Gay Bathhouse Memories from the 1970s....gay men write about their visits!

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“The discos in the baths didn’t remain discos for very long. The gay bathhouse owners in New York never really understood that people weren’t interested in going to the baths for anything but to get laid and get over a night in the bars. We wanted steam rooms, showers, a clean room, a dark orgy room and lots of hot men roaming the halls. Maybe a place out of the way to get a cup of coffee or a soda, but we didn’t want anything else cluttering up the place. That’s why Ostrow’s Cabaret (Steve Ostrow of the Continental Baths) eventually bombed even with the big names. A disco in a bath was ridiculous. The two NYC baths that seemed to get it right in my opinion were the New St. Mark’s Baths and the Club Baths. The rest were too sleazy or trying to be something they weren’t, like a disco or health club. That just didn’t work or detracted from the scene.” (John. V., gay NYC resident)

“A lot of people used the baths as a sort of hotel during the 1970s. I even did that a couple of times when I traveled outside New York . I liked the baths anyway and would have gone in any case. So I could just take a small bag and stay at the baths and save money at the same time. A lot of guys did that, especially in New York where the hotels were so expensive. A lot of guys would come into the city from New Jersey or Long Island and go to the discos or whatever and they stay at the baths. The sometimes people from out of town or with lovers at home or something would meet at a bar on the street and go to the baths to spend a few hours. I even took guys to the baths a few times even though I had my own apartment. If I had the hots for somebody but had just met them and was a little nervous about them, I would sometimes take them to the baths to hook up. I had a couple of memorable scenes like that at the New. St. Mark’s Baths I would dearly love to relive. One night at the St. Mark’s I saw three guys arrive by cab who were obviously marines. To die for marines! They checked into the same room and never appeared until they left, much to the consternation of the other patrons, including me. I always hated seeing things like that I couldn’t get in on…but that was a part of the shtick of the baths. Oh, the baths…how I miss them.” (Vince S, lifelong Jersey City resident)

“The main memory I have of Man’s Country in Manhattan during the 1970s is going there one night during the week when I was very horny. There was hardly anyone there that night…but there was one absolutely incredible guy who I was dying to make it with. He showered forever but wanted nothing to do with me. They he made it with some nondescript guy there with everybody around watching. I could have killed him. Only later did it dawn on me that he was almost certainly a hustler and was brought there for that specific purpose. That was no uncommon although it didn’t happen as much as you would think, at least from my experience.” (J.M., Lifelong Queens NYC resident)

“I worked at both Club Houston and at the Bunkhouse in Kansas City years ago. The main thing that I remember from Club Houston is that while working if we wanted to have sex with someone, we had to clock out or we were technically getting paid for it! It was there that I did MDA for the first time. I found a gram baggie in a bathroom stall and ended up putting it all in a cup of coffee. I proceeded to hook up with a couple and we had incredible sex punctuated by frequent dips in the pool. Within 12 hours I had quit my job at the baths and was driving to Kansas City with both of them, drug induced love…” (Tom W., Kansas City , Missouri )

Tom W. went on to recall, “But my best gay bathhouse stories are from my Bunkhouse Days. Me and my buddy Ralph worked there whenever we wanted a vacation from reality or were wanted by the law. First time, we had to be ‘interviewed’ by the owner Larry. Ralph never had to because I did so well for both of us. I made a big impression on the management. The second time we hid out at the Bunkhouse they were completing a remodel of the place and were going to throw a grand re-opening party. Ralph and I soon became the featured entertainment. We gave them quite a show. We covered the pool table with plastic, then Ralph and I had sex for the first and only time for the dismayed audience. As I recall, I kept my clothes on the whole time and I was the designated top. He, of course, was stark naked in order to be spanked, humiliated by my lit cigarette on his pink nipples…and the grand finale was a scene where I stuck three pool balls into his ass, only to be pushed out again in a timely fashion as ordered by me! To say the least, the Kansas City audience that night was blown away!”

“There were an awful lot of drugs in those days, more so then now especially in the gay crowd. I had two good friends who OD’s and I didn’t even know they did drugs. Some baths were druggier than others in the 1970s. The Everard Baths in NYC was notorious for mescaline and LSD. I tried that once and never did it again. A lot of guys did that about every week though. Grass, of course, was everywhere. And poppers were almost a requirement. You can’t really talk about the baths in the 70s without talking about grass, poppers, and maybe some of the other drugs. They were much a part of it. A few people would go to the baths and no do them, but not many. People were into gyms and health and all that, but they were still into drugs, too.”