Plato's Retreat was a

swingers' club Sex clubs, also known as swinger clubs or lifestyle clubs, are formal or informal groups that organize sex-related activities, or establishments where patrons can engage in sex acts with other patrons. A sex club or swinger club differs from a br ...

catering to heterosexual couples and bisexual women. From 1977 until 1985 it operated in two locations in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, United States. The first was the former location of the

Continental Baths The Continental Baths was a gay bathhouse in the basement of The Ansonia Hotel in New York City, which was operated from 1968-1976 by Steve Ostrow. It was advertised as reminiscent of "the glory of ancient Rome". It opened after Ostorow observ ...

, a gay sex club that was briefly in fashion with the chic and culturally adventurous, such as Bette Midler.

Establishment

In 1976, Larry Levenson, a high school friend of

Al Goldstein Alvin "Al" Goldstein (January 10, 1936December 19, 2013) was an American pornographer. He is known for helping normalize hardcore pornography in the United States. Background Goldstein was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to a Jewish family. He ...

and a former fast-food manager who was selling ice cream at Coney Island, was introduced to the swinging lifestyle by a woman he met at a bar. After organizing swinging parties himself for a time, he opened a club "for swingers" in 1977, in the basement of the Kenmore Hotel on East 23rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenue (145 E 23rd St), and called it "Plato's Retreat." The same year, he moved it to the basement of the

Ansonia Hotel The Ansonia is a building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, located at 2109 Broadway, between 73rd and 74th Streets. It was originally built as a residential hotel by William Earle Dodge Stokes, the Phelps-Dodge copper heir ...

, an early 20th-century building on 2109 Broadway between West 73rd and West 74th Streets on the Upper West Side of

. The hotel used to house the

, a gay bathhouse where singer Bette Midler, often accompanied by

Barry Manilow Barry Manilow (born Barry Alan Pincus; June 17, 1943) is an American singer and songwriter with a career that spans seven decades. His hit recordings include " Could It Be Magic", " Somewhere Down the Road", " Mandy", " I Write the Songs", " C ...

on a baby grand piano, first became a national figure.

Rules and premises

Plato's Retreat was a "members-only" establishment that was legally not a public business. This meant that members had to follow the club's rules. Levenson did not allow men unaccompanied by a female to enter. This, of course, was an attempt to block male homosexuals, and he also prohibited male-male sexual activity between the men that did get in. Woman on woman sex, however, he encouraged. Unaccompanied women were welcome, often at a discounted rate, or free. Once a woman left a room after a sexual encounter, her male companion had to accompany her within two minutes. This rule was intended to control the male–female ratio. Alcohol was forbidden. Drugs (at the time alcohol was not considered a drug) and paid sexual services were also forbidden, but the prohibitions were not enforced, which would have been difficult at best. In later years prostitutes did frequent the premises and there was "rampant" use of drugs (most often quaaludes) by patrons. According to a 1979 advertisement in ''

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'' magazine, the club offered, besides a heated swimming pool, a steam sauna, whirlpool baths, disco dancing, free bar and buffet, "cozy living rooms and lounging areas", a "variety of swing areas", and a backgammon lounge. Ansonia apartments LC-D4-17421 crop

Fame

During its heyday, Plato's Retreat was considered the world's most infamous sex club, popular with celebrities, porn stars, and well-to-do couples. The clientele was described as "an assortment of kinky types from the

suburbs A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separa ...

: dry cleaners and their wives, or fat men in toupees with their heavily made-up girlfriends." Owner Levenson often partook in sexual activity on the premises, once winning a bet against Al Goldstein and 'Butch' Katz, owner of 42nd Street's Roxy Burlesk theater, that he could ejaculate fifteen times within a twenty-four-hour day. In 1979, Levenson opened Plato's West, on Ivar Avenue in Los Angeles, but the venture, "a failed attempt at franchising", was not successful and lasted only six months. In 1980, Plato's relocated to 509 West 34th Street.

Decline and closure

In 1985, New York City Mayor Ed Koch backed the

New York City Health Department The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is the department of the government of New York City responsible for public health along with issuing birth certificates, dog licenses, and conducting restaurant inspection and enforce ...

's decision to shut down the city's gay bathhouses, in response to concerns over the spread of

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

. In closing the gay bathhouses while allowing the heterosexual swingers' clubs – most notably Plato's Retreat – to remain open, the city found itself in violation of the newly adopted anti-discrimination law. The Health Department, with Koch's approval, reacted by ordering the heterosexual clubs, including Plato's Retreat, to close as well. The club's Manhattan location was shut down on New Year's Eve 1985, ostensibly for violating public-health ordinances. In 1981, Levenson and his by-then two partners along with Plato’s

accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certifi ...

were tried and convicted for tax evasion. When the prosecutor asked Levenson—who was the only owner to take the stand—why Plato’s kept its accounting records off the premises, Levenson replied, “Where would I keep them, in the swimming pool?” He served an 8-year prison sentence at the Allenwood federal prison. After serving his sentence, Levenson worked in various jobs, such as

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. He died in 1999 after a quadruple bypass heart surgery.

In Florida

The descendant of Plato's Retreat was Plato's Repeat. It first appeared in 1995 in a listing of adult establishments in Miami, a "very unique pvt club". It then opened as a BYOB club at 321 Sunrise,

Fort Lauderdale A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facer ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

, run by "the wife of the original owner". (Larry Levinson's 1999 obituary does not mention a wife.) It was an on-premises heterosexual

, open Monday to Sunday from eight p.m. until the last person left. Saturday night was for couples only. In 2006, Plato's Repeat closed, The Fort Lauderdale building reopened in 2016 as a gay men's sex club under the name "321 Slammer", keeping the same bring-your-own format. In the 2010s, there are reportedly numerous on-premises swingers' clubs operating in South Florida.

In popular culture

In 1978, Joe Thomas released a

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric p ...

single, "Plato's Retreat," with lyrics referring to the club. The 2009 documentary '' American Swing'' relates the story of Plato's Retreat with archival footage and interviews. A scene in Spike Lee's film Summer of Sam takes place at Plato's Retreat. Pro wrestler Jesse Ventura would occasionally wear "Plato's Retreat" T-shirts during wrestling interviews in both the AWA and WWE.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Platos Retreat 1977 establishments in New York City Group sex Cultural history of New York City Nightclubs in Manhattan Swinging (sexual practice) 1985 disestablishments in New York (state) LGBT in Florida LGBT-related websites 2006 disestablishments in Florida 2006 establishments in Florida 2020 disestablishments in Florida Gay bathhouses in the United States Buildings and structures in Fort Lauderdale, Florida