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Steve Ostrow, whose NYC bathhouse became a gay landmark, dies at 91
Steve Ostrow, whose NYC bathhouse became a gay landmark, dies at 91
By Associated Press
February 13, 2024 at 1:07 p.m. EST
Steve Ostrow onstage at the Continental Baths in 1972, four years after he founded the Manhattan bathhouse and music venue as a sanctuary for gay New Yorkers. (Pierre Venant/WWD/Penske Media/Getty Images)
Steve Ostrow, who founded the trailblazing Manhattan bathhouse and music venue the Continental Baths, a gay landmark that served as a launchpad for performers including Bette Midler and Barry Manilow, died Feb. 4 at his home in Sydney. He was 91.
His death was confirmed by his friend Toby Usnik, who co-wrote an obituary for Mr. Ostrow in the Sydney Morning Herald. Mr. Ostrow, who moved to Australia in the 1980s, “had been in decline for months,” said Usnik, who did not know the specific cause of death.
Mr. Ostrow opened the Continental Baths in 1968 in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel, a once-grand Beaux-Arts building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that had fallen on hard times. Under his direction, the hotel’s massive basement, with its dilapidated pools and Turkish baths, was transformed into an opulently decorated, Roman-themed bathhouse.
The multilevel venue was a sanctuary for a music and dance revolution deeply rooted in New York City’s gay scene, as well as an incubator for the community’s broader social and political awakening, which was spurred on by the Stonewall protests in Lower Manhattan.
{snip}
Harrison Smith contributed to this report.
By Associated Press
February 13, 2024 at 1:07 p.m. EST
Steve Ostrow onstage at the Continental Baths in 1972, four years after he founded the Manhattan bathhouse and music venue as a sanctuary for gay New Yorkers. (Pierre Venant/WWD/Penske Media/Getty Images)
Steve Ostrow, who founded the trailblazing Manhattan bathhouse and music venue the Continental Baths, a gay landmark that served as a launchpad for performers including Bette Midler and Barry Manilow, died Feb. 4 at his home in Sydney. He was 91.
His death was confirmed by his friend Toby Usnik, who co-wrote an obituary for Mr. Ostrow in the Sydney Morning Herald. Mr. Ostrow, who moved to Australia in the 1980s, “had been in decline for months,” said Usnik, who did not know the specific cause of death.
Mr. Ostrow opened the Continental Baths in 1968 in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel, a once-grand Beaux-Arts building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that had fallen on hard times. Under his direction, the hotel’s massive basement, with its dilapidated pools and Turkish baths, was transformed into an opulently decorated, Roman-themed bathhouse.
The multilevel venue was a sanctuary for a music and dance revolution deeply rooted in New York City’s gay scene, as well as an incubator for the community’s broader social and political awakening, which was spurred on by the Stonewall protests in Lower Manhattan.
{snip}
Harrison Smith contributed to this report.
