Credit Photo illustrations by Zachary Scott for The New York Times. Hair and Makeup: Bruce Spaulding Fuller, Aimee Macabeo, Stephanie Daniel. Wardobe: Gillean McLeod. Set and Props: Patrick Muller. Retouching: Electric Art, Amy Dresser.
One day in the fall of 1981, eight men in their 70s stepped out of a van in front of a converted monastery in New Hampshire. They shuffled forward, a few of them arthritically stooped, a couple with canes. Then they passed through the door and entered a time warp. Perry Como crooned on a vintage radio. Ed Sullivan welcomed guests on a black-and-white TV. Everything inside — including the books on the shelves and the magazines lying around — were designed to conjure 1959. This was to be the men’s home for five days as they participated in a radical experiment, cooked up by a young psychologist named Ellen Langer.
