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.
The D.C. area is on track to be graced by two visits from the Indigo Girls this year, including a stint with the Fairfax Symphony at Capital One Hall and a remarkable double-bill pairing with fellow lesbian vanguard Melissa Etheridge at Wolf Trap. Wolf Trap is also the place to go for a second edition of the venue's Out & About Festival, this year offering a new cohort of LGBTQ musical acts.
Queer artists are really, truly just about everywhere, coming to nearly every music venue in the region this season. A quick scan of the listings bears this out: There's Donna Missal at The Atlantis, BOOMscat at Blues Alley, CMAT at DC9, XOMG Pop! at the Fillmore, Billy Gilman at Jammin Java, Mary Gauthier at Rams Head on Stage, and Mx Mundy at Songbyrd. And that's just a quick and easy seven, with several times that number waiting in the wings for your discovery.
Cher is among a group of musicians named as inductees to he Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
The Grammy Award-winning artist was one of four artists -- along with Foreigner, Peter Frampton, and Kool & the Gang -- who were on the ballot for the first time.
Cher -- the only artist to have a No. 1 song in each of the past six decades -- and fellow inductee Mary J. Blige, a nine-time Grammy Award winner with eight multi-platinum albums -- will boost the Hall of Fame's number of females, which previously stood at 65, constituting about 8% of the total number of inductees.
David Archuleta has been through a lot in the past several years.
He came out as gay and left the Mormon church, which had been a huge part of his life. As an artist, he’s now looking to mine his past experiences – and even his trauma – to make something beautiful out of an experience that must have been incredibly difficult. That's exactly what he's managed to do with “Hell Together,” his latest single.
The former American Idol star dropped “Hell Together” last week after teasing new music was coming. The track is a gospel-tinged affair, a nod to his past and the story he tells in the song.
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!