Well, don't know if the story would have made the mainstream press, but such bathouses were well known in the 1950s and 1960s among the gay community. As old school bathhousese fell out of fashion with the larger community after WWII, they gradually became places for gay men to "hook up." As most bathhouses were "male only" anyway, it was a natural progression.
Of course, the park in my mother's neighborhood was a popular gay tristing area in the 1950s. Thankfully, my grandparents forbade my mother and aunt from playing there.