Continental Baths

Continental Baths
Alternative names Plato's Retreat
General information
Type Gay bathhouse
Address Ansonia Hotel, New York City
Country United States
Coordinates 40°47′11″N 73°58′55″W / 40.78652°N 73.981934°W / 40.78652; -73.981934
Opening 1968 (1968)
Closed 1975 (1975)
Management Steve Ostrow
Other information
Facilities Pool, dance floor, fountains, private rooms, orgy rooms, saunas, games room, restaurant

The Continental Baths was a gay bathhouse in the basement of The Ansonia Hotel in New York City which was opened in 1968 by Steve Ostrow. It was advertised as reminiscent of "the glory of ancient Rome."[1] The documentary film Continental, by Malcolm Ingram, covers the height of the club's popularity through the early 1970s.[2]

Facilities

The Ansonia Hotel, New York City, circa 1905

The features of this bathhouse included a disco dance floor, a cabaret lounge, sauna rooms, a narrow "Olympia blue" swimming pool, bunk beds in public areas, and tiny rooms as one would find in any gay bathhouse. The facility had the capacity to serve nearly 1,000 men, 24 hours a day.

One gay guide from the 1970s described the Continental Baths as a place that "revolutionized the bath scene in New York."[3]

Some features of the Continental Bathhouse included a warning system that tipped off patrons when police arrived. There was also an STD clinic, a supply of A200 (a lice-killing shampoo) in the showers, a mouthwash dispenser, and K-Y Jelly in the candy vending machine.

Entertainment

An added attraction at the club was the first class entertainment provided by performers such as:

Due to her performances at the baths, Bette Midler earned the nickname Bathhouse Betty. It was at the Continental, accompanied by pianist Barry Manilow (who, like the bathhouse patrons, sometimes wore only a white towel)[6] that she created her stage persona the Divine Miss M.

Despite the way things turned out [with the AIDS crisis], I'm still proud of those days [when I got my start singing at the gay bathhouses]. I feel like I was at the forefront of the gay liberation movement, and I hope I did my part to help it move forward. So, I kind of wear the label of 'Bathhouse Betty' with pride.[7]
— Bette Midler, Houston Voice

Despite Midler's constant complaints about "that goddamn waterfall," her poolside performances were so successful that she soon gained national attention, beginning with repeat performances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Closure

The Continental Baths lost much of its gay clientele by 1974. The reason for the decline in patronage was, as one gay New Yorker was quoted, "We finally got fed up with those silly-assed, campy shows. All those straight people in our bathhouse made us feel like we were part of the décor and that we were there for their amusement."

By the end of 1974, patronage was so low that Steve Ostrow had decided to discontinue the lounge acts. He focused, instead, on resurrecting his business by making the baths coed. He even advertised on WBLS, but to no avail. In the end, Ostrow closed the Continental Baths for good. The facility, however, was reopened in 1977 as a heterosexual swingers' club called Plato's Retreat. Plato's Retreat relocated to W. 34th St. in 1980 then was shut down by the city of New York at the height of the AIDS epidemic.[8]

Police raids

In February 1969, the New York City Police raided the Continental Baths. Twenty-two patrons, whom an undercover, towel-clad policeman identified as having offered to have sex with him or actually had sex with him, were arrested. This happened again in December of the same year, when police entered the Continental Baths and arrested three patrons and three employees, charging them with committing lewd and lascivious acts and criminal mischief, respectively.[9]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Maer Roshan (1998-04-06), 30th Anniversary Issue / Larry Kramer: Queer Conscience, New York Magazine
  2. ↑ San Vincente, Romeo (December 2012). "Gay Documentary Round-Up". Gloss Magazine.
  3. ↑ Colter, Ephen Glenn (1996), Policing Public Sex: Queer Politics and the Future of AIDS Activism, South End Press, ISBN 0-89608-549-X quote used from p200
  4. ↑ Laurie Wheeler, Manilow, Barry. Continental Baths appearances, retrieved 2006-06-04
  5. ↑ SkyMovies (2006-05-14), Bette Midler Biography, thebiographychannel
  6. ↑ "The History of Gay Bathhouses". Retrieved February 23, 2004.
  7. ↑ Bette Midler, Houston Voice, 23 October 1998
  8. ↑ Suzanne Golubski & Bob Kappstatter (1986-01-01), The New York Daily News article: "Swinging doors shut"
  9. ↑ Jonathan Black (19 March 1970), The Boys in the Snake Pit: Games 'Straights' Play, The Village Voice, In the last few months there have been several dozen arrests at Continental, on charges ranging from solicitation and sodomy to spitting and piling garbage.

Bibliography

External links

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