WATCH: Bette Midler recalls working at the Continental Baths in archive 1973 video
Subscribe to our daily newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.The BBC recently posted an archive clip of an interview with Midler.
It comes from February 1973, a couple of months after she released her debut album, The Divine Miss M.“Bette Midler, then not widely known in the UK, speaks to Whispering Bob Harris on The Old Grey Whistle Test,” says the accompanying caption. “She explains how she built an audience performing at a bathhouse in New York City before her big break.”A post shared by BBC Archive (@bbc_archive)When pressed about playing in bathhouses, Midler says, “I became very popular at a place in Manhattan called the Continental Baths, which was a steam bath for homosexuals.
An exclusively homosexual health club.”Although the word “homosexuals” is rarely used nowadays, it was more common back then.
At the time, the UK had its own organization called the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE).“When I started working there, it was really a dump,” she continues. “The plaster was falling off and the steam was coming out of the room… but I worked there.
