Books, History, Movies & Trivia

The History of Gay Bathhouses

• History of the Baths
• Bathhouse Facts
• Bathhouse Artwork
• Bathhouse Memorabilia
• Bathhouse Raids
• Dates to Remember
• Legendary Baths of New York #1
• Legendary Baths of New York #2
• The Continental Baths & Mt. Morris Baths
• Los Angeles Bathhouse History, Part 1
• Los Angeles Bathhouse History, Part 2
• Bathhouse History by Eddie Coronado

Homoerotic Towel Ads of the 1940's

The Continental Baths of New York

Vintage Bathhouse Advertising

Bathhouse Etiquette

Bathhouse Evolution

Photo Essay: Group Shower!

Essay: Why I Love Bathhouses

World's Best Bathhouses

Bathhouse: "The Musical"

Bathhouse Diary [aka Bathhouse Blues]

One man's 10 year chronicle of visiting bathhouses.

Straight Boy Undercover

News article: A straight reporter writes about his adventures in a bathhouse.

Men at Play
A female erotic writer visits SpaExcess: Toronto's largest bathhouse.

YouTube/Bathhouse

A straight reporter visits a bathhouse and talks about his adventures. No skin, just talk. In all my visits to bathhouses I have never been in one where everything is pitch black and they give you a flashlight to navigate. That is very unusual. It is possible it was a "blackout" night: a theme night where the management turns down all the lights and everyone has to grope around in the dark.

A "fanny--pack" for your ankle. Store your key, lube, condoms & poppers.
No longer in production.

A screwball farce set entirely within a bathhouse: "The Ritz" [Now on DVD]

South Park supporting character Leopold "Butters" Scotch gets his very own episode. His mother recruits him to follow his father who has gone "shopping" for her anniversary gift. In actuality he has gone to the "White Swallow Bathhouse." After hearing the news his mother decides to kill herself; but she doesn't want to leave Butters behind to be raised by "a sick pervert" so she decides to kill Butters first!  O.J. Simpson has a cameo.

Watch complete episode: Stans Dad.com
Download episode via: Rapidshare

It is the last episode on Season 5: Disc 3

Stag Night at the Steam Room

Hugh O'Brian, Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis spend some time at Finlandia --- a Finnish bathhouse for men only! An article from Modern Screen magazine. 1950

Rock Hudson was a frequent visitor of bathhouses wherever he went. One of his old haunts was the KLYT bathhouse in downtown LA which still exists.

Blogger Roger Dodger writes: 
On my first excursion to the Rich Street Baths in San Francisco I ran into Rock Hudson (yeah, I’m that old). Having had a schoolboy crush on him for years, I was too dumbfounded to earn the title Starfucker. Numerous others weren’t.

In Under the Rainbow John Carlyle writes:
I must tell one vignette of Rock the bachelor. He nursed many a hangover in the Hollywood bathhouses. He chose Craig and me to be his confidants when he had crabs, that niggling hazard of promiscuity [before the penalty became life-threatening]. We would spread newspapers out on the living room floor while Rock used our bathroom to douse himself with Cuprex, a smelly, greasy, stinking ointment that was used as a cure for crabs. While Craig and I laughed for the twenty minute wait required before he could take a shower, Rock just sat there, nude, large and writhing in discomfort upon the LA Times.

YouTube/Pillow Talk
Only in Hollywood: "A gay man pretending to be a straight man pretending to be a gay man"

Vintage Beefcake

The transformation of a homophobic straight man into "one of the boys" fuels this historically important comedy-drama. Michael, who lives with his girlfriend, finds his already unstable sexuality challenged after he gets a job as a pianist at the gay "Continental Baths." This is an exploration of one man's sexuality which, while featuring amateurish acting and a dated screenplay, is nonetheless entertaining. One of the first American gay-themed films, "Saturday Night at the Baths" is a nostalgic classic. Featuring live drag shows of the time, the film allows the audience to relive this inimitable era.

Virtually unseen since the mid-1970’s, it is an entertaining, sexy and provocative look at the gay life style during the post Stonewall, pre-AIDS period. Set in New York City with much of it filmed on location inside the famous Continental Baths, this film is a classic time capsule of an era long gone by.

Also available from Netflix, Amazon and others.

This energetic documentary explores the gay sex scene in New York City during the go-go 1970's. Through frank interviews and film footage it chronicles the post-stonewall pre-AIDS period when sex was everywhere and without obligation or consequence.

They explore sex in: Central Park, truck loading docks, abandoned piers, Studio 54, bar backrooms, Fire Island and the two major bathhouses of the era: The St. Marks & Continental Baths. Great nostalgic fun.

Gay Sex in the 70s.com

Available from Netflix, TLA Video and others.

Very low budget movie from the Philippines.

Steam: The Turkish Bath [1997]

An Italian designer travels to Istanbul to sell a traditional Turkish steam bath left to him by a deceased aunt. Upon arrival, he becomes enthralled by the city and decides to renovate and return the bath to the public. This sudden change of heart may have something to do with the fact that he's fallen in love with a beautiful young local boy. Their romantic relationship is cut short when the designer's wife arrives in Turkey with her own agenda.

Published in October 2003 this book chronicles the history of gay bathhouses as well as the political fight to shut down bathhouses as a "health threat" during the AIDS hysteria of the mid 1980's. By the 1990's half of the bathhouses in the USA had closed. Only a handful were closed under court order. The majority closed due to the steep drop in business during the height of the AIDS epidemic.

$35.00 Available from Amazon and others

Al Parker's "Turned On" was filmed almost entirely at the now defunct MAC's Baths in Los Angeles. The extended fantasy sequence in the baths contains some of the most famous footage Al Parker ever appeared in. "MAC's" stood for "Men's Action Center" and was located on Hyperion Ave. in Silverlake just a few blocks from the old Disney Studio.

One of Al's first jobs in Los Angeles [which he held for several years]  was working for Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion. It seems Hef has a preference for hiring gays to run the household ----- a modern day version of eunuchs guarding the harem.

Unbelievably, off Highway 49 in Central California there is
 actually a small town named "Glory Hole."
I nearly drove off the road when I saw the highway sign
"Glory Hole Next Exit."

Wikipedia: Glory Hole

Cary Grant & Randolph Scott

Have your heard about the new "men's club" that just opened downtown? Don't tell the girls though. It'll be our little secret.