Man's Country, Chicago's oldest gay bathhouse, closing after 44 year

“RUB-A-DUB-DUB. Four hundred men in a tub,” [BRUCE] Vilanch quipped, describing the bathhouse as “the most exotic nightspot for blocks and blocks — if not years and years — Man’s Country boasts hot and cold running showers and patrons, bedrooms, lockers, a sauna, a glass-walled steam room, a mirrored shower that looks like something that got loose from a Stanley Kubrick set, a Jacuzzi, a multicolored parrot that views the proceedings with serene disinterest, and a gigantic disco-music hall with much of the ambiance of the Oriental Theater lobby, which it distinctly resembles on a muggy night.

Who's going to console John Travolta?

The alphabet soup-speak is embarrassing and anachronistic.

r2, how is it anachronistic? The bathhouse was open until recently. You are just looking for something to complain about.

pretty soon the fun loving freedom of being a gay man without trying to equal a straight family will be a thing of the past. we fought so hard for our right to be who we were, we lost a lot of the really important stuff along the way.

When was going to the baths considered important stuff? The halls of those places usually smelled on shit. Give me Grindr any day.

[quote] Give me Grindr any day.

The video from the OP's article discusses how gays communicated before Grindr.

"we fought so hard for our right to be who we were"

Now we need to fight for who we are. Not clones.

Renslow must be about 100. I can't imagine living in a condo building named for him.

There was even a pron movie that was filmed there.

Chuck was a difficult man, but well-connected in the Chicago political machine

They were the ones with Obama and Rahm's personal accounts, that were hushed up.

r13, that only happened in your imagination

Steamworks in Chicago is the best bathhouse in the U.S.

It may have had its day, but it's been a vile pit for years. I was inside once for a party about 15 years ago and it smelled like rotting corpses even then. You could actually smell it from the street.

The clientele was the nastiest of nasty people.

Steamworks is more modern and I expect it will stay open, but Man's Country closing is about 20 years overdue.

[quote] They were the ones with Obama and Rahm's personal accounts, that were hushed up.

That's Miss Kevin Whatshersnatch spreading those rumors again. Total bullshit.

I watched a man nair his entire body in the showers once there

I'm sure most bath houses will close within a generation. It's just not where the young gays are going, particularly with phone apps.

Plus, many of these are large spaces in very expensive cities. The owners would make a killing selling the spaces.

I hope they demolish the building and do a ritual cleansing of the space.

I'm only half joking, for real.

What is that at R11 with the purses tumbling out of its mouth?

R19 I think younger gays would go if it they weren't mostly filled with grandpas cause why pay to go somewhere where it's all men you aren't into..

R22, young guys love going to bathhouses

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3TmqOorZ6csm%2BvzqZmraCimq6le5FpampsaWt9brnAp2SsZZOkwq%2FA0bJknKCZmK6ou4ysZKiklJrAtXnGmrBmmpGptam71KycZpucpMCqusZmmJ%2Bslad6dYCMspyaqg%3D%3D

 Share!

• Share on Facebook
   
• Tweet
   
• Share on Google+
   
• Post to Tumblr
   
• Pin it
   
• Submit to Reddit