Plato's Retreat

Plato's Retreat was a sex club in New York City that was popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s which catered to heterosexual couples. The club was located in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel, an ornate 19th century building on 72nd Street in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Before Plato's Retreat opened there in 1977, the site housed the Continental Baths, a famous gay bathhouse.

Related Topics:
New York City - Upper West Side - Manhattan - 1977 - Gay bathhouse

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During its heyday, Plato's Retreat was considered the world's most famous sex club

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http://www.twbookmark.com/authors/66/1848/interview9387.html and was popular with many celebrities as well as well-to-do couples. As author Steven Gaines described in his book Good Buildings, the club attracted "an assortment of kinky types from the suburbs: dry cleaners and their wives or fat men in toupees with their heavily made-up girlfriends."

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http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/42844.htm

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However, like other establishments of its kind, it fell out of fashion when AIDS became a concern in the mid 1980s. The club was finally shut down by the city of New York for violating public health ordinances.

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http://www.wmob.com/artpages/platos1.html

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In May 2005, Plato's Retreat was in the news because of allegations made by Hustler publisher Larry Flynt that John R. Bolton, President George W. Bush's nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, visited the club and forced his first wife, Christina Bolton, to engage in group sex.

Related Topics:
May 2005 - Hustler - Larry Flynt - John R. Bolton - George W. Bush - United Nations

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