sweet74 /> and has been referred to as "a progressive version of the Catskills"<ref name=Nesteroff /> and "a pillar of the Poconos tourist industry.<ref name="Sadowski">{{cite news |last1=Sadowski |first1=Michael |date=January 7, 2011 |title=Lehman officials will vote today on plan to turn resort into condominium complex |work=Pocono Record |url=https://www.poconorecord.com/story/news/2005/03/22/lehman-officials-will-vote-today/51053502007/ |accessdate=October 21, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021230003/https://www.poconorecord.com/story/news/2005/03/22/lehman-officials-will-vote-today/51053502007/ |archive-date=October 21, 2023}}</ref>
The Tamiment golf course, designed by Robert Trent Jones,<ref name=Stutz /><ref name=Hansen /> was ranked among the top 200 U. S. golf courses by ''Golf Digest'' magazine.<ref name=Belden>{{cite news|last1=Belden|first1=Tom|title=Golfing In The Poconos Offers Tees With A View|url=http://articles.philly.com/1986-09-28/news/26071770_1_golf-courses-greens-fees-golf-carts|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017012125/http://articles.philly.com/1986-09-28/news/26071770_1_golf-courses-greens-fees-golf-carts|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 17, 2015|accessdate=January 26, 2016|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|date=September 28, 1986}}</ref> The resort was liquidated in 2005 to make room for a residential condominium development.<ref name="Sadowski" /><ref name=Devlin>{{cite news | url = https://www.mcall.com/2005/05/15/tamiment-bidders-find-bargains-full-of-memories-another-poconos-resort-is-sold-everything-from-pianos-to-tvs-are-sold-at-auction/ | work = The Morning Call | location = Allentown, Pennsylvania | title = Tamiment bidders find bargains full of memories | date=May 15, 2005|first= Ron | last= Devlin| access-date= 2014-02-14 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101003072855/http://articles.mcall.com/2005-05-15/news/3605774_1_auction-block-poconos-resort-s-history | archive-date= 2010-10-03 | url-status=live}}</ref>
==History== ===Background=== The Rand School of Social Science was a Socialist institution in New York City, founded in 1906 and governed by the American Socialist Society.<ref name="Lee">{{cite news|last1=Lee|first1=Algernon|title=Rand School Kept Torch Of Truth And Knowledge Since Its Inception|work=The New York Call|date=July 28, 1919}}</ref> The school enrolled five thousand students annually between 1910 and 1920 but often did not have enough capital to cover operating costs.<ref name=Swanson2>Swanson, pp. 152-153.</ref> The Lusk Committee, led by New York state senator Clayton Lusk, was investigating what it regarded as "subversive activities" and attempted to close the Rand School by injunction.<ref name=Swanson2 />
The school fought and won a costly two-year battle to remain open but, in 1920, its operating capital was at an all-time low.<ref name=Swanson /> Bertha Mailly, executive secretary of the Rand School, held many fundraisers and was credited for keeping the school afloat. She conceived of the idea of establishing a summer school and camp that would generate enough revenue to support both itself and the Rand School.<ref name=Swanson />
In the summer of 1919 Mailly had visited Unity House in Bushkill, Pennsylvania, a resort operated by a local chapter of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU).<ref name=Swanson /> While she was there she learned that an adjoining 2,100 acre property was for sale, promptly made a deposit, and successfully raised the money to buy the land and establish a new camp. The facility was named Tamiment, an old Native American word for the area,<ref name=Swanson /> and would be located less than one hundred miles from New York City.<ref name=Feigenbaum>{{cite news|last1=Feigenbaum|first1=William|title=Camp Tamiment Exceeds Promise of Press Agent|work=The New York Call|date=July 21, 1921}}</ref>
===Establishment and development=== Camp Tamiment opened on June 21, 1921, and its first visitors were 65 members of Local Allentown, a Socialist party.<ref name=NYCall1>{{cite news|title=Camp Tamiment Opens With 65 Picnickers From Allentown, Pa.|work=The New York Call|date=June 20, 1921}}</ref> The camp was designed "to diffuse a general knowledge of literature, art and science through the medium of lectures, publications, and dramatic performances."<ref name=Stutz>{{cite book|last1=Stutz|first1=Bruce|title=Natural Lives Modern Times|date=1992|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|location=Philadelphia|page=323}}</ref> It earned an operating profit in its first year and became self-sustaining after 1923.<ref name=Squeri132>Squeri, p. 132</ref> Between 1937 and 1956, Camp Tamiment funded between half and three-quarters of the Rand School's annual operating budget.<ref name=Swanson154>Swanson, p. 154.</ref>
In December 1922, Mailly referred to the camp as a "great aid and inspiration" for the Rand School.<ref name="NYCall">{{cite news|title=Call and Rand School To Win Together, Says Mrs. Mailly|work=The New York Call|date=December 3, 1922}}</ref> She said, "It enabled us to give the young men and women the thing they need, the joy of living to which they are entitled. They study with us. We teach them how to think in the right direction and in their leisure hours, we prove to them that we know how to play."<ref name="NYCall" /> Camp Tamiment was described as "...the first attempt of Socialists and working people to make for themselves a place for rest, recreation and vacationing."<ref name=Feigenbaum /> A corporation identified as the People's Educational Camp Society (PECS) was created for the purpose of operating the camp.<ref name=Squeri132 />
Author Martha LaMonaco wrote, "Legally, the camp had been established as a separate entity from the school, but the two organizations shared both a common political and social ideology and numerous board members."<ref>{{cite book |last1=LoMonaco |first1=Martha Schmoyer |title=Every week, a Broadway revue : the Tamiment Playhouse, 1921-1960 |date=1992 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Connecticut |isbn=0313279969 |page=172}}</ref> The PECS board had envisioned Camp Tamiment as a country summer school, but Mailly and manager Ben Josephson chose to turn the facility into a regular resort.<ref name=Squeri133>Squeri, p. 133</ref> Political subjects were progressively downplayed while swimming, tennis, and calisthenics became the most popular activities.<ref name=Squeri133 />
Tamiment served as a destination for Jewish singles from the working and emerging middle class<ref name=Sweet74>Sweet, p. 74.</ref> and would be referred to as "a progressive version of the Catskills..."<ref name=Nesteroff>{{cite book|last1=Nesteroff|first1=Kliph|title=The Comedians|date=2015|publisher=Grove Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8021-2398-5|at=Chapter Four}}</ref> The facility included a 90-acre lake<ref name=PoconoRecord1 /> and, in 1947, Tamiment opened an 18-hole golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones.<ref name=Stutz /><ref name=Hansen>{{cite book|last1=Hansen|first1=James|title=A Difficult Par|date=2014|publisher=Penguin Group|location=New York|isbn=978-0-698-15700-2|at=Appendix A}}</ref>
The golf course has been ranked among the top 200 U. S. courses by ''Golf Digest'' magazine<ref name=Belden /> and, beginning in 1959, it was the site of an annual golf tournament hosted by prominent entertainer Danny Kaye.<ref>{{cite news |title=WVCC Foursome Enters Tourney At Tamiment |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/421295129/|access-date=December 21, 2020 |work=The Times-Leader |location=Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania| date=June 19, 1959}}</ref><ref name=Devlin /> Josephson described the Tamiment facility as "a summer resort that has attained top rank in the field, outranking by far many of the privately owned vacation places in both beauty and business."<ref name=Stutz />
The camp did not consider itself just a recreational enterprise as it had educational and cultural programs. All of the profits were reinvested in the camp or donated to charitable or educational institutions. These factors allowed Camp Tamiment to have tax-exempt status, which significantly contributed to its success.<ref name=Swanson154 />
Author Lawrence Squeri wrote, "Once Tamiment became a money-making resort, it also became a paradox. Ostensibly an institution devoted to the undermining of capitalism, it sought to make money in the best capitalist tradition."<ref name=Squeri133 /> In the 1950s, resort guests might not have been aware of Tamiment's political agenda as it was sponsoring seminars offsite in New York City.<ref name=Squeri180>Squeri, p. 180</ref>
===Later years and dissolution=== The government took notice of Tamiment's tax exemption and would later characterize it as "one of the largest, most modern, and most profitable resorts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."<ref name=Swanson154 /> In 1956 the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) revoked Tamiment's tax-exempt status, ruling that the People's Educational Camp Society's main business was running a summer resort for profit and that its social agenda was secondary.<ref name=Squeri203>Squeri, p. 203</ref> The camp decided to acquire the title to the Rand School's library, the Meyer London Memorial Library and Reading Room, in order to continue its tax exemption.<ref name=Swanson154 /> On March 29, 1956, the PECS acquired the title and full ownership of both the Rand School and its library.<ref name=Swanson154 /><ref name=LoMonaco172>LoMonaco, p. 172</ref> (The PECS dissolved the Rand School while its library, renamed the Tamiment Institute Library, moved into the Bobst Library at New York University in 1973.)<ref name=LoMonaco172>LoMonaco, p. 172</ref><ref name=Swanson148>Swanson, pp. 148, 154</ref>
After multiple court appeals, the PECS lost its case for tax-exemption, and in 1963 Tamiment's parent corporation had a tax bill of almost ninety thousand dollars.<ref name=Squeri203 /> On September 18, 1963, Josephson recommended to the PECS board that the resort be sold,<ref name=Squeri203 /> and on June 28, 1965, Camp Tamiment was acquired by a Delaware corporation in a multimillion-dollar deal.<ref name=PoconoRecord1/> Squeri wrote, "Once PECS lost the encumbrance of a commercial enterprise, it quickly regained its tax free status."<ref name=Squeri203 /> At the time of the sale, Tamiment was described as "one of the largest resort hotels in the country..." and included over 150 buildings, over 300 employees, a theater that could seat 1,000 people, and a dining room that could seat 1,200.<ref name=PoconoRecord1/>
During the 1970s and 1980s, stars Joan Rivers, Frankie Valli, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Alan King, and Donny and Marie Osmond performed at Tamiment.<ref name="Sadowski" /> Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton purchased the resort in 1982 for a reported $15 million and planned to make it the flagship property in a national chain of timeshare hotels.<ref name=NewCastleNews>{{cite news|title=Wayne Newton plunges into the resort business|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/new-castle-news-may-28-1983-p-20/|access-date=December 21, 2020 |work=New Castle News|date=May 28, 1983}}</ref> He sold Tamiment in 1987.<ref name="Walker">{{cite news|last1=Walker|first1=Constance|title=Newton's woes won't trouble Northeastern|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/283734990/|access-date=December 21, 2020|work=The Morning Call|date=August 19, 1992}}</ref> Lawrence Squeri wrote in 2002 that the facility "no longer has the New York liberal Jewish flavor that made it unique."<ref name=Squeri203 />
In March 2005 Tamiment owner Suong Hong sold the resort for $64 million to developers Greystone Capital Partners of Paoli, Pennsylvania.<ref name=Devlin /> The firm started auctioning off Tamiment's contents on May 14 with the intention of demolishing the resort buildings.<ref name=Devlin /> As of 2011, Greystone was planning to build over 200 residential condominiums on the 2,200 acre property.<ref name="Sadowski" /> At the time of its sale, Tamiment was considered "...a pillar of the Poconos tourist industry."<ref name="Sadowski" />
==Tamiment Playhouse== The original Tamiment Playhouse was a multi-purpose facility in the 1930s while a new theater opened on July 5, 1941.<ref name=LoMonaco99>LoMonaco, pp. 99-100</ref> LaMonaco wrote, "From all accounts, the theatre was not only beautiful but commodious, with 1,200 seats on a raked main floor and balcony. It was constructed almost entirely of wood cut at Pike County sawmills, with local fieldstone used on part of the exterior."<ref name=LoMonaco99>LoMonaco, pp. 99-100</ref> Max Liebman became theater director at Tamiment in 1933<ref name=LoMonaco41>LoMonaco, pp. 41-42</ref> and created an original stage revue every Saturday night during the 10-week summer season.<ref name=Sweet74 /><ref name=NYTobit>{{cite news | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/24/obituaries/max-liebman-tv-producer-is-dead.html | title= Max Liebman, TV Producer, Is Dead | work = The New York Times | date= July 24, 1981 | accessdate=2016-01-18}}</ref> His shows combined music and dance with comedy, and the people Liebman hired included Danny Kaye, Sylvia Fine, Imogene Coca, Betty Garrett, Jules Munshin, Herbert Ross, and Jerome Robbins.<ref name=Sweet75>Sweet, p. 75.</ref> The Broadway musical ''The Straw Hat Revue'' was based on his Tamiment revues from the 1939 season and had a large cast of Tamiment players.<ref name=Sweet79>Sweet, p. 79.</ref> Liebman's last season at the playhouse was 1949<ref name=LoMonaco114>LoMonaco, p. 114</ref> and, during the 1950s, he directed the TV variety show ''Your Show of Shows,'' utilizing his Tamiment experience to put on a weekly live revue.<ref name=NYTobit /><ref name=Sweet76>Sweet, p. 76.</ref> He stated, "I was really preparing myself for television at Tamiment. I was doing what you might call television without cameras..."<ref name=Nachman>{{cite book|last1=Nachman|first1=Gerald|title=Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s|url=https://archive.org/details/seriouslyfunnyre00nach|url-access=registration|date=2003|publisher=Pantheon Books|location=New York|isbn=0375410309|page=[https://archive.org/details/seriouslyfunnyre00nach/page/113 113]}}</ref>
Tamiment Playhouse was referred to as the "Poconos boot camp for Broadway writers and performers."<ref name=SmithLitton>{{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=Cecil|last2=Litton|first2=Glenn|title=Musical Comedy In America|date=1981|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=0-87830-564-5|page=226|edition=Second}}</ref> Broadway and TV producers watched the shows there and recruited new talent.<ref name=Evanier94>Evanier, p. 94</ref> Performers Barbara Cook, Carol Burnett, Bea Arthur, Larry Kert, and others gained experience at Tamiment.<ref name=Sweet79 /> Cook considered the playhouse to be a "very important step" for her, as she developed the confidence to perform on Broadway.<ref name=Sweet79 /> Noted choreographer Robbins learned the importance of timing and acquired the skill to quickly assemble material at Tamiment.<ref name=Robbins1>{{cite news|last1=Campbell|first1=Karen|title=The footsteps of a great choreographer|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1012/p15s02-bogn.html|accessdate=September 21, 2015|work=The Christian Science Monitor|date=October 12, 2004|ref=Robbins1}}</ref> Composer Jerry Bock spent three summers there, which he said helped prepare him for the experience of reworking a musical in pre-Broadway tryouts.<ref name=Lambert>{{cite book|last1=Lambert|first1=Philip|title=To Broadway, To Life!|date=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-19-539007-0|pages=32–35}}</ref> Bock stated, "…How do you get to Broadway? Practice, at Tamiment!"<ref name=Sweet79 /> Neil Simon's first theater work were the sketches he wrote with his brother Danny Simon for Tamiment Playhouse shows.<ref name=Simon /> "Getting the job at Tamiment was my first exposure to writing for the stage," Neil recalled, "and I knew as soon as I did that, it was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life."<ref name=LoMonaco130>LoMonaco, p. 130</ref>
Woody Allen acted and directed for the first time at Tamiment, where he also went from writing jokes to writing sketch comedy.<ref name=Evanier94 /> Authors Willis Hall and Keith Waterhouse wrote, "Allen bemoaned the fact that he was not able to sell any of his Tamiment material, yet many of the ideas and themes formulated at Tamiment were seminal in terms of his later work..."<ref name=Evanier96>Evanier, p. 96</ref>
''Once Upon A Mattress'' was originally presented as a one-act musical at the Tamiment Playhouse in August 1958.<ref name=Barer>{{Citation | last = Barer | first = Marshall| chapter = Breakthrough Casting In Once Upon A Mattress | editor-last1 = Viner | editor-first1 = Michael | editor-last2 = Frankel | editor-first2 = Terrie Maxine | title = Tales from the Casting Couch | publisher = Phoenix Books|year=1995| isbn = 1-59777-642-4 }}</ref> The show had been written by resident Tamiment writers<ref name=Barer /> and was designed to accommodate the lead players there.<ref name=Sweet79 /> After being a hit with hotel guests, ''Once Upon A Mattress'' was significantly expanded for Off-Broadway, later moved to Broadway, and became one of the most frequently produced musicals in the United States.<ref name=Wright>{{cite news|last1=Wright|first1=William|title=A Broadway Scion Who Rules with a Song|work=The New York Times|date=December 15, 1996}}</ref>
The Tamiment Playhouse presented weekly summer revues until 1960, when audiences were dwindling.<ref name=Sweet79 /> The theater was razed in 1976 to make space for meetings rooms and indoor tennis courts.<ref name=LoMonaco173>LoMonaco, p. 173</ref>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==Further reading== * Jill P. Capuzzo, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140215042838/http://articles.philly.com/1991-04-14/news/25780569_1_poconos-rustic-pleasures-country-inns "A Poconos Surprise: Naturally At Tamiment, A Cabin In The Woods Affords All The Rustic Pleasures..."] ''Philadelphia Inquirer'', April 14, 1991. * Frederic Cornell, ''A History of the Rand School of Social Science, 1906 to 1956.'' PhD dissertation. Columbia University Teachers College, 1976. * Martha Schmoyer LoMonaco, ''Every Week, A Broadway Revue: The Tamiment Playhouse, 1921-1960.'' Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992. * Rachel Cutler Schwartz, ''The Rand School of Social Science, 1906-1924: A Study of Worker Education in the Socialist Era.'' PhD dissertation. State University of New York at Buffalo, 1984.
{{More categories|date=July 2025}} Category:1921 establishments in Pennsylvania Category:2005 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1921 Category:Pocono Mountains Category:Socialism in Pennsylvania Category:Socialist Party of America