40 YEARS AND COUNTING | Josh Smith, manager and co-owner of Club Dallas, and his assistant manager, Lou Sadlacek, stand outside in the bathhouse’s pool deck. Smith has recently implemented numerous changes at the storied club, which has been around for nearly 40 years — all in the same location.
(Arnold Wayne Jones/Dallas Voice)
Josh Smith was late to arrive in Dallas, but when he did so, he had a purpose.
Smith, who hails from Columbus, Ohio, had been working in the corporate world when, frustrated, he accepted a job with The Clubs, a Los Angeles-based company that owns and/or manages gay bathhouses across the U.S. The opportunity seemed right, so he joined up with Club Columbus.
Soon after, his boyfriend, who was in the military, was transferred to Fort Sill, Okla. Wanting to be closer, he accepted a job as assistant manager (he’s now manager and minority owner) at Club Dallas.
At the time, Smith had no idea he was stepping into a storied bathhouse that has long been a pillar of the community.
It certainly has been for Dallas Voice. In the 30 years that Dallas Voice has been publishing, Club Dallas is the only advertiser that has been in every issue — the first on May 11, 1984, and this one (it’s on Page 73).
That’s a remarkable business relationship — a remarkable relationship of any kind — and one that reflects not just support for the paper, but for the gay community of Dallas as a whole.
COMMUNITY SUPPORT | Smith stands in front of a sign at Club Dallas which celebrates its four decades serving Dallas’ gay community. (Arnold Wayne Jones/Dallas Voice)
“In the early years, that’s what kept Dallas Voice alive,” says Lou Sedlacek, assistant manager at Club Dallas. (Bathhouses, clubs and bookstores were mainstays of gay media advertising for decades.) “It was also a resource — when you went to a new city, that’s the first thing you’d look for. You’d pick up the gay paper and see where the bathhouses were.”
And for the life of Club Dallas, that location has remained the same: The western end of Swiss Avenue — the spot the club has occupied continuously since it opened nearly 40 years ago, in August of 1974.
There have been lots of changes at Club Dallas in those intervening decades — some good, some bad, Smith admits.
“The challenge now is moving forward while attracting a new generation,” Smith says.
In years past, things were different. Both Bette Midler and Barry Manilow notoriously got their start in New York City’s Continental Baths, a steam-and-hookup joint that also featured the soon-to-be-stars as budding entertainment.
That was the early 1970s, soon after the Stonewall Riots gave gays hope and reason to be out-and-proud, and before the AIDS crisis hit. In the early 1980s, bathhouses in major cities (particularly NYC and San Francisco) were singled out as spreading HIV. Eventually, many of the bathhouses closed.
But not Club Dallas. It weathered the AIDS crisis, and much more.
“The Clubs were able to survive because of the forward-thinking of the owners at the time,” Smith says. “The decision to add a gymnasium in the club was truly a life-saving decision. It helped people stay alive, giving them a place to work out and stay healthy. [Back in the 1980s], most mainstream gyms wouldn’t allow HIV-positive men to join, if they found out.”
Club Dallas has also long provided complimentary condoms, and provides regular complimentary HIV testing.
Perhaps there’s another reason Club Dallas in particular fared so well. In Texas, where the summers can be scorching, Club Dallas has boasted a deck and pool (with appropriately high walls to provide privacy) in its clothing-optional space. (Clothes are required only in the entrance and in the gym.) It might not have Midler, but most
Saturday nights, you can find a local DJ spinning during the after-hours, creating a party atmosphere. And since it is open 24/7 — yep, even on Christmas and Thanksgiving — there’s never a time you can’t go in for a steam, a swim … or, well, let’s face it. A hookup.
It’s the image of a “sex den” that branded many bathhouses with a stigma, and that hasn’t changed. It did, however, get worse for a while.
For several years before Smith arrived, things had begun to slide. Despite numerous expansions over the years, which had effectively taken over all the buildings on the block, the spa hadn’t undergone much renovation in quite a long time. In his less than three years in Dallas, Smith has seen to it that the facilities have been substantially updated. He convinced the corporate owners to shell out some dough to revamp the lobby, the maze, and to add new furniture.
“It needed a little face-lift,” Smith says.
It also needed cleaning up in another way. Club Dallas has a reputation for illicit drug use, and Smith has teamed with the Dallas Police Department to rehabilitate that image. Signage states clearly that those using — and especially dealing — in drugs will be kicked off the premises. Smith even partnered with Midtowne Spa, a competitor and neighboring bathhouse, to commit to clean up the drugs — as much for the industry as for the individual businesses.
“We’ve worked to get that element out of here,” he says. “I’ve [committed] to building bridges — with the Dallas P.D., with Midtowne — to ensure the success of the community.”
Such cleanups naturally come with costs. Drug dealers actually spend a lot of money, and can attract some business. But Smith is a big-picture thinker. He knows that if the club is raided, or people are injured here, it damages the long-prospects more than it bolsters the immediate bottom line.
It certainly doesn’t hurt to be politic with other in the community. Smith says his experience with the club’s neighbors has been consistently cordial. Club Dallas is located along a strip of Swiss Avenue dominated by Arts & Crafts-style homes and other eclectic styles, restored and repurposed largely as office space for nonprofits. Smith says “we get along well with them,” but he has a selfish reason for wishing the nonprofits weren’t there.
“I wish they were art studios and galleries,” he says. “Not because that would [drive foot traffic], but because it would make them more exposed to the public. I’d love to see inside those places.”
If Smith demonstrates an unexpected sophistication, well, that’s an image he’d be happy to cultivate for all Club Dallas clientele.
It’s not easy. But the success of Club Dallas is, in part, its ability to be “whatever you want to make of it. Our gym isn’t the cheapest, but it does have some amenities,” he winks. And people come here for all kinds of reasons.
“Some guys just gather in the [main room] and watch [sports and entertainment show] on the TV. You can come in for a steam, or sit in the hot tub. You can lounge out by the pool. Or you can go to the adult area,” one of the amenities he was referring to.
Bathhouses have always been a part of gay life in the past. But Club Dallas is committed to making them just as relevant in the future.
UNITED COURT OF THE LONE STAR EMPIRE
1978
OAK LAWN TENNIS ASSOCIATION
1979
THE TURTLE CREEK CHORALE
1980
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition May 16, 2014.
