Page 4B THE BATTALION
MONDAY. SEPTEMBER 17, 1979
Couples club franchises group sex
United Press International
NEW YORK — The largest of the
swinging couples sex clubs is going
national.
“I cannot see why you can’t have
clubs where you can socialize and
have on the premises sex if you so
desire,” says Larry “King of Swing”
Levenson.
Some estimate there are now 250
couples clubs in the United States.
Levenson claims there are at least 3
million “swinging, swapping
couples” based on membership in
these clubs, the great majority of
which meet in members’ homes.
definite growth in sexual permis
siveness. There is an underground
in every community. But it is on a
relative scale. Many could not sup
port one.”
“We met a couple from Arkansas
here,” says Steve, a computer
operator who, like most patrons of
Plato’s, would give his first name
only.
“WE MET ANOTHER couple
from North Carolina who drove all
night to get here,” says his compan-
FEW HAVE PERMANENT
facilities although several which
permit sex of most sorts on the
premises have cropped up in the
past two years here, on the West
Coast and in Florida. The swingers’
sex movement would appear to be
growing.
Levenson is trying to franchise.
the name of Plato’s Retreat, which
he opened in New York three years
ago, into a number of major U. S.
cities.
“This is not a subterfuge like a
massage parlor,” he says, respond
ing to a charge he is trying to emu- !
late the growth of massage parlors
across the country. “This is an abso
lute lifestyle. Nobody has the right
to tell me how to lead my life with
my lady in a private area. ”
Levenson says he is negotiating
franchises for the Detroit, San
Francisco and Fort Lauderdale
areas, has inquiries from 10 other
cities including Montreal and ex
pects there will be more.
The swingers’ sex movement
would appear to he growing.
ion, Pat, who works in an account
ing department. “Some just come to
look.”
“This is a growing thing,” Steve
says. “More and more people are
getting into it.”
The slightly paunchy Levenson,
43, former manager of a Mac
Donald’s hamburger stand in the
Bronx, says he organized Plato’s by
turning his avocation — “I’m sexu
ally oriented” — into a vocation.
Now he serves as a kind of cult
leader. He takes pride in his
“throne” set up beside his disco
dance floor and “Larry’s Staff
Room,” featuring side by side dou
ble mattresses. He has been termed
a modern day Dionysus, the
mythological Greek god of wine,
who met violent establishment op
position wherever he went because
of his introduction of orgiastic rites.
TO PROMOTE HIS scheme, he
announced on a Detroit television
talk show his selection of the Motor
City over other possibilities “as a
compliment to the city.”
One woman threatened to shoot
him. “I hope God takes care of you,”
she shouted. Others on the show
expressed similar sentiments less
forcefully.
“Your proposal to locate a busi
ness establishment such as Plato’s in
Fort Lauderdale would be in viola
tion of our community standards
and totally inappropriate for our
city,” wrote Mayor E. Clay Shaw
after Levenson said he was talking
with prospective local businessmen
about setting up a Plato’s there.
“He was begging me not to go
there,” Levenson says. “He said it is
a family town. I wrote back. I said
I’m looking for family towns. I was
debating whether to open there but
I said he just convinced me.
“OPPOSITION USUALLY helps
me. Every time they try one of their
stupid moves, it just gives me pub
licity. ”
Fred Barry, 38, a native of Al
toona, Pa., and his wife, Dixie, 29,
raised in Waukesaw, Wise., are
regular patrons of Plato’s.
Asked what they think of the fran
chising plan, Barry, partner in a TV
advertising agency, says, “There is
BUT LEVENSON says, “I
named it Plato’s because I couldn’t
spell Socrates.”
There is an exception to the com
parison. Levenson purveys no wine
— or liquor. The Alcoholic Bever
age Control Commission saw to
that.
From Levenson’s point of view,
this has been a blessing in disguise.
He sought a license, but when it was
rejected, settled for soft drinks and
coffee plus a cold buffet in the
sprawling subterranean basement of
the old Ansonia Hotel on Manhat
tan’s west side.
Since authorities use liquor law
enforcement as a primary control on
such establishments, the police
could do little to act on community
complaints in the early days of
Plato’s. At one point, Mayor Ed
ward Koch declared a crackdown.
He sent in building inspectors, food
and health inspectors, fire inspec
tors. They found a few violations.
“They’re a private club,” says Sgt.
Phillip Tambasco of the Manhattan
South public morals squad.
“They’re consenting adults behind
closed doors. There’s no booze —
no ABC violations.
“PROSTITUTION? If it’s there,
they’re not running it. It’s some
body coming in. The place is no
brothel. There are laws against con-
senual sodomy but we’d have to lock
up the entire country on that. And
all violations of fire and health codes
Campus Interviews
Engineers
For Tl in Sherman, Texas
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60 minutes from home. Not a suburb, Sherman is an
independent city of 35,000 people completely
surrounded by wooded hills and farmlands. It’s the
gateway to Lake Texoma, the sixth biggest man
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CAMPUS INTERVIEWS
September 24-25
If unable to interview at this time, send your resume
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I NCOR POR AT E D
An equal opportunity employer M/F
have been cleared up, so far as we
know.
“When they first opened, there
were numerous complaints. But
they’ve dissipated. Whether the res
idents have resigned themselves to
the place or are plyed out (complain
ing), I don’t know.”
Narcotics, with the possible ex
ception of some marijuana, appear
to be absent.
“We make occasional visits to
keep a clock on things,” Tambasco
says. “But here’s no complaints
coming out of the place, no people
being ripped off that we know of.”
“Group therapy for 50 or 60
people,” is what Levenson says the
mat room offers. Posted regulations
require all enter nude. A view of it
recalled ancient Asian frieze
Saturday night. Charlie says they
are aged 18 to 80 but most are 30 to
45.
Larry Levenson says he or
ganized Plato’s by turning his
avocation — “I’m sexually
oriented” — into a vocation.
“WE DON’T HURT anybody,”
Levenson says. “People don’t have
to come. If nobody showed up. I’d
be out of business.
“You can come in and see for
yourself. You won’t have to take
your clothes off.”
The reporter, who remained
dressed, found a regulation swim
ming pool with nude swimmers.
Not all the dancers in the disco or
the occupants of the game room, the
backgammon and TV lounge and the
poolside eating area beside the buf
fet were nude. Nor were they hav
ing sex. That was occurring in the
“private rooms,” dimly lit mattress-
floored cubicles with plywood walls.
It also went on in the “pillow room,”
which fulfills its name, and the “mat
sculptures of scores of entwined
bodies. The friezes have generally
been described as pornographic in
nature.
“WE’RE NOT REALLY swingers
or swappers. We’re exhibitionists,”
says Sean, 30, a bartender who
moved to New York from Boston,
discussing his use of the mat room
with Patricia, 28, a hairdresser.
“When it comes to the basics, we
stay together.”
“The place is not for everybody,”
she says.
Each of the couples interviewed
talks of fulfilling their fantasies and
being “turned on” by their ac
tivities. They say they became in
volved after periods in which they
were bored with sex.
Levenson claims about 250
couples fill Plato’s every Friday and
HE SAY S THE weekday crowd is
almost that large other nights except
Monday. “That’s our day of rest. ”
The tab is $45 a couple to get in
the first time, $30 thereafter except
every six weeks when an additional
club fee of $5 is imposed.
Single women are also allowed to
enter and charged only $10.
“They’re mostly bisexual,” says
Levenson.
Single men are not permitted.
Levenson: “That would be disastr
ous. Homosexuality is a turn off
among swingers.”
See what’s in Focus in
Thursday s Battalion.
■
Atlantis boov»-
murky mytl 1
United Pre*s International
Yet another new book about Atlantis, the!
lology, is becoming a Greek best-seller,
tes have raised some smiles amoni
a Greek customs official fascinated by the myth!
, says Atlantis was not an isolated island butajj
covering much of what is now the Atlantic Ocean:
has been pinpointed in the Bermuda Triangle, in
>rini (now Thera) and recently in the eastern Atlantic,
To
>se reseachers were both right and wrong: They confined,)
is to one location, while in fact it included all the areas mention^
The title of Paschos' book, “The Atlanteans, Mr. Von Daniken, \
the Gods,” refers to his belief that the inhabitants of the lostwa __
were responsible for the birth of technology, rather than space visiti O
•red on earth as gods, as Swiss author Erich Von Daniken wet
r e it.
Uni
TULSA, (
'erald Ford
The evidence of ancient writers like Plato and the startfo
similarities among linguistics, mythology and archaeological rena
in the Americas, Egypt and the Aegean point to common orijia
— T am certain were in the continent of Atlantis,” he said.
os claims that Atlanteans founded colonies on the Aega Wer in a i
of Crete, Delos and Santorini, which survived the sinking eld today ai
tis around 6,500 B.C. Fugitives from Atlantis introduced«
technology to the Aegean, he adds.
But archaeologist Christos Doumas, who heads the Santorini^
remains unconvinced.
“If Atlantis existed as described by Plato, according to hischros 'ere held ag
ogy, it could be none other than the Minoan civilization of Crete,’ 1
said. “It then becomes impossible to consider Santorini as par
Atlantis, or one of its colonies, since only the final phase of Mina
culture is found there.”
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