Although short-lived, the Talisman Yacht Club was one of the most unique and visionary clubs created on Fire Island. Its distinctiveness was matched only by that of its founder, a "hippie millionaire" who imprinted his global outlook on a 12 acre plot of sand about 50 miles from New York City. The free-wheeling atmosphere brought distinguished guests from all over the world by both boat and plane, before the club sunsetted into the dunes almost as quickly as it appeared.
Promotional club brochure, early 1960s
Announcement article in the New York Times, August 1960
Talisman burst to life on the sandy shores of Fire Island, New York, over the 4th of July weekend in 1960. According to legend, its founders were jetting back to New York City from a high-society gathering in Saint-Tropez, when they happened to glance down at a bare spot on the beach and decided to build a new “sanctuary.” And so the Talisman Yacht Club was conceived on a whim, flying through the air, by the cool and rich for their cool and rich friends. A fitting origin for what would transpire.
The club’s founding father was Michael Butler, a man you could argue inspired Dos Equis’ award-winning Most Interesting Man campaign. (NPR tells me he didn’t, but he might as well have.) He was born into a wealthy Chicago family that owned Butler Paper Corporation (the first company to print paper for the United States Congress) and Butler Aviation, and was an avid yachtsman, polo player, producer, photographer, real estate developer, businessman, statesman, and heir to his family's fortune. In the mid 1950s his friend, fellow yachtsman and then-Senator John F. Kennedy (who he photographed aboard his schooner Coradina years earlier) made him a special adviser on the Middle East, a role he held into the Kennedy presidency. Local Long Island newspaper Newsday dubbed him “The Hippie Millionaire” in 1968, explaining, “Butler, who is driven about in an antique Rolls-Royce, feels he’s a hippie...he even looks like a hippie, in leather jacket, bushy mustache and long hair. But the jacket cost a bundle from an exclusive men’s shop in town."
'Playboy' was another descriptor used for Butler, as he was married and divorced three times before he was 40. According to the New York Times, "he was linked romantically to a number of partners over the years, including Audrey Hepburn in the 1950s." In 1971 he was awarded the prestigious Jaipur Trophy in polo by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip, and was featured on the cover of Playgirl magazine in October 1975. His personal motto was "if you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much room." A most interesting man indeed.
Michael Butler at the helm of his sailing yacht Coradina, 1950s
Butler receiving the Jaipur Trophy from Queen Elizabeth II, 1971
Snapshots of a yachting John F. Kennedy by Michael Butler, early 1950s
Eager to bring his own vision to this strip of sand, Butler partnered with Atlantic Records executive Ahmet Ertegun, known for signing Ray Charles and the Rolling Stones, to purchase a 12-acre tract of land for development between the Fire Island Pines to the west and Water Island to the east. Their project was more cosmopolitan and avant-garde than anything Fire Island had yet seen. (At the time, areas like the Pines and Cherry Grove were growing havens for the gay community, while beaches further east like Davis Park were budding family-oriented zones. Watch Hill, just east of Davis Park, wouldn't open until 1967.)
Cherry Grove, Fire Island, featuring a Chris-Craft Sedan Cruiser shot by Michael Butler, early 1950s
Matchbook promoting the club and Butler's other resorts
The Talisman resort was to be global in scope and inspiration with artistic influences and Japanese architecture. The initial build featured four houses with exotic names like 'Acapulco', a clubhouse, pool, and sixteen cabanas all in post-modern, Japanese design. As stated by Butler to the “Islands in the Sun Club” magazine in 1962:
"When I first conceived of Talisman and the design of its houses, I wanted to create a club resort which was international in feeling, relaxed yet restrained. By following a design distinctly influenced by the Japanese rules, we were able to lay the ground rules for a community which seemed to have been in existence for some time. I wanted a feeling of normal, gradual growth, not the impermanent immediacy of so much of today’s design.
Houses, built by club members on the Talisman site, followed the prevailing style used in the central clubhouse and cabanas. However, this simple oriental design was pure enough to allow considerable freedom and imagination to the owners in creating their own private atmosphere."
The club marina stretched north 200 feet into the Great South Bay, splitting at the end like a Y as if to say "Yes, you're here." Docking was available for up to 30 vessels, with international guests arriving by boat or seaplane. Flags were flown to represent each's home country, an exclusive ‘United Nations’ by the sea.
Acapulco house, oceanside, 1960
Post-modernist architecture dotted the beach landscape, bringing a sense of cohesion to the community
Poolside at the cabanas, 1962. International phone lines were available throughout the resort
Brochure selects showing the main club boardwalks, club house, marina, Sundeck and cabanas, early 1960s
Guests arriving by boat and seaplane, 1962
The spirit of Talisman was one of disorganized elegance, with "society" clientele meandering from party to party, day to day, summer to summer. Notable guests included Johnny Carson, Jane Fonda, 'Baby' Jane Holzer and Hugh Hefner. Days were passed lounging poolside, eating at the Sundeck and waterskiing on Great South Bay (a trio of beautiful women doing just that was featured on the cover of the club's first brochure), all lubricated by rounds of drinks and sometimes things much stronger. An interview with a woman who spent two seasons at Talisman reads like something out of a Brett Easton Ellis novel:
"Someone once said all you needed for a weekend at Talisman was a Pucci in a Gucci and a Benzadrine in your purse. Everything was divinely unorganized. Most of the time we'd just slosh a couple of peaches in some champagne and invite a few friends over. If there were any parties they were of the what you might call impromptu variety. I remember late last summer, somebody, I can't remember who, hired Carl Holmes and his Commanders who are simply marvelous, to play for dancing. Anyway, this girl who was there had just returned from Paris and at about two in the morning she started doing this absolutely weird dance. My dear, do you know that it was the first time The Twist had ever been done in America? Nobody slept that night until we had all learned the awful thing."
She continued:
"There were absolutely divine parties devoted to a theme. You know, such as Tahitian or Calypso? Everybody was always so imaginative about what they wore or didn't wear. I can remember getting dressed for one of those costume things. I wore a fishnet and I believe I carried a tambourine for effect. Here I am running on like Molly Bloom when I simply must dash."
And off she went.
A packed club in 1962, with Japanese art behind the bar
Beach bums, 1962
Promotional snapshots by Frederick J. Miller
By summer 1962 the club was in peak form. Seaplanes and boats were arriving daily. The cabanas were full. The bar and Sundeck were packed with guests in designer clothes dining and dancing (music was pumped continuously through speakers hidden throughout the resort.) Lounging poolside included a phone line direct to the South of France. At night the boardwalks came alive with lights strung from the native sassafras and shadblow tees overhead, creating a soft glow that helped hazy patrons navigate the dark.
But while while energetic and stylish, the party was not to last. Expansion plans for Talisman were made but never came to fruition. In 1964, the United States Government purchased the land to become part of the Fire Island National Seashore, established by Congress to protect both Fire Island and Long Island that same year. The cabanas were boarded up, the pool closed and most of the other club buildings repurposed for U.S. Park Service use. Eventually, they were abandoned and fell into disrepair. Butler went on to produce the acclaimed broadway musical Hair in 1968 (amongst many other pursuits), and lived out his rich "hippie" lifestyle until his death in November 2022.
Today some of the original club structures still stand, but they are literally being swallowed by the beach. And so you could say the Talisman Yacht Club came in like a high tide or maybe just a high - gradually and then suddenly before receding again, leaving things low on the way out.
The cabanas in 2024. You can still see the edge of the pool at center bottom, filled by time with sand and brush
The cabanas, boardwalk and National Park Service buildings, 2024
But it's not all a bummer. The Talisman location (today called Barrett Beach, renamed after the Park Service took over) remains a boater's paradise, more secluded and easy-going than some of the other beaches on Fire Island. The lack of amenities (there is no ferry, food or marina) brings a sense of purity, as it's truly just you and the beach. This free spirit has served as the backdrop for some of our earliest OLD SOLDIER brand photography, and we released a t-shirt inspired by this history in 2025.
All that is to say the Talisman scene is alive and well, if you can get there. While not as global or chic as it was in the high-flying 60’s, laid-back, easy, and for some, boozy, is very much still the vibe. Michael Butler would fit right in.
