Plato's Retreat
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Plato's Retreat was a heterosexual swingers' club catering to couples. From 1977 until 1985 it operated in two locations in
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, United States. The first was the former location of the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse that also showcased artists who went on to great success including
Bette Midler Bette Midler ( ;''Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 born December 1, 1945) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and author. Throughout her five-decade career Midler has received List of awards and nominations received by Bette Midler, numero ...
,
Barry Manilow Barry Manilow ( ; born Barry Alan Pincus on June 17, 1943) is an American singer, songwriter and record producer with a career that spans over sixty years. His hit recordings include "Could It Be Magic", "Looks Like We Made It", "Brandy (Scott ...
, and
Melissa Manchester Melissa Manchester (born February 15, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Since the 1970s, her songs have been played by adult contemporary radio stations. She has also appeared on television, in films, and on stage. Early li ...
.


Establishment

In 1976, Larry Levenson, a high school friend of Al Goldstein and a former fast-food manager who was selling ice cream at
Coney Island Coney Island is a neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to ...
, 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, an early 20th-century building on 2109 Broadway between West 73rd and West 74th Streets on the
Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper We ...
of
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
. The hotel used to house the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse where singer
Bette Midler Bette Midler ( ;''Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 born December 1, 1945) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and author. Throughout her five-decade career Midler has received List of awards and nominations received by Bette Midler, numero ...
, often accompanied by
Barry Manilow Barry Manilow ( ; born Barry Alan Pincus on June 17, 1943) is an American singer, songwriter and record producer with a career that spans over sixty years. His hit recordings include "Could It Be Magic", "Looks Like We Made It", "Brandy (Scott ...
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 woman to enter. This 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 and other drugs as well as paid sexual services were all forbidden, but the prohibitions were not enforced, which would have been difficult at best. In later years sex workers did frequent the premises and there was "rampant" use of drugs (most often quaaludes) by patrons. According to a 1979 advertisement in ''
Screw A screw is an externally helical threaded fastener capable of being tightened or released by a twisting force (torque) to the screw head, head. The most common uses of screws are to hold objects together and there are many forms for a variety ...
'' magazine, the club offered, besides a heated swimming pool, a steam
sauna A sauna (, ) is a room or building designed as a place to experience dry or wet heat sessions or an establishment with one or more of these facilities. The steam and high heat make the bathers perspire. A thermometer in a sauna is used to meas ...
, whirlpool baths, disco dancing, free bar and buffet, "cozy living rooms and lounging areas", a "variety of swing areas", and a
backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back at least 1,600 years. The earliest record of backgammo ...
lounge.


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. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...
: 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 Ejaculation is the discharge of semen (the ''ejaculate''; normally containing sperm) from the penis through the urethra. It is the final stage and natural objective of male sexual stimulation, and an essential component of natural concepti ...
fifteen times within a twenty-four-hour day. George Urban visited the club to film a segment for his television show '' The Ugly George Hour of Truth, Sex, and Violence.'' 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 Edward Irving Koch ( ; December 12, 1924February 1, 2013) was an American politician. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and was mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989. Koch was a lifelong Democrat who ...
backed the New York City Health Department's decision to shut down the city's gay bathhouses, in response to concerns over the spread of
HIV/AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
. 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. At the time of the shutdown, officials argued the club was a place of prostitution (observed during undercover operations), and operated without a certificate of occupancy. Levenson argued that the undercover agents constructed the prostitution evidence on the premises while investigating. 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 Certif ...
were tried and convicted for
tax evasion Tax evasion or tax fraud is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to red ...
. 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
cab driver A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...
. 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 Fort Lauderdale ( ) is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and most populous city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it ...
,
Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
, run by "the wife of the original owner". (Larry Levinson's 1999 obituary does not mention a wife.) It was an on-premises heterosexual swingers' club, 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 South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...
.


In popular culture

In 1978, Joe Thomas released a
disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...
single, "Plato's Retreat," with lyrics referring to the club. The 2009
documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
'' American Swing'' relates the story of Plato's Retreat with archival footage and interviews. In 1980, Citrus Productions released the high-budget adult film ''Plato's: The Movie'', based on the club, directed by Joe Sherman. In 2006, Aaron Sorkin's ''
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip ''Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'' is an American comedy-drama television series created for NBC and primarily written by Aaron Sorkin. The series was about the production of a live comedy series similar to ''Saturday Night Live''. Produced by ...
'' referenced Plato's Retreat. In Season 1 Episode 3, ''The Focus Group'', the ex-husband of newly named NBS President for Entertainment Programming, Jordan McDeere, is attempting to cash in on her newfound notoriety (and a conservative Christian backlash against NBS's flagship sketch show) by shopping a tell-all memoir, which includes tales of her accompanying him to sex clubs at his request. A scene in Spike Lee's film ''
Summer of Sam ''Summer of Sam'' is a 1999 American crime thriller film about the 1977 David Berkowitz (Son of Sam) serial murders and their effect on a group of fictional residents of an Italian-American neighborhood in The Bronx in the late 1970s. It focu ...
'' takes place at Plato's Retreat. Pro wrestler
Jesse Ventura Jesse Ventura (born James George Janos; July 15, 1951) is an American politician, political commentator, actor, media personality, and retired professional wrestler. After achieving fame in the WWE, World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), he ...
would occasionally wear "Plato's Retreat" T-shirts during wrestling interviews in both the AWA and WWE.


See also

* Exhibitionism * Sexual liberation


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 City LGBTQ history in Florida LGBTQ-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 Sex clubs