Barry Manilow has been a musical superstar for decades, but everyone must start somewhere.
The singer and songwriter had to put in his time playing for small crowds, taking odd jobs, and even performing in some pretty unexpected places, including gay bathhouses, which is partly where his career began.
Manilow used to perform at a now-defunct bathhouse called the Continental Baths. They were located in the basement of a hotel called the Ansonia Hotel in the heart of New York City at Broadway and 74th Street. While that location may now house an apartment building, it’s where Manilow found an audience – one he was grateful for.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Manilow opened up about those days, clearing up some misconceptions about his time in the baths.
“What do you think, they were fucking in front of us?” the singer asked the interviewer, perhaps joking. He went on to say that those in attendance were “just an audience. A great audience, too.”
Why did Manilow decide to perform in such a sexualized venue? It’s simple – like so many other musicians trying to make it, he needed the money. “For me, it was a job for 75 bucks,” he stated quite plainly in the interview.
Manilow wasn’t alone during at least some of his performances at the Continental Baths. In fact, it was Bette Midler who helped him get his start at the bathhouse. The man who founded the gay space, Steven Ostrow, told Midler, who was already headlining the venue, to track Manilow down when she needed someone to play with her. The two quickly worked together, and the rest is history.
Just a few years ago, Manilow finally came out publicly, admitting that not only is he gay, but that he is in a happy, committed relationship with a man. The Hollywood Reporter journalist asked the singer if performing at a gay bathhouse in his younger years played any role in helping him discover who he really was.
“At that point I wasn’t sure about that,” he answered. “There were a lot of us in the world that had yet to figure it out.”
At some point, Manilow and Midler were offered bigger and better shows, thanks to their excellent performances at the Continental Baths. Once they began touring and playing to larger crowds – and not in gay bathhouses – they were both discovered, and they went on to become massive stars in their own right.
These days, at the age of 80, Manilow is still going strong, performing to sold-out crowds at his ongoing Las Vegas residency at the Westgate Resort Hotel.
Last year, he beat Elvis Presley’s record for the most shows in the city, topping the King’s 636-concert run. Manilow also currently has a musical, Harmony, running on Broadway.
A New York City subway rider was slashed in the face earlier this month by an unidentified assailant who took offense to him kissing his transgender partner. The attack occurred around 7:50 p.m. on January 10 aboard a southbound No. 6 train as it traveled through Manhattan.
According to police, the 28-year-old victim was kissing his partner when the suspect began shouting anti-gay slurs. The verbal abuse quickly escalated into a physical confrontation. During the argument, the suspect struck the victim with a sharp object, causing a deep laceration on the right side of his face, according to New York CW affiliate WPIX.
As one of his final acts in office, outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced plans to distribute $2 million in "emergency funding" to roughly 20 organizations serving transgender, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary New Yorkers.
The grants are intended to counter federal budget cuts and Trump administration efforts to block LGBTQ organizations -- particularly those serving transgender people -- from receiving federal funding, reports Gay City News.
The funding, the first of its kind in the nation, will be administered by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The money is intended to support community organizations providing services to gender-diverse communities, including "health and wellness, legal advocacy, youth and family support, safety and crisis response, community building, and economic empowerment," according to the release.
Electronic downloads of Heated Rivalry, the second novel in author Rachel Reid’s six-book Game Changer romance series, surged after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani name-dropped the book while addressing the public during a major winter storm on Sunday.
As the storm battered the East Coast and dumped at least 11 inches of snow on New York City, Mamdani urged residents to stay home to avoid endangering themselves and to prevent interference with city sanitation crews clearing the streets. He also offered suggestions for how New Yorkers might spend their time indoors.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.