“This is my 800th farewell appearance here at the Continental Baths,” jokes a much younger Bette Midler after a rousing opening number. She continues, “I didn’t expect to be back so soon…They had me booked at Fire Island…I was supposed to work at Cherry Grove — I was supposed to sing. But they couldn’t find room for me in the bushes.”
In this stunning archival footage, we see what is thought to be Bette’s actual farewell appearance at the Baths, the now-iconic relic of a pre-AIDS existence in the late ’60s, early ’70s.
The Continental Baths opened their basement doors in 1968 at the Ansonia Hotel on New York City’s Upper West Side. Owner Steve Ostrow told Bette’s acting teacher at the time that he was starting a “nightclub in his basement.” Bette had recently put together a solid 20 minutes of material, and booked the gig, later revealing that she was unaware at the time that many of the audience members would be in their towels. But she didn’t seem to mind one bit.
This video is thought to have been filmed around 1971. Look closely and you’ll see Barry Manilow backing her up on piano.
Setlist:
“Friends”
“Fat Stuff”
“Chattanooga Choo-Choo” (Andrews Sisters)
“Superstar”
“Empty Bed Blues” (Bessie Smith)
“Marahuana”
“For Free” (Joni Mitchell)
“Easier Said Than Done” (The Essex)
“Chapel Of Love” (The Dixie Cups)
“I Shall Be Released” (The Band)
Here are some photos/fliers from that time:
Related Stories:
Back To The Continental: The Birthplace Of Bette Midler, House Music And Gay Sex
PHOTOS: 70s Gay Subculture Preserved In Surprising Detail In “Gay Semiotics”
Bathhouses And Beyond: A Brief History Of Gay Cruising
h/t Dangerous Minds
Vegas Tearoom
When I was a gayling in the 60s, I would run home from school to watch the Mike Douglas afternoon variety show. Does anyone have a clip of Midler’s first appearance singing Great Balls of Fire and bouncing her wondrous gals to Mike’s distraction? It was a great historic TV moment. I would love to see it again.
Charli Girl
She was my first crush, OMG how I loved that woman!!
Charli Girl
She still makes my heart skip a best! STILL HAWT AS EVER!!
Come to find out she’s not only gorgeous but an amazing woman!!
“Loving the Divine”
Harley
back when Miss M was still doing concerts she had an HBO special called “Art or Bust” where they played her “Chatanooga Cho-Cho” number from the Continental Baths from the early ’70’s with Miss B backing her up on piano during an intermission. She definitely was a powerful stage presence. In the concert She did a number where she and her three back-up singers came out with mermaid fins in electric wheelchairs and did an outstanding choreography. It was fabulous.
Ladbrook
Barry. LOL. Poor guy… but I guess someone had to inherit the Liberace closet-case role in pop culture. Come out already. Geez.
scotshot
@Harley: You’re referring of course to the infamous Delores del Lago.
Len John
Wow. Bette and Barry, both with their original noses. Who would have thought?
crowebobby
Wish some billionaire would pay for enough CSI/counter-terrorism technology to clean up the sound and video of this great performance. Even if only the queens in America bought the DVD it would make up for the cost.
Kangol
@Ladbrook: It took Joel Grey until he was 82, so Barry M still has some time.
michaelmt1009
Wow, how fortunate that someone thought to film that performance. It was like traveling back in a time machine and being able to see something amazing. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Ms Urethra Johnson
Thank you for this… Superstar…
blackberry finn
Suoerstar — transported!
wade.l
I saw her the first time when I was 18 in 1978. She performed about 40 sold out concerts here in Sydney at the iconic State theatre. I still remember it like it was yesterday. Bette is one of the jewels in our LGBT crown. What an amazing performer, human being, legend and supporter.
jason smeds
Even though I disapprove of bath-houses, this is amazing footage. Through the fog of the sauna appeared a superstar….
jason smeds
You’ve also got to remember that people like Bette Midler were our friends. Homosexuality was illegal in almost all states in 1971, and we didn’t have many friends back then.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
AMAZING! Like someone opened a time capsule to a long ago lost time showing a budding superstar…..
Her banter between songs is perfect shows she loved the Gays way back then and we still love her 40 years later……..
Am sure her song “friends” encouraged many of those at the show to make new “friends” right after the show :p
badamsthies
“In this stunning archival footage, we see what is thought to be Bette’s actual farewell appearance at the Baths, the now-iconic relic of a pre-AIDS existence in the late ’60s, early ’70s.”……bathhouses still exist. Not in the historically specific manner of the 60s and 70s with performances etc but they do still exist. The Continental Baths are certainly iconic and speak to a time when gay culture was less concerned with pretension and more concerned with community building that included not only art but also sex as a means of expressing friendship, community, love and/or solidarity. Were that the current homonormativity could learn something from its social, grass roots past.
Ogre Magi
@badamsthies: Very well said. I wish that more people felt like you
dvlaries
It’s a shame the TV series didn’t work. They should get the collected finished episodes of it to DVD already.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
@badamsthies:
@Ogre Magi:
100% Co-sign
Problem is that with all the new ways to hook, the actual Gay community is finding it hard (no pun intended) to grow. I remember my first venture into a Gay bar. Myself and a few of my straight friends were hanging out and one guy discovered a Gay bar and we all decided to go in and check it out. I was sweating bullets because my friends thought it was a “goof” and I was venturing into a world I had only dreamed about……I was amazed because so many guys began hitting on me, making it very uncomfortable for me to avoid the attention in front of my friends. The very next night I went back sans my friend. I had my first official hookup and began to make lifelong friends as the weeks and months progressed…….
There were a number of local Gay bars. I was asked to bartend at one of them, despite never having poured a drink in my life. Those were some of the best years of my life, I was 21 and earning a silly amount of money each nite and along with meeting and making many friends, I had a slew of guys at the end of each nite looking to hook up. The times in those bars were so special. There were regulars who came in every nite, the owner of the bar would arrange bus trips to go skiing, amusement parks, et all. We had a wide range of guys all ages, drag queens, lesbians all having a great time the whole time………
Unfotunatey those coming out now turn to the internets to meet guys. They don’t engage in the sense of community and solidarity we had. I have a number of fcuk buddies that I have met online, who fully identify as Gay yet never step foot in a Gay bar. Its all done via the internet…………..
Jacob23
Some people ask how is it possible that, after performing in a bathhouse back in 1971, Midler has done nothing for gay people or gay rights? How is it that she has never spoken out about anti-gay violence or about bullying, and that she actually opposed marriage equality until she was forced to walk back her opposition? How is this disrespect for gay people consistent with her performing at a gay bathhouse back in 1971? And the answer is: She is being totally consistent. She went to a degraded place to perform for a bunch of degraded gay men who had sex with, and transmitted an array of STIs to, other gay men whom they didn’t love or even know. That’s how she saw gay people. Why would anyone expect her to lift a finger on behalf of, or demand respect for, people who didn’t respect themselves?
vive
@Jacob23: “…people who didn’t respect themselves…”
That is not the case. Maybe stop commenting about things you know nothing about.
passingthru
@Jacob23: It’s amazing to me how wrong someone can be while thinking that they are so right. Sounds very similar to a megachurch preacher.
animatedgifman
@Vegas Tearoom: Howdy Vegas … I am usually pretty good at finding the arcane and rare, but crapped out on your request, sorry. You can, however, read more about the episode you mentioned on the Internet Movies Database at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0647972/
Skeeter Allen
The gays made her the star she is today.
Bruce Dillon
FaniLow Et Tu Bette Midler!
(*;*()
Justin Weeks
That was cool
Curtis McDonald
Barry is like, “Hey girl” lol
Kieran Loveridge-rees
Rhys Goddard
Marshall R. Krug
oh my
Kenneth Julian
I love all the icons. Cher, Barbra Streisand, Madonna. The kids like to add Gaga to the list. Sorry. This woman is the truth. Long before is was trendy to perform for the LGBT. She was there.
Alex Rothwell
Is that Barry Manallow ?
Michael Dessoye
Very scratchy,amateurish footage but it’s Bette in her infancy!
Amaurys Arias
Rare? This is old new
crowebobby
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: You must have been pretty damn hot to have gotten that much attention. (I’m not being sarcastic.) I was attractive enough to do runway work for Dior, but I never got that kind attention in any bar; I got my share in Rome during that same period, but I was the chaser not the chasee. Maybe in my next life.
OzJosh
@Ladbrook: He married his partner recently. If that’s not out, what is?
He BGB
My roomie called him Barely Manenuf. I saw this footage ages ago. Terrible quality but live in a bath basement no wonder. I saw her perform great balls of fire (mentioned above) with her singing atop a piano played by Jerry Lee Lewis on TV. My mom was watching too and called Bette Midler a jezabel! I just bought the new release of her first album that has the HTF singles on it of her hits. I went to my first gay bar when this album was released. I was 17.
alanballs
@Harley: yes that was a great act along with Vickie Eatie and the Eatettes
alanballs
@Skeeter Allen: I beg to differ (ever so slightly). Us gays first saw and appreciated the star she already was, and then the rest of the civilized world woke up.
alanballs
@He BGB: I saw her live on the Biston Commons when I was but a wee, impressionable gaylette….woke me right up I can tell ya.
alanballs
@He BGB: that’s BOSTON Commons. (Damned auto correct)
alanballs
@PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS:it was the same experience for me in Milwaukee and Boston. We had a gay bowling league, gay softball tournaments, gay fried fish and chips on Fridays at one popular gay bar and we partied endlessly on weekends and at Sunday tea dances. “We Are Family” was more than a dance song, it was our lifestyle.
dino_raphael
That is really so fantastic. I cannot get over that this happened- it really makes me feel so fantastic.