Liz Torres!
The Continental Baths. The pinnacle of Gay Bathouse History was having some trouble at this point AB (After Bette) in 1974, A sharp decline in patronage was, as one gay New Yorker was quoted, “We finally got fed up with those silly-assed, campy shows. All those straight people in our bathhouse made us feel like we were part of the décor and that we were there for their amusement.”
Customers started to move onto the hard core more sex oriented bathhouses like The Club NYC. The New Saint Marks, and The Everhard baths.
As the history of bathhouses go. The Continental Baths, one of the best known in gay history had the shortest run. Only from 1968-1976 . While many others like Club Baths, Man’s Country and The New Saint Marks were open for decades before being shuttered by the the city of New York.
