by Yvonne Vávra
Alfred Hitchcock came just for the swimming. No sex. “He would just come, watch, look at people, swim in the tub and then leave,” Steve Ostrow, founder of the Continental Baths in the basement of the Ansonia, once told the Guardian in a profile of the Upper West Side bathhouse, which became a trailblazer for sexual liberation and one of the world’s most influential gay clubs. “People would say: ‘Who is that fat guy in the towel?’”
The answer: just one of the many fabulous personalities who would line up around the Ansonia at 74th and Broadway for a night at the Continental, where you could swim, dance, unwind, sweat it out in the black-marble steam room, have sex, or simply watch the action. Or, as Bette Midler did, start a career. In a blurb for Ostrow’s memoir, Live at the Continental, she wrote: “I’m certain that whatever I may do in my life, whatever I may achieve, the headline of my obituary in the New York Times will read: Bette Midler Dead; Began Her Career at the Continental Baths”.
The bathhouse, which opened in 1968, was a place where towel-clad men mingled with Jagger, Warhol, Minnelli, and the New York Dolls; where gay men could find a sense of community in a safe, clean, and uplifting space; where, at least on one night, even the fish in the tanks were on LSD (not voluntarily); and where everyone was free to be exactly who they wanted to be. At least between the regular police raids, because this was still a time when homosexuality, or even just two men dancing together, was illegal.
I was thinking about the Continental when I heard a week ago that gay bathhouses could make a comeback in the city. New York ordered a ban on adult saunas and bathhouses in 1985, when panic over the AIDS epidemic was raging. But in the more than four decades since, public health, science, prevention and treatment have changed dramatically. Now, State Senator Erik Bottcher, who represents the Upper West Side, and Assemblymember Tony Simone, whose district includes the Lincoln Center area of our neighborhood, have joined forces to make the laws catch up with the times. In their effort to lift a ban rooted in fear and stigma, they hope to safely bring back an essential part of queer culture that had been part of city life for more than a century.
The Continental Baths did not disappear because of the ban; they had already closed in 1976. The club fell victim, at least in part, to Ostrow’s secret to success: the stars he was able to book for entertainment. Bette Midler was just one of them. Another was Frankie Knuckles, who would eventually become known as the “godfather of house music.” The top-notch entertainment attracted crowds far beyond the gay scene. In a profile of the Ansonia for New York Magazine, Steven Gaines described it as “a mix of women in mink coats with their husbands in suits and gay men in leather jackets with their boyfriends. In some ways, it prefigured that other exotic mix of entertainment and public sex, Studio 54.”
So there they all were, draped in fine fabrics or next to nothing, which was at least part of the reason the gay crowd eventually moved on. “Gay men, it turned out, wanted to get down to business without straights ogling them,” writes Gaines. And “once the men in towels were gone, so was the Continental charm.”
I don’t think bringing back the bathhouses will bring back anything like the Continental Baths, let alone on the Upper West Side. But I wish it would. I wish there were more room for spectacular things to happen. I imagine descending into the Ansonia’s basement with no idea what I was walking into, what might happen next, or who I might want to be there. A place where I could dance wherever the vibe took me. Or just swim, eat sandwiches from the free buffet, and have Bette Midler sing to me.
Ostrow’s legacy was not only his contribution to gay rights and sexual liberation. It was permission. Permission to be yourself or someone else, to be outrageous, experimental, inexplicable.
The Upper West Side is wonderful. A lot has improved since the 1970s and ’80s. But when a neighborhood becomes desirable, it can leave less room for things that are eccentric, a little unruly, and gloriously weird. I’d love some of that back, please. Senator Bottcher, once you’re done with the bathhouses, I have a list.
Yvonne Vávra is a magazine writer and author of the German book 111 Gründe New York zu lieben (111 Reasons to Love New York). Born a Berliner but an aspiring Upper West Sider since the 1990s (thanks, Nora Ephron), she came to New York in 2010 and seven years later made her Upper West Side dreams come true. She’s been obsessively walking the neighborhood ever since.
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I thought Plato’s retreat was in the basement of the Ansonia. Did this come after Continental Baths?
I think Plato’s was the iteration after the Continental
First came The Continental Baths, followed by Plato’s Retreat.
See The New York Times obituary of Steve Ostrow, founder of The Continental Baths.
The obituary article in the NYT was printed on Monday, February 12, 2024…on Page D10.
The story includes incredible photos!
Steve Ostrow died at age 91.
The Continental Bath were open between 1968 and 1976. The space was taken over by new “owners” and renamed Plato’s Retreat in 1977; it closed in 1980.
Yes, it was Plato’s Retreat for a few years after Continental, with a predominantly heterosexual crowd, then had a last gasp as the Ansonia Baths, reverting back to its gay clientele before closing permanently.
Yes, it was definitely a gay bath establishment again a the time of it’s ultimate closure. I was a student at AMDA across the hall from its entrance from 1984-86 and remember the Continental Bath sign. We only ever saw men coming and going. It closed abruptly in ’85 as the AIDS crisis raged. A couple classmates snuck downstairs and said there were still used towel laying around, as though it had never been tidied from the night before.
Yes. It was Plato’s Retreat for a few years after Continental with a predominantly heterosexual crowd, then had a last gasp as the Ansonia Baths, catering once again to the gay community before it closed permanently.
Yep. Why let a good sex dungeon setup go to waste?
Yes.
History is just on paper if you’ve never experienced it. A regime will just change the books. Thinking of the history of the Continental Baths as glamorous and uplifting is eye opening yet I’m befuddled. A lot of the social decadence and the birth of our modern political violence culture was brewed in the steamy and moldy rooms of places like that, so enjoy your Bette Midler and Barry Manilow records while longingly reminiscing about those glorious LSD days. Perhaps having a picture of Alfred Hitchcock in a bath towel next to that picture of Bill Clinton in a blue dress makes sense now.
Good God, how silly. Political violence? It as all about sex. Bill Clinton never wore any blue dress. Monica Lewinsky did. Sounds to me like the LSD was in more than the fish tank.
So, no luck when you went?
Oh, come on. The baths led to the birth of our political violence culture? Just what do you think went on down there?
If you want fabulous, look forther back into the past of the basement space —
and to the bildn’gs past in general. THAT’S fabulous@!
“I wish there were more room for spectacular things to happen.”
I think consenting adults should be able to do whatever they want, and I’m under no illusion that the existence of a bathhouse will affect behavior, but the only thing that has changed with regard to “science” and “public health” is that the latter has become captured by the extreme left, and will gladly throw actual science under the bus if it serves a political purpose.
To wit: It’s still a bad idea for lots of people to gather for anonymous unprotected sex, even if the immediate threat of AIDS has been reduced for those who can afford treatment for HIV.
Who needs bath houses? Just stroll down to Hells Kitchen, and you’ll find dozens of gay bars, totally packed with almost entirely men. There’s plenty of fertile ground.
Yeah, but what about the towels??? And the fat half-naked famous directors watching the crowd??
Please explain? Your comment makes absolutely no sense,
Not sure how fabulous it would be having a swinger’s club or bathhouse that encouraged sexual encounters in the basement of your building. K-Y Jelly in the vending machines? What a great building for families.
How many buildings do you know of that have vending machines of any kind, except perhaps in the laundry room for detergent and fabric softener?
Yawn. Parading the word families around like some sort of “gotcha” kryptonite to try and invalidate anyone who wants to take up space in this city that isn’t signed up with the PTA is tired and boring. Take that energy to the suburbs.
Cute attempt to justify retrograde activity, but few in this neighborhood would want to live above a sex club. Accept reality and move on. If you want to live above a sex club, then perhaps you can “take that energy” further downtown.
Now, now…let’s all live in peace and harmony.
This was actually the Mid-Manhattan Health Club before any of this, and where I learned to swim. How about bringing that iteration of the place back so kids/families have more places to swim.
Today Mount Sinai Hospital’s Upper West Side Colonoscopy Center occupies much of the Ansonia’s basement…with the entrance on West 74th St, – where The Continental Bath’s entrance was located.
In addition, the opulent swimming pool area that once existed there is part of the Ansonia’s underground parking garage.
What an extraordinary history!
Today, much of the original Continental Bath’s location underneath the grand and opulent Ansonia apartment building is an ultra modern space…that houses a Mount Sinai Colonoscopy center.
With the street level entrance – like
The Continental’s – located on West 74th Street, just off Broadway.
Also, a parking garage exists under the building.
What a unique and important part of
New York history!
Bring back bathhouses to a family neighborhood? Why? That’s not progressive, it’s regressive. To a time when the UWS was seedy and dangerous.
Thanks for the history piece. Of course, now we have rest stops. 🙂
The rest stops have always existed. Many married men frequent them on the way home to their families in the suburbs.
The rest stops are non-denominational.
what is in the basement of the Ansonia now? What is it used for? Is there still a pool there?
See the above comments.
See the 2/12/24 NYT obituary of Steve Ostrow, the founder and owner of the Continental Baths for an in-depth detailed history. Larry Kramer, the incredible playwright and activist is quoted:
“I think the Continental Baths changed things more than Stonewall did.”
BTW: the basement of the Ansonia is the parking garage and also an ultra modern Mount Sinai colonoscopy center.
So nothing has changed.
It has. It’s now significantly more expensive to have another man rummage in your undercarriage at the Ansonia.
Now THAT is a clever comment. Not common here.
As a real estate broker I toured the closed Plato’s Retreat in about 1991. It featured a small swimming pool surrounded on three sides by many dozens of tiny private rooms. They were just wide enough for a chair along the back wall next to vinyl bed or cot (yuk), and a few hooks for clothing. I remember ads in the Village Voice saying women got free admission. I kind of wish I had seen it while it was open – the UWS and all of NYC was really wild and quite dangerous then. The space later became Gristedes, then Filene’s Basement if memory serves.