Those were the days...Bette Midler at The Continental Baths

Bob Schulenberg, Schulenberg’s Page: Bette, Barbra, and Buzzy, New York Social Diary, December 19, 2019. Back in the day Midler performed:

on the Upper West Side regularly at a gay bathhouse called The Continental Baths accompanied by her pianist/music director, a young man named Barry Manilow!

As unlikely as this might seem, it was a very appropriate part of New York night life at the time, and before long Bette and the venue had become the talk of Manhattan and a very hot ticket! Soon Upper East Side proper ladies and gentlemen found themselves seated row upon row facing a smallish stage while opposite them on separate but equal folding chairs row upon row, young men wrapped only in towels took time off from their … bathing … to assemble and enjoy the show on the stage!

The place was enormous and there was a full (probably) Olympic-size swimming pool near the stage. I went to see Bette there before she became famous and found myself seated between Helen Gurley Brown and Arlene Frances! We can justifiably call this crossover entertainment and I marveled at the thought that this was even happening! If you wanted to get a reaction from your Mid-Western relations this would certainly have been the place to do it!

Bette‘s performance did have its PC-21 moments like during the second act when she appeared carefully draped only in a towel (like the regular customers) and threw them amyl nitrite poppers!

More surprising was the exuberance of the crowd after the show as many men and women whipped off their clothes to jump into the pool! I didn’t join them and neither did Helen Gurley Brown and Arlene Frances!

Boldface in the original, because that's the kind of rag NYSD is.