Sex, swingers and the Mafia: Inside notorious NYC club Plato’s Retreat
Sex was Larry Levenson’s domain.
As the owner of swank swingers’ lounge Plato’s Retreat, located inside the Upper West Side’s Ansonia Hotel, he epitomized late 1970s hedonism in NYC — and even made partner-swapping mainstream.
It was an unlikely path for the Bronx-born Levenson, an absentee father of three who had previously worked as the general manager at a Brooklyn McDonald’s.
“Larry was just a dumb guy who lucked into becoming the self-proclaimed king of swing,” Josh Alan Friedman, the former senior editor of sex tabloid Screw magazine, told The Post.
For his column, “The Naked City,” Friedman regularly reported on the wild hanky panky at Plato’s, which Levenson, then 41, had opened in 1977. A year earlier, Levenson had been introduced to the lifestyle after meeting a housewife at a cocktail lounge — and then, later at her place, her consenting husband.
Soon, outlets such as Time magazine were reporting on the louche lair at Broadway and 74th Street — and the married suburban habitués it drew. The rise of Levenson’s club was spectacular, but so was its downfall, brought on by alleged Mafia ties, federal criminal charges and the eruption of the ’80s AIDS epidemic. The wild tale of his reign as the “King of Swing” is being revisited Tuesday at 9 p.m. as part of Vice TV’s “Sex Before the Internet” series, which explores the world of X-rated thrills before the proliferation of online sites such as OnlyFans. (Vice TV is available for streaming with Hulu + Live and fuboTV subscriptions.)
“Plato’s Retreat is part of New York City’s history,” Levenson’s son Michael Levenson, 61, told The Post. “It was where everyone wanted to be. It was an attraction that everyone wanted to see — even if they weren’t swingers.”
A clothed Richard Dreyfuss reportedly checked out the action while residing at the Ansonia. And the club’s former security director once claimed to Page Six that John Wayne, Sammy Davis Jr., Paul Newman and Madonna were among the celebrities who had dropped by.
But mainly it was hordes of heterosexual couples and single women — the only clientele permitted inside — who flocked to Plato’s after 10 p.m., feverish to shed their sexual inhibitions, and clothes. Couples forked over $25, plus a $5 temporary membership fee, to gain access for two.
Once inside, they were welcome to enjoy the lounge, which featured an Olympic-sized pool, a 60-person jacuzzi and the legendary “mat room” — where a sea of mattresses accommodated orgies.
“It was very comfortable to be naked,” remembers Dian Hanson, a Plato’s regular, in the documentary. “In fact, it was uncomfortable to not be naked.”
Guests undressed in locker rooms, where they were given towels, which the club advised could be worn in a variety of ways to “telegraph their intentions, their personal tastes.” Only couples could enter the mat room — and they couldn’t be fully clothed. Quaaludes were the drug of choice, and while prostitutes were banned, that didn’t stop single men from bringing them to circumvent the ban on bachelors.
“All the porn stars were there. Sex was always in the air. And they had a great buffet,” Friedman recalled.
The pot-bellied Levenson, who often donned a plush black bathrobe embroidered with the moniker “King of Swing,” would frequently sit perched atop a throne to better survey the steamy scene. He even took his sex-positive gospel to the Phil Donahue Show, where he explained that at Plato’s, “We promote social intercourse and sexual intercourse. Whatever you want to do, you can do.”
“He always wanted to be this larger-than-life person,” Michael Levenson told The Post. Levenson divorced the mother of his children, Gloria, in the early ’60s when Michael and his twin bother were 6. “He worked a lot of odd jobs,” Michael said, “but once he stumbled upon success with Plato’s Retreat, being famous [in the world of swinging] consumed him.”
Levenson had secured the finances for his swingers’ club through a Brooklyn man named Frank Pernice, who was said to have connections in the world of organized crime, according to the Vice documentary. The location in the Ansonia basement had previously been home to the Continental Baths, the gay bathhouse where Bette Midler and Barry Manilow kicked off their careers.
In the ’70s, the mob had a heavy influence on the city’s sex scene, providing financial backing for topless bars, live sex shows in Time Square and the infamous 1972 porn flick “Deep Throat.”
“I think Larry Levenson was a front man for Plato’s Retreat,” Friedman told The Post, “and that it was a mob joint like everything in the sex business.”
Meanwhile, Levenson’s indulgences came at a cost.
In 1979, while in a relationship with his live-in girlfriend Mary — who publicly touted the benefits of their swinging lifestyle, but, in truth, had grown weary of her beau’s many indiscretions — Levenson was robbed and brutally beaten in Queens. The ambush was believed to have been carried out by either the Mafia or a Plato’s Retreat limo driver who was also Mary’s secret lover, according to club regulars featured in the doc. Levenson was left with two broken legs.
More trouble for the swinging mogul came in 1981, when he was sentenced to 8 years in prison on tax evasion charges for skimming $2.3 million in club receipts. He ultimately served 40 months in Allenwood Prison in Pennsylvania.
While he was away, porn actor Fred Lincoln assumed the role of Plato’s Retreat manager. In 1980, after local residents complained about loitering and other nuisances, the club moved into a large warehouse on 34th Street.
But the relocation, along with tawdry theme parties like mud wrestling, foxy boxing and singles nights — which allowed straight bachelors to enter the club for the first time — drove regulars away.
“There were no women,” Hanson recalls in the doc. Meanwhile, as cocaine use in the early ’80s skyrocketed, the clientele swiftly shifted from swinging couples to sex workers and addicts.
Still, after Levenson received an early prison release in September 1984, he hoped to restore his ravaged realm. But the AIDS crisis had led to a city crackdown on sex clubs and bathhouses under former mayor Ed Koch. On New Year’s Eve of 1985, Plato’s Retreat was permanently shuttered on the grounds of prostitution.
A despondent Levenson told a local news station, “We don’t allow prostitution on our premises. We never have and we never will.” He continued, “Plato’s Retreat is more than just a club. It’s an institution. It’s a monument to sexual freedom, and they’ve set us back 50 years.”
Levenson went on to spend the rest of his life making fruitless attempts at reestablishing his swinger’s paradise while earning a living as a cab driver.
“He never accepted that Plato’s Retreat closed,” Michael told The Post. “He was depressed. Nothing else mattered to him but Plato’s Retreat.”
Levenson ultimately died of a heart attack at age 62 after undergoing quadruple bypass surgery in 1999.
“During his last days, there were a lot of people in the family who weren’t speaking [to him],” said Michael, who noted that he didn’t have a relationship with Levenson immediately prior to his death. “I think he felt very alone.”
Their estrangement notwithstanding, Michael said, “I’m proud of what he created.”
“It was the sexual Studio 54.”
