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Originally from Modesto, Calif., he was a hair stylist, and when he and his partner broke up and sold their salon, he went to work at a bathhouse in Sacramento, a sister business of Reno’s Club Baths. In 1983, he took over as manager of the Reno location, eventually becoming a co-owner of what officially became known as Steve’s Bathhouse in 1991. The multi-user experience caps a trilogy for director Chou Tung-Yen, who will next bring his winning volley to Cannes’ first ever Immersive Competition. On July 4, 1905, the massive $185,000 Moorish-style Ocean Park Bath House opened to a throng of eager day-tripping Angelenos.
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She also points out that it’s a more private environment than having sex in a public space, like a park—not to mention significantly more legal—and is safer than inviting a stranger met on the internet into a private residence. Part of Daugherty’s disease prevention and safe sex efforts is a strictly enforced no drugs and alcohol policy. If customers come to the door clearly intoxicated, they’re not allowed in.
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Though many customers come to the bathhouse with an expectation of having sex, it’s not a brothel, and solicitation and prostitution are strictly forbidden. Just visiting the bathhouse is not a guarantee of a sexual encounter. For Daugherty, the distinctions among gay, straight and bisexual are somewhat arbitrarily drawn. He sees sexuality as existing on a free-flowing, open-ended continuum. According to Daugherty, this demographic shift has also affected the bathhouse’s peak business hours.
About Steve's Bathhouse
Among residents who are even aware of the business, it’s generally discussed with hushed tones and derisive language—not so much talked about as whispered about. It’s a taboo topic even among the customers who frequent it. Inspired by the sacred rites and mythologies of Indigenous cultures, “Bear My Soul” is a multi-user experience that collapses distinctions between flora and fauna, inviting users into a shared communion that bolters spiritual connection with the wider world. Meanwhile, single-user experience “The Imaginary Friend” makes good on its title, allowing users to become make-believe confidantes to a troubled child, himself unable to separate fact from fantasy. As the day progressed, the Schoneman-Blanchard orchestra played. Fountains within the pools glowed with colored lights, and the exterior of the structure was outlined with hundreds of incandescent lights that reflected off the adjacent Pacific Ocean.
Over the years, the bathhouse has faced adversity, particularly in the AIDS-fueled homophobia of the 1980s. Daugherty says that back in those days, there were often protesters out front, sometimes praying and proselytizing, sometimes throwing threats or water balloons at customers. Inside the bathhouse, an attendant sat behind a booth and issued numbered tickets to people as they entered and waited in line. When their number was called, the visitor would walk down a corridor to a cubicle that was divided in two.
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Sixty-nine thousand people visited in the first year alone. Two years later in 1909, Public Bath House No. 2 opened in the Soulard neighborhood. In No.2′s first year of operation, an astounding 238,000 patrons visited the south city bath.
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The public bath house, available to every Angeleno with a few quarters to spare, was a thing of the past. Daugherty considers protecting his customer’s privacy a sacred duty. When talking to a reporter, he seems conflicted—torn between his naturally engaging, outgoing personality and his reticence to discuss others’ private affairs. Increased attention might lead to harassment from the types of zealots who believe that interfering with others’ private affairs is some kind of cosmic mandate.
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The first bath house in Santa Monica (and perhaps in LA County) was a small, rustic structure, built by the founders of Santa Monica, John P. Jones and Robert Baker. In 1875, the two formed the Santa Monica Land and Water Company. They began to drum up interest in their new development, which they hoped would include major railway involvement and eventually a port that would rival San Pedro. This imposing Spanish-Renaissance structure—financially backed by railway magnate Henry Huntington—was adorned with exotic domes and turrets. It featured 1,350 dressing rooms, 62 bathtubs, Turkish baths, showers, reading and smoking lounges, and manicure rooms. Most intriguingly, there were three hot saltwater pools, lined in pale green tiles, surrounded by bleachers and lit by a towering skylight.
Mrs. Waller, known for her tact and experience, was said to have “suits to suit everybody” and to be able to handle the busiest of times. Angelenos were soon flocking to the beach on warm summer days, and Jones and Baker began to expand their development on what came to be known as the North Beach of Santa Monica. In 1877, they tore down the original bathhouse and built a munch fancier structure.
Municipal Bath House #6 still stands today at 1120 St. Louis Avenue in north city. It likely goes unnoticed by the vast majority people who drive near it in order to visit a St. Louis landmark just up the street, the famous Crown Candy Kitchen. Additional bath houses continued to be constructed in densely populated neighborhoods.
Already popular in Europe, the movement prompted a few American cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore to build public bath houses in the early 1890′s. Encouraged by the initial success and high attendance rates, the public bath movement quickly spread to other American cities. In St. Louis, the progressive mayor Rolla Wells campaigned for several bath houses to be built throughout the city. Despite his support, it would be several years before St. Louis joined the movement. Forty American cities had operational public baths before St. Louis opened its first.
Due to the limited space in small living quarters, bathtubs often held coal or firewood. Even as late as 1950, only 1/3 of the homes in the poorest neighborhoods of St. Louis had private bath facilities. Throughout the 1890s, these affordable, egalitarian bath houses (often backed by railroad companies) sprung up and down the Los Angeles County coast, as railroads brought Angelenos to once isolated parts of the shore. The three pools included a deep-water diving pool, a general pool, and a novel baby pool. By midday, 1,136 bathers were splashing and frolicking in the water.
It’s also the only one of the original bath house buildings that still stands today. The era of the bath house would come to an end only a few years later. Tastes changed, and bathhouses became increasingly unfashionable. By 1909, the once grand Arcadia Hotel and its Bath House were abandoned ruins. That same year the North Beach Bath House was permanently closed. The 1910s and 1920s would usher in the era of luxury hotels, vacation homes, and private beach clubs.
Condoms are readily available throughout the facility, as well as posters, pamphlets and signage promoting safe sex. Additionally, the bathhouse partners with the county to offer free STD testing onsite on a regular basis. For Daugherty, a big part of the appeal of the bathhouse environment is that it’s alcohol-free. He doesn’t drink and doesn’t like meeting people while they’re drinking. Saturdays were the busiest days, but the early hours of Sunday is when the bath house lines were longest. Following the sentiment that “Cleanliness was next to Godliness”, many St. Louisans made sure get clean before heading off to church.
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