Imperial Baths, Sharon Springs, NY
Audio Excerpts | Current Photo | Historic Picture

Interview Transcript: audio excerpts in italics

Speaker: Dorothy Wright

Background: Dorothy Wright worked for many years as a bath attendant in the Imperial Baths. She describes the bath facilities and her duties.

Interviewer: What connection do you have with the Imperial Baths?
I worked there for several years.

Interviewer: How old were you when you started working at the Imperial Baths?
Wright: In my late 20's.

Interviewer: How long did you work at the Imperial Baths?
Wright: 25 years.

Interviewer: Please describe the lobby of the Imperial Bathhouse as you remember it.
Wright: It actually looked identical to how it does now. There was two booths where you could buy tickets for the baths, it had benches in it where you could sit and wait your turn, it had turnstiles to go through to whatever department your appointment was made. It actually looks identical to what it does now.

Interviewer: Describe the section of the bathhouse where you worked.
Wright: I worked in the women's plain bath section. And that had five tub rooms and ten restrooms on each side and it was a very long hallway with all the small rooms that lined the sides. And there were two large radiators in the center of that hall.

Interviewer: What different kinds of treatments were given in the Imperial Baths?
Wright: Massages, plain baths, Nauheim's, which I'm not too familiar with that, but it was some special bath and they had scotch douche. And that was all done there.

Interviewer: What was your job in the bathhouse?
Wright: I worked in plain baths, and filling the tubs and assisting the patients in and out.

Interviewer: What did you do for the patients?
Wright: We filled the tub and tested it for the right temperature, we assisted them in, I checked on them and then told them they were all allowed twenty minutes. Then that's all they did. You helped them out, wrapped them in a warm sheet, and then they rested for twenty minutes.

Interviewer: Please describe one of the bath rooms where the treatments were given.
Wright: Each bath room had a very large tub, that once it was filled, the water would come up to your neck. There was a chair in there, and there was also a string you that you could pull by the side of the tub which turned a light bulb on out in the hall, and that would tell the bath attendant that you needed assistance of some kind.

Interviewer: What did a soap and water bath treatment consist of?
Wright: Just mainly that, the twenty minutes in the tub with soap and water. There was at one time a bubble bath that they imported from Sweden that was a palm extract that you would bubble bath with. But that was a rare thing.

Interviewer: How long did the patients stay in the tub?
Wright: Twenty minutes.

Interviewer: Did you personally help both men and women?
Wright: No, just women.

Interviewer: How were the treatment rooms kept clean?
Wright: Well, I guess they probably had somebody, a janitor or somethin' that would do the floors, but the bath attendant was responsible for the tubs and the general keep of things in the rooms.

Interviewer: Were the tubs cleaned after each person?
Wright: Yes.

Interviewer: Were you responsible for any of the cleaning?
Wright: Yes. Like I said, son, and actually if it was slow, and you didn't have alot to do, we also did the dusting and that type of thing.

Bakkom: What kind of illnesses did patients take sulphur baths for?
Wright: The main one that was most talked about was arthritis.

Interviewer: Do you think the bath treatment helped the patients?
Wright: I did see some that after their baths were finished, they did seem to be able to move about better. They too were relieved, is what it is.

Interviewer: How many baths would it take to see improvement in a patients health, if there was any improvement?
Wright: Well, the magic number that they used - made appointments - was for 21 days and that's what everybody took.

Interviewer: Who are the patients and where did they come from?
Wright: They mostly came from New York City, the ones that we had probably from some sections of Brooklyn. But originally they probably all came Europe.

Interviewer: Did you get to know any of the patients?
Wright: Not, not really. I mean, not too. I knew that if they came back every year - and said "its so good to see you", but I didn't get to know them very well.

Interviewer: Have any of your patients been in concentration camps during World War II?
Wright: Yes, several.

Interviewer: How do you know?
Wright: The ones that were in concentration camps had a number tattooed on their arm.

Interviewer: Were you paid by the hour or day of the week?
Wright: The hour.

Interviewer: How much were your wages?
Wright: That I'm not too sure of, I know it was a dollar something an hour, but I can't remember the exact amount. It was less than two dollars and over a dollar.

Interviewer: Did the patients give tips?
Wright: Yes, they did.

Interviewer: How much would a patient usually tip you?
Wright: When I first started there, when I was younger, the average tip was about twenty-five cents but when I finished there about twelve years ago, then the average tip was a dollar.

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