Celebrities and The Continental Baths
Singer Bette Midler is well known for getting her start at the famous Continental Baths in New York City in the early 1970s, where she earned the nickname Bathhouse Betty. It was there, accompanied by pianist Barry Manilow (who, like the bathhouse patrons, sometimes wore only a white towel) that she created her stage persona "the Divine Miss M."
On getting her start in bathhouses, Midler has remarked:
Despite the way things turned out, I'm still proud of those days . I feel like I was at the forefront of the gay liberation movement, and I hope I did my part to help it move forward. So, I kind of wear the label of 'Bathhouse Betty' with pride.
Other famous performers who appeared at the Continental include Melba Moore, Labelle, Peter Allen, Cab Calloway, The Manhattan Transfer, John Davidson, and Wayland Flowers.
Read more about this topic: Gay Bathhouse
Famous quotes containing the words celebrities and/or baths:
“Passengers in 1937 totaled 270,000; so many of these were celebrities that two Newark newspapers ran special airport columns.”
—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Almost yesterday, those gentle ladies stole
to their baths in Atlantic City, for the lost
rites of the first sea of the first salt
running from a faucet.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)