The gay nightclub impresario who launched superstars

It was still illegal for two men to dance together when singer Steve Ostrow dreamed up the Continental Baths in 1968. On the way to a voice lesson at Manhattan’s Ansonia Hotel, Ostrow saw that the basement of the Beaux-Arts building—which once housed Turkish baths— was for rent. Ostrow decided to transform it into a gay bathhouse and nightspot. He convinced a young Bette Midler to perform on weekends, with Barry Manilow accompanying. In the club’s first year, police raided it 200 times, but it stayed open until 1976. “It ushered in an era of sexual liberation and alternative lifestyles,” Ostrow said, “that, to this day, has never been equaled.”

Born in Brooklyn, Ostrow put aside his opera ambitions at 18 to support his mother after his father’s death. He worked for a loan company but moonlighted at a small opera company, where he met his eventual wife. Ostrow opened his own loan company too, but the business fell apart after he was charged with fraud. By the time he stumbled upon the Ansonia, he “had a wife and two children” and felt stuck, said The New York Times. He saw in the bathhouse “not just a market but an opportunity to explore his own sexuality.”

“Ostrow’s influence extended beyond” the gay scene, said The Sydney Morning Herald. The ornate, palatial sex club boasted a classy stage that “launched numerous artists who would go on to achieve great fame,” including Midler and Manilow as well as The Manhattan Transfer, Nell Carter, and Melissa Manchester. After it finally closed, Ostrow moved to Australia, where he would live the rest of his life, singing opera and giving voice lessons. He credited his club with launching him too. “More than being just a bathhouse and showplace,” he said, “the Baths were a place where people came out of their closets and found out who they were.”