Malcolm Ingram’s delightful new documentary is ostensibly about New York’s most famous gay Bath House , but is as much the story of Steve Ostrow it’s larger than life founder. Ostrow’s colorful tale is very Runyonesque and makes for fascinating hearing, more so as Ingram seems fit to never challenge any of his more outrageous statements which begged a more likely explanation than the one being proffered.Ostrow, an Italian/American and a flamboyant character, is a talented Opera singer and when as a young newly married man he was offered a lucrative singing contract in Germany which he had to turn down as he was unable to leave the country. There was this small matter of some 70 charges of Mail Fraud hanging over his head just because he had ‘innocently’ offered loans to people in other States which was illegal at the time.
He needed to earn a living and as he had heard that gay bath houses were very profitable, he decided to check them out. He and his wife discovered that there were inhospitable, seedy and insanitary BUT packed to the rafters every night. He decided to open one that that would not just be bigger and better than all the rest, but a stunningly beautiful and welcoming place and he persuaded his father-in-law to stump up the capital ….all of it as his partners pulled out suddenly when the Police told them the place would never open without their approval (i.e. kick backs).
The year was 1968, and homosexuality was not only still illegal, but men couldn’t kiss, hold hands or even dance together in public. What Ostrow wanted to create was somewhere they could do all that safely and in real style. His multi-floored over-decorated premises in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel were like a gay Disneyland, except the floor with all the individual rooms, and of course the one with dark black space where the orgies would take place.
Ingram asked a variety of the staff that had worked there what percentage of the men had gone there purely for sex. The answers varied from 140% to 50%, except for Ostrow himself who still naively believed it was a mere 25%! That would have included him as well as he had come out of the closet by then.
The Baths were a sensational success from day one and they were raking it in, which was handy as Ostrow had to pay off not just the Police but also protection money to the Mafia to keep the place open. He had no qualms at talking about that part or disguising the fact that he dealt with it all quite easily.
The Continental was undoubtedly a much-needed safe haven for gay men in New York and played a crucial part in the sexual revolution that was just kicking off. And then to keep the place continually evolving Ostrow started to introduce entertainment and cabaret. This is where he proved that he was not just a shrewd businessman but also had a excellent ‘ear’ for music because some of the unknown acts he promoted went on to become very big stars. One of the most famous of these was Betty Midler, for whom Ostrow inadvertently named The Divine Miss M. Bathhouse Bette was the pinnacle of camp which was perfect for both the Continental and to launch her career. If there is any weakness in Ingram’s film is that he fails to note that the few singers he mentions were just the mere tip of the iceberg in Ostrow’s entertainment roster as it was in fact like a veritable show business who’s who with some of the major stars of the day appearing there too (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Baths#Entertainment )
One night Ostrow got a tad carried away with himself and had Eleanor Steber, one of the Metropolitan Opera stars give a Recital in the Baths, which was recorded live for an Album. The guests wore black towels in deference.
The entertainment attracted society and also straight people. Lots of them. In the end this didn’t go down too well with the gay men who just came for the sex, so by the mid 1970’s when newer raunchier Baths with very strict men-only policies opened, they started leaving the Continental in droves. Ostrow explains it as a more of just a lack of finances to be able to constantly refurbish which sounded a tad hollow, but whatever the real reason in 1974, the Baths finally closed its doors.
Give Ostrow his due, although he opened the Baths purely to make money, he did work hard with, and for, the gay community which no other Bar owners did at that time. He established a free STD Clinic inside The Continental, and he was at the forefront of the movement that eventually got homosexuality de-criminalised in New York. You may cynically think that helped the Baths themselves, but I believe by then he had the good of the Community in his heart too.
Ingram catches up with Ostrow now a wily old bird who has re-invented himself found another type of fame singing at the Sydney Opera House and teaching singers in Australia where he has re-located. And just to add another touch of make belief to the story, he adds that his ex-wife found happiness in the last years of her life in fulfilling her own ambitions. She became a nun.