Steve Ostrow, who founded famed NYC bathhouse the Continental Baths, dies at 91

By PHILIP MARCELO
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Steve Ostrow, the founder of the Continental Baths, a trailblazing New York City gay bathhouse where Bette Midler, Barry Manilow and other famous artists cut their teeth, has died. He was 91. An obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald says the Brooklyn native died Feb. 4 in his adopted home of Sydney, Australia. Ostrow opened the Continental Baths in 1968 in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He transformed the hotel’s massive basement, with its dilapidated pools and Turkish baths, into an opulently decorated, Roman-themed bathhouse. The 24/7 venue became a destination for groundbreaking music.