GAY BATHHOUSE ARTWORK

These images were photographed by Ron Williams, of WebCastro.com. 

Throughout the 1970's several San Francisco Bathhouses, including the Barracks, Liberty Baths and the Bulldog Baths, encouraged gay artists to decorate the walls with erotic murals. For some artists, this was their first opportunity to create and display their works for an exclusively gay audience. The murals to the left decorated the walls of the Bulldog Baths, a popular bathhouse of the day. They were painted by New York artist Brooks Jones in 1978, soon after the old Club Turkish Baths was purchased and refurbished as the Bulldog Baths. Besides these murals, Brooks was commissioned to paint numerous faux glory holes with dripping cocks, mouths, assholes, etc. He was reportedly flown out to San Francisco for a week, where he worked almost nonstop on the project. According to the Gay and Lesbian Historical Society of San Francisco, Jones was paid $10,000 for the job.

The mural below decorates the highly popular Club Z Baths in Seattle. 

Throughout the 1960s, 70s, and 80s several bathhouses around the country encouraged gay artists who were their employees or patrons to decorate the baths with sexual murals. For a handful of artists this provided the first opportunity to create and display their art for an exclusively homosexual audience. Some bathhouse owners paid cash for the artwork while others traded lifetime memberships to the baths for the art. Sadly, much of the art that once decorated the baths no longer exists.

Fortunately, some of the artwork which once decorated gay bathhouses has been preserved by collectors and historical societies all over the globe. One of the most prominent of gay artists was A. Jay (Allen J. Shapiro, 1932-1987) He was one of the most popular gay illustrators and cartoonists of the 1960's, 70's and 80's. A, Jay moved to San Francisco in the mid-70's. He was the art editor of the original "Drummer" magazine and creator of the long running "Harry Chess" cartoon strip. A. Jay also drew the erotic artwork for the infamous Cauldron Club and Slot Bathhouse in San Francisco, in addition to posters and logos for other gay bathhouses.

     Another interesting tidbit about the Liberty Baths is that it was the only bath in San Francisco which advertised as a "disco free" bathhouse. According to a longtime San Francisco resident, Ken Camp: "By the late 70's and early 80's many people were tiring rapidly of disco music, which had been dominant in gay clubs and bathhouses for at least seven years. In fact, nearly all clubs played disco exclusively, creating a backlash -- mostly among gay punk rockers who wanted alternative music or at least some diversity. Disco was becoming synonymous with electronic polka music geared to a crowd of obedient Von Trapps weaned on precision dancing and a noticeable lack of spontaneity and its emblematic uniform of hot pants, platform shoes and green fingernail polish inspired by the film "Cabaret." Besides spawning noticeable graffiti in places such as San Francisco or New York which proclaimed "Disco=Vomit" or a prominent graffiti across the street from The Stud Bar on Folsom, which stated "The Stud will never change," some clubs and bathhouses began prominently advertising "Punk Night" for at least one night of the week to encourage a return of patrons they were losing to the trendier straight punk clubs, such as Mabuhay Gardens. The I-Beam in the upper Haight offered punk night on Monday nights, which quickly expanded to more nights as punk music became more urgent and more popular. The Liberty Baths pronounced in its tabloid advertisements "No Disco" since a growing number of patrons were finding that they didn't necessarily enjoy chowing down on dick while listening to Donna Summer."