The Continental Baths was a gay bathhouse in the basement of The Ansonia Hotel in New York City, which was operated from 1968 to 1976 by Steve Ostrow.

[2] He then began showcasing live acts which were the launching points for Bette Midler, Barry Manilow, Melissa Manchester, Ellen Greene, Labelle, The Manhattan Transfer, Jane Olivor, Melba Moore, Liz Torres, Wayland Flowers, Nell Carter and Peter Allen.

The features of this bathhouse included a small disco dance floor, a cabaret lounge with a baby grand piano (both only feet from a narrow "Olympia blue" swimming pool), sauna rooms, bunk beds in public areas, and tiny rooms as one would find in any gay bathhouse.

There was a weekly STD clinic, a supply of A200 (a lice-killing shampoo) in the showers, a mouthwash dispenser, and K-Y Jelly in the candy vending machine.

It was at the Continental, accompanied by house pianist[8] Barry Manilow[6] (who, like the bathhouse patrons, sometimes wore only a white towel),[9] that she created her stage persona the Divine Miss M. Despite the way things turned out [with the AIDS crisis], I'm still proud of those days [when I got my start singing at the gay bathhouses].

The reason for the decline in patronage was, as one gay New Yorker was quoted, "We finally got fed up with those silly-assed, campy shows.

"[citation needed] By the end of 1974, patronage was so low that Steve Ostrow had decided to discontinue the lounge acts.

This happened again in December of the same year, when police entered the Continental Baths and arrested three patrons and three employees, charging them with committing lewd and lascivious acts and criminal mischief, respectively.