Continental Baths

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]

Continental Baths
Alternative namesPlato's Retreat
General information
TypeGay bathhouse
AddressAnsonia Hotel, New York City
CountryUnited States
Coordinates40.7801°N 73.982°W / 40.7801; -73.982
Opened1968 (1968)
Closed1975 (1975)
ManagementSteve Ostrow
Other information
FacilitiesPool, dance floor, fountains, private rooms, orgy rooms, saunas, games room, restaurant

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 City."[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 house pianist[6] Barry Manilow[4] (who, like the bathhouse patrons, sometimes wore only a white towel)[7] 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.[8]

— 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.[9]

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.[10]

References
  1. Maer Roshan (April 6, 1998), 30th Anniversary Issue / Larry Kramer: Queer Conscience, New York Magazine, archived from the original on December 21, 2004, retrieved May 13, 2006
  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. p. 200. ISBN 0-89608-549-X.
  4. Davies, Sam (April 27, 2018). "Sex, disco and fish on acid: how Continental Baths became the world's most influential gay club". The Guardian. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  5. SkyMovies (May 14, 2006), Bette Midler Biography, thebiographychannel, archived from the original on December 5, 2008, retrieved May 13, 2006
  6. Spitznagel, Eric (June 2, 2011). "Barry Manilow Only Ever Played One Bathhouse with Bette Midler". Vanity Fair. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  7. "The History of Gay Bathhouses". Archived from the original on October 20, 2006. Retrieved February 23, 2004.
  8. "Bette Midler". Houston Voice. October 23, 1998. Archived from the original on May 9, 2019.
  9. Suzanne Golubski & Bob Kappstatter (January 1, 1986), The New York Daily News article: "Swinging doors shut", archived from the original on September 27, 2007, retrieved June 4, 2006
  10. Jonathan Black (March 19, 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
  • Miller, Neil (1995), Out of the Past, Gay and Lesbian history from 1869 to the present, Vintage, ISBN 0-09-957691-0 (2005 rev. ed. ISBN 1-55583-870-7)
  • Butler, Patricia (2002), Barry Manilow: The Biography, Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-9197-9
  • Jarman, Derek (1987), The Last of England, Constable, ISBN 0-09-468080-9
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