Steven Ostrow, the actor and singer best known as the creator of The Continental Baths gay men’s bathhouse where Bette Midler, Barry Manilow, and other stars launched their careers, has died.
The Brooklyn native passed away on Feb. 4 at a rest home in Sydney, Australia, where he has lived since the 1980s. Ostrow was 91.
Steven Ostrow was born to Russian Jewish parents on Sept. 16, 1932. He gained early success as an operatic singer and actor.
Displeased with the seedy and sleazy state of gay clubs and bathhouses in NYC at the time, in 1968 he opened The Continental Baths in the basement of The Ansonia Hotel, now known as The Ansonia.
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