Gay Bathhouse Facts...you'll never forget!

 Believe it or not, on May 25, 1977 the sleazy (yet popular) Everard Baths located at 28 West 28th Street caught fire a day before a fire sprinkler system was scheduled to be put into operation. Nine men died, and many were seriously injured. One of the dead was a famous, young DJ named Jimmy Stuard, who gained fame by spinning at the immensely popular 12 West Disco in Manhattan. His memorial service was held at Campbell's Funeral Home, which was the same funeral home where Rudolph Valentino's service was held decades earlier. The world of disco/dance music suffered immensely the tragic day Jimmy perished, and he is greatly missed!

Believe it or not...in 1965 independent film maker Andy Milligan released "Vapors" which is a 16 mm B&W 32-minute film set in a gay bath house, the St. Mark's Baths in the East Village of Manhattan.  Banned across America upon release, the film is about a man's first trip to a gay bath house. The film's final scene showing a penis approaching the camera was censored with a black line...sigh!!

Believe it or not, during the mid 1980's several towel-clad bathhouse habitués protested the closing of San Francisco's gay saunas as they carried signs that read, "Out of the Tubs, Into the Shrubs", "Today the tubs, tomorrow your bedroom", "Out of the baths, into the ovens." Notwithstanding the opposition, the city closed all gay bathhouses due to the AIDS crisis. 

Believe it or not...There was once a time when baths had their own billboards! This pic was taken by Andrew Hodges in Sept. 1979.  It's an advertisement for Man's Country Baths.  The exclamation "Come!" encourages the reader to visit the baths.  The 1970s was a daring decade in which many bathhouses advertised their facilities in gay areas, such as this billboard in New York City's West Village, at Christopher and Seventh Streets.  When you get the chance, pay Andrew's site a visit.  

The only book ever written about the gay bathhouse experience in America was published in 1979 by Michael Rumaker.  "A Day and a Night at the Baths" is an 81-page detail of Rumaker's first experience at a gay bath, the infamous Everard Baths of New York City. If anyone wants to know what that famous place was really like during the salacious 70s, then this is a must-read book.  It is out of print, but available through online retailers and rare book stores.   

Published in 1978, Andrew Holleran's popular gay novel "Dancer From The Dance" is a narrative that takes place among the discos, sex clubs and gay baths of New York City...not to mention Fire Island. Considered one of the most significant works of gay literature, Holleran's novel is a dreamy memory of things past as it depicts the salacious adventures of Malone, a handsome young man who longs for love and searches for it within the emerging gay scene in New York. Of particular interest to gay bath historians are Holleran's accounts of Malone's visits to the Everard Baths in Manhattan and his descriptions of the facility and the sex that took place there. 

Believe it or not, the Continental Baths of NYC, at its peak, had 2,000 lockers, 500 mini lockers and 400 rooms (yes, 400 rooms) which were booked solid most of the time, especially on weekends! They also had a weekend brunch that fed 1,000 people at a time. In fact, the towel and sheet demand grew to over 1,000 dozen a week, so the Continental Baths management installed their own laundry to handle the linen! 

In 1984, when the New St. Marks Baths in NYC was shut down by the New York City Health Department, the entrance fees were as follows: "Rates weekdays: Room...11.50, Double Room...19.50, Locker...6.75.  Weekends/holidays (5am Friday to1am Monday) Room...12.50, Double...19.50, Locker 7.75, Student Locker...7.75. 8 hour time limit. All prices include sales tax. $2.00 key deposit on all lockers. Overtime without re-checking will be charged at the rate of $2.00 per hour. " These facts were provided by gay photographer Gail S. Goodman, who visited the baths in 1992 after it had been closed for a number of years.  

Believe it or not, the New St. Marks Baths in the East Village of Manhattan was so popular during the late 1970s and early 1980s that, according to a former employee, owner Bruce Mailman would regularly make $30,000 to $35,000 a night in cash, but on a good night he would bring in $50,000 to $60,000!! 

Would you believe...that during the 1980 election, the New St. Mark's Baths in New York, with the assistance of the League of Women Voters, conducted a voter registration drive on its premises.  Voter registration cards were given out and mailed from the facility. This drive was the first time some of the younger bathhouse patrons had registered to vote. A few years earlier, Bella Abzug campaigned for Congress at the Continental Baths.  According to the press, she took the stage in a rather large hat and a floor-length polka-dot gown, saying, "I'm not sure I'm dressed for the occasion." She then gave a visionary speech about gay rights, and told her her towel-clad listeners that they have the right to live as they please. (Go, girl!)

Can you imagine...On March 21st 1975 one woman went where no woman has gone before. On that day, famed lesbian writer Rita Mae Brown donned male attire & a mustache, and then she entered then Club Baths in New York City.  After standing in a line of about 30 men, she and a male friend signed their names on a clipboard, then entered the baths for an interesting evening in which she tried to explore gay male sexuality.  During her 3 1/2 hours at the baths, Rita visited the locker room, the Maze, orgy room, and the cruisy halls of the baths.  She left the baths that night feeling like she had stowed away on the Queen Mary. 

 Would you believe...that Seattle police shakedown a local gay bathhouse for payoffs from 1965 through 1968! According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 24, 1970, gay bathhouse owner Jack Heimbigner made monthly payments of $200 to the Seattle Police Department as "protection" from police harassment. The $200 was divided among three shifts of beat cops who were assigned to the area. Luckily, a 1970 trial exposed the police protection system and led to criminal convictions, forced departmental resignations, and a reorganization of the Seattle Police Department, which ended the despicable practice. 

"Turkish Bath With Self Portrait" (1918) by Charles Demuth most likely depicted one of Demuth's visits to his favorite Manhattan haunt, the Lafayette Baths, which was managed by Ira and George Gershwin during the early 20th Century. Demuth was a prolific and avant guarde gay artist who produced homoerotic oil paintings titled "Three Sailors Urinating" and "Three Sailors" in which masculine men and large penises are depicted. His works are said to have influenced Andy Warhol and other Twentieth Century artists. 

 Believe it or not...The Continental Baths of New York City was the first bathhouse in the USA to have on premises (Monday and Thursday evenings) two doctors from the New York City Department of Health who provided towel-clad patrons with venereal disease counseling! It was also the first establishment of its kind to have a live disc jockey (in a glass booth) spin tunes for guests at night and on the weekends. And, if you think that's progressive, the Continental Baths also had a small non-denominational chapel built and installed for those gay men who chose to meditate between fornicating...and it wasn't long before the bathhouse management had alternating clergy offering services on Sunday mornings!