Article by
Eddie Coronado
Gay men have
been meeting for sex in bathhouses since the late 19th and early
20th centuries in the United States. In California, as in other
states, all homosexual acts were illegal and considered as “crimes
against nature.” As a result, men who were caught engaging in sexual
acts with each other were subject to arrest and public humiliation.
Numerous court records from the turn of the century contain cases of
men who were arrested after neighbors, landlords, policemen and YMCA
janitors looked through keyholes, or broke down doors to discover
men having sex with each other. In an effort to evade arrest, gay
men resorted to finding those little-known “cruise spots” around
town where they could meet for sex and not get caught. These meeting
places expanded as the rapidly growing cities of the 20th century
created more and more public places where men could be anonymous and
intimate with each other. The list of meeting places included public
parks, alleys, YMCA facilities, public restrooms, train depots,
balconies of silent movie theaters, cheap hotel rooms, and
bathhouses.
Historical
records from the early 1900’s tell the story of how some bathhouse
owners tried to prevent their venues from becoming popular
homosexual rendezvous by calling the police or hiring private
guards. On the other hand, there were some bathhouse owners who
enjoyed the increased profits earned from the patronage of gay men,
so they allowed men to engage in homosexual activities as long as
they were carried out discreetly. In fact, one particular 1933
account pointed to the “fat tips” a bathhouse manager could receive
from the “patronage of pansies provided their actions do not result
in police proceedings.”
It wasn’t until
the 1950’s that exclusively gay bathhouses started to crop up in
America. These places were still subject to vice raids, but the
police generally allowed them to operate because they were discreet
“outlets for the vast homosexual life in the city.” Some accounts
describe these early gay bathhouses as oases of homosexual
camaraderie and as “places where it was safe to be gay.” Generally,
in gay bathhouses, patrons felt that they were more protected from
blackmail and harm than in the “straight” baths, plus the gay baths
offered a much safer alternative to sex in public parks.
In May 1954
the earliest-known guide to San Francisco’s gay bars and baths was
printed and handed out at a meeting of the Mattachine Society, the
Bay area’s first homosexual organization. With the warning that it
contained “Confidential and Unofficial” information, the
mimeographed sheet listed Jack’s Baths, the Club Baths on Turk, the
Palace Baths on 3rd Street, and the San Francisco Baths on Ellis. In
Los Angeles, the gay community had similar venues to patronize.
In
the late 1960’s Steve Ostrow opened the famous Continental Baths in
the basement of the landmark 1903 Ansonia Hotel, which was home to
such greats as Caruso, Stravinsky and Toscanini. Famous for its
lavish accommodations, the Continental Baths was advertised as being
reminiscent of “the glory of ancient Rome.” The impressive features
of this bathhouse included a disco dance floor, a cabaret lounge,
sauna rooms, an “Olympia blue” swimming pool, and clean, spacious
facilities that could serve nearly 1,000 men, 24 hours a day. One
gay guide from the 1970’s described the Continental Baths as a place
that “revolutionized the bath scene in New York.” An added
attraction at the club was the first class entertainment provided by
performers such as Melba Moore, Peter Allen, Cab Calloway, The
Manhattan Transfer, John Davidson, Wayland Flowers and Bette Midler,
who began her career by performing there with Barry Manilow in 1972.
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 with Johnny Carson. Many of those who were fortunate
enough to see Bette’s early bathhouse shows attest to the fact that
her greatest achievement in show business took place the night she
convinced the otherwise shy Barry Manilow to accompany her on the
piano while wearing only a white towel, which was considered “proper
bathhouse attire.”
As the popularity of the cabaret shows increased,
a wide variety of entertainers were invited to “give it up” at the
Continental Baths, including the soprano Eleanor Steber, who gave a
“black towel” concert there in 1973. The list of visitors to the
Continental Baths read like a “who’s who” of the entertainment
world, from actors, singers, artists, producers, to the mafia and
even the Metropolitan Opera, which both paid a visit. But for those
unfortunate souls who never descended into that legendary basement
bathhouse, the Continental came to them in the form of the highly
popular Continental Baths towel, which was sold by Bloomingdale’s
department store at the height of the club’s fame. It was during
this period that The Pat Collins Show broadcast live from the club.
In one segment, Pat sat by the pool and interviewed proprietor Steve
Ostrow while nude men, apparently indifferent to the television
cameras, went splashing by. By the end of the day, WCBS-TV received
only one complaint about the program.
Unfortunately, the Continental
Baths had lost much of its gay clientele by 1974, or “almost
overnight,” as many remember it. The reason for the decline in
patronage was, as one gay New Yorker put it, “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 decor, and that
we were there for their amusement. So we ended up going to other
bathhouses where sex was taken more seriously.” Although the cabaret
performances were highly popular among the straight couples who went
there “dressed in tuxedos and Norma Kamali gowns,” a large number of
the men who patronized the Continental were interested primarily in
the sexual side of the bathhouse. The gay writer, Edmund White,
always seemed to be “exasperated” by the concerts because they
distracted the regular patrons from the more important task of
cruising for sex. “I was so sex-obsessed that I found it irritating
when she (Midler) was there,” said White, “because everybody stopped
their sexual activities to listen to her. I was the person fuming
away in the background, hoping everybody would hurry up and get back
to work!”
By the time
1974 had ended, patronage was so low that Steve Ostrow had decided
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 as a heterosexual
swingers’ club called Plato’s Retreat, but it was shut down by the
City of New York at the height of the AIDS epidemic. Today as in the
past, the bath goers have their own bag or pouch of accessories.
This bag may contain one or all of the following; poppers, condoms,
tit clamps, pinkie rings a watch, rubber band, assorted butt plugs,
handkerchiefs, hand cuffs hair products select line of facial care
products, a blow drier, styling utensils spare change, hip flask,
pill caddy and perhaps their BOI card
A memorable
feature of the Continental Bathhouse was the secret light warning
system that tipped off the patrons when the police were there. There
was also a VD clinic, a supply of A-200 in the showers, and KY Jelly
in the candy dispensing machine. Interestingly enough, other
bathhouses of the day soon jumped on the Continental bandwagon by
featuring entertainment for their patrons. In San Francisco, one
bathhouse opened a “Starlight Cabaret” which featured local singers
and bands. Country-western performers also began playing on “Western
Night” at some baths.
“Today, it is
old and faded, but if you look hard, you can feel and see the lost
elegance which somehow remains."
Who would have
thought that the bathhouse would have evolved to this? But then
again who would have thought that bean-bag chairs would someday be antiques? It just goes to show you there can be history
in anything if you look for it.
