June 09, 2004

A history of gay bath houses. Not remotely safe for work. [via a segment I heard on NPR]
posted by CellarFloor 19 years ago
  • Interesting -- I was pleased to find out that Bella Abzug campaigned for Congress at a NYC bathhouse ["I'm not sure I'm dressed for the occassion" she said to the room full of towel-clad men] -- good for her; impressive too.
  • Fascinating reading - thanks!
  • Awesome link, CellarFloor!
  • "Say, Joey, you ever been inside a Manhattan bath house?"
  • [Tom of Finland-style subculture banana]
  • Just out of curiousity, what NPR program covered this?
  • I have no idea what I was listening to, I was listening to KCRW in los angeles and heard this segment maybe 5 to 15 minutes before I posted it.
  • It's a really fantastic site. Thanks for posting it. Just fuels my recent obsession with NYC in 60s and 70s.
  • Mackerel - It's obvious .... Piano Jazz
  • Yeah, I heard this on KSBR too. Thanks for beating me to the punch. Radical, CellarFloor! Thanks!
  • Jeez, this brings back a memory or two. My friend Jimmy Stuard, the DJ at 12 West (and probably the first "star" DJ in Manhattan's burgeoning gay disco scene) was one of the nine men who died in the Everard fire in '77. I spent my twenty-third birthday at his funeral. At Campbell's Funeral Home, they were playing one of his 12 West tapes before the memorial service. It was a strange, crazy moment when a popular Trammps' song came up in the mix -- "Burn baby, burn, disco inferno..." -- conversations just stopped, and no one knew whether to laugh or cry, so most of us did both.