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.
Prosecutors presented evidence and testimony at trial that Nicholas Encarnacion sexually assaulted his victim in the stairwell of their apartment building.
A Manhattan man convicted of raping a transgender woman in a Lower East Side apartment stairwell in 2022 has been sentenced to 12 years in state prison.
On August 26, Encarnacion appeared before Judge Kathryn Paek in New York City Criminal Court, where his victim, Siobhan Ebert, delivered a statement before sentencing, according to amNewYork.
Encarnacion and Ebert had been neighbors in the same Two Bridges apartment building on the Lower East Side.
According to evidence presented at trial, on October 9, 2022, around 10:30 p.m., Ebert was returning to her apartment after dinner with her fiancé and friends.
King Molasses is brimming with a confidence that feels well-earned. Recently crowned the winner on season one of Revry's reality competition series King of Drag, the performer was also just voted D.C. Drag Awards' Drag King of the Year, their fourth time taking the honor.
"I've been doing drag in D.C. since late 2018, believe it or not," says Mo, as the performer likes to be called. "And I've been working pretty hard -- and working for a while -- in the scene." Still, they say they've been blown away by the reception they and their fellow King of Drag contestants have experienced since the show, the first to feature solely drag kings, wrapped in July.
New York City has opened Ace's Place, its first shelter dedicated specifically to serving transgender and gender-nonconforming people experiencing homelessness. Operated in partnership with the Bronx-based LGBTQ nonprofit Destination Tomorrow, the 150-bed facility in Long Island City, Queens, will provide transitional housing and wraparound support services for residents.
Fully funded by the city for now, Ace's Place will receive $65 million to remain operational through 2030. In addition to housing, the shelter will offer on-site psychiatric care, medical referrals, culinary and GED classes, job training, financial literacy and life skills workshops, counseling, and other comprehensive services. Destination Tomorrow will manage day-to-day operations.
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