Continental Baths

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Gay bathhouse in New York City (1968–1976)

title: "Continental Baths" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1968-establishments-in-new-york-city", "1968-in-lgbtq-history", "companies-established-in-1968", "1976-disestablishments-in-new-york-city", "buildings-and-structures-in-manhattan", "gay-bathhouses-in-new-york-city", "lgbtq-history-in-new-york-city"] description: "Gay bathhouse in New York City (1968–1976)" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Baths" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Gay bathhouse in New York City (1968–1976) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox building"]

Field	Value
image	Continental Baths Advertisement.jpg
alt	A muscular nude man with curly dark hair poses in a pool in a vintage advertisement for the Continental Baths.
caption	Early ad for the Continental Baths
facilities	Pool, dance floor, fountains, private rooms, orgy rooms, saunas, games room, restaurant
building_type	Gay bathhouse
location_country	United States
alternate_names	Plato's Retreat
address	Ansonia Hotel, New York City
operator	Steve Ostrow
coordinates
opened_date
closing_date
::

The Continental Baths was a gay bathhouse in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel in New York City, which was operated from 1968 to 1976 by Steve Ostrow. It was advertised as reminiscent of "the glory of ancient Rome".

It opened after Ostrow observed the crowds at Everard Baths and he wanted to improve on the Everard atmosphere of being "sleazy, secretive, unkempt, not to mention unfriendly." "Ostrow's business plan in 1968 was to create a gay fantasia, a palace devoted to hedonism." Ostrow said "from the first night, there were lines around the corner." Some patrons said they would have 150 sexual encounters in a single visit. Opened a year before the Stonewall riots, the bathhouse was raided by the police about 200 times, Ostrow said.

While the baths utilized the Ansonia's lavish Gilded Age décor for a Roman style bath, it is probably best remembered as being an influential offbeat music venue. Ostrow installed a stage designed specifically for a DJ, claimed to be the first of its type in the world. Discs were spun by Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan.

He then began showcasing live acts which were the launching points for Peter Allen, Nell Carter, Wayland Flowers, Ellen Greene, Labelle, Melissa Manchester, The Manhattan Transfer, Barry Manilow, Bette Midler, Melba Moore, Jane Olivor, and Liz Torres. The act most associated with the bathhouse was Midler who was accompanied by Manilow on the piano. Midler debuted her song "Friends" at the bathhouse and later recorded an album entitled Bathhouse Betty. The performances were actually open to the public and not just bath patrons. The gay crowd dwindled because they didn't like the public in the bathhouse and felt they were being gawked at. Ostrow cancelled the live performances in 1974 before closing the baths in 1976.

It re-opened as the straight swingers venue Plato's Retreat in 1977.

Facilities

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Ansonia_apartments_LC-D4-17421_crop.jpg" caption="1905}}" alt="A black-and-white photograph shows a grand, ornate multi-story Beaux-Arts style building with elaborate facades, towers, and decorative details."] ::

The features of this bathhouse included a small disco dance floor, a cabaret lounge with a baby grand piano (both only feet from a narrow "Olympia blue" swimming pool), sauna rooms, 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."

Some features of the Continental Bathhouse included a warning system that tipped off patrons when police arrived. There was a weekly 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.

The documentary film Continental by Malcolm Ingram covers the height of the club's popularity through the early 1970s.

Entertainment

An attraction at the club was the entertainment provided by performers such as Barry Manilow and Bette Midler. Due to her performances at the baths, Bette Midler earned the nickname Bathhouse Betty. It was at the Continental, accompanied by house pianist Barry Manilow (who, like the bathhouse patrons, sometimes wore only a white towel), that she created her stage persona the Divine Miss M.

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.

Closing

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 was reopened in 1977 as Plato's Retreat, a heterosexual swingers' club. 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.

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.

References

Bibliography

(2005 rev. ed. )

References

Roshan, Maer. (April 6, 1998). "Larry Kramer: Queer Conscience". New York Magazine.
(April 27, 2018). "Sex, Disco and Fish on Acid: How Continental Baths Became the World's Most Influential Gay Club". [[The Guardian]].
Green, Penelope. (February 11, 2024). "Steve Ostrow, Manhattan Bathhouse Impresario, Dies at 91". The New York Times.
Colter, Ephen Glenn. (1996). "Policing Public Sex: Queer Politics and the Future of AIDS Activism". South End Press.
San Vincente, Romeo. (December 2012). "Gay Documentary Round-Up". Gloss Magazine.
Davies, Sam. (April 27, 2018). "Sex, Disco and Fish on Acid: How Continental Baths Became the World's Most Influential Gay Club". [[The Guardian]].
SkyMovies. (May 14, 2006). "Bette Midler Biography". thebiographychannel.
Spitznagel, Eric. (June 2, 2011). "Barry Manilow Only Ever Played One Bathhouse with Bette Midler". [[Vanity Fair (magazine).
"The History of Gay Bathhouses".
(October 23, 1998). "Bette Midler". Houston Voice.
(January 1, 1986). "Swinging Doors Shut". The New York Daily News.
Black, Jonathan. (March 19, 1970). ["The Boys in the Snake Pit: Games 'Straights' Play"](https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=s1QQAAAAIBAJ&pg=6399,4081670&dq=continental-baths+raid}}{{Dead link). The Village Voice.

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