]www.nypress.com]- The best thing about American Swing, the documentary about famed swingers club Plato’s Retreat, is that it’s not a dramatic recreation. That project probably got dumped after the movie about Studio 54, simply called 54, bombed in 1998. Instead, the documentary, directed by Jon Hart and Matthew Kaufman, uses the people who were there to tell the story of Plato’s Retreat, which first appeared at the Ansonia apartment building and later moved to 509 West 34th Street.

There’s still some star power behind the tale of NYC’s legendary swing club. The parade of commentators eventually turns into a parlor game. Here’s a tip: you get pretty far in before Anthony Haden-Guest finally appears.

Much of the fun with American Swing is catching up with folks. There are some pleasant surprises. Veteran porn star Annie Sprinkle looks great. Al Goldstein is in relatively good shape. There’s no such thing as a bad cameo from Professor Irwin Corey. It’s also good to see porn director and former Plato’s manager Fred Lincoln on the big screen, since he didn’t get to reprise his role as a psycho in the remake of The Last House on the Left.

American Swing is so packed with people that you barely get to enjoy Jamie Gillis, the most articulate man in porn. Gillis is kind of the Eric Bogasian of the adult industry, and you know you’ll get something interesting from him. In this case, Gillis helps to reveal how the story of Plato’s Retreat is really the story of a lovable schlub named Larry Levenson.

At that point in the film, the founder of Plato’s has been arrested for tax evasion. (Hey, just like Mike Myers in 54!). Gillis sums up what happens to the club in Levenson’s absence: “It wasn’t even wholesome anymore. Without that benevolent heart behind it, it was just another tacky swingers club.”

That’s one of American Swing’s more touching moments. Gillis isn’t ashamed to be nostalgic, either, talking on the phone about the fun of watching the film.

“I got a real kick out of it,” Gillis says from his Manhattan home. “I ran into Ron Jeremy a few months ago, but I don’t really keep up with the old gang. It was good to see Fred Lincoln, who I’d known for many years. There were some people in there I’d known really well, and a few that I recognized from always being there. I lived right around the corner, so Plato’s was like my little playground.”

Gillis isn’t the biggest star in American Swing. Buck Henry provides some insight, and Melvin Van Peebles shows up to announce that—with a little encouragement—everybody’s on the “wild side.” Ed Koch also appears to assure everyone that he was never actually at the club.

The documentary couldn’t get bigger names, but Gillis has some memories.

“Richard Dreyfuss was there,” he recalls. “Maybe that’s mentioned in the documentary. He hung out for a while, and I remember Andy Williams walking around. It’s possible they didn’t come there to have sex. I particularly remember Plato’s as just a great place to hang out. Sometimes I’d bring a woman who wanted to go. More often than not, I’d pop in there alone. Of course, it was unheard of for a single man to be allowed there. Larry would cover me by pointing out some girl that I could say was my date.”

It’s actually surprising that Gillis was interested in a place like Plato’s. At the time, he was notorious as one of porn’s few marquee names to embrace kink onscreen. He was a pioneering S/M figure, but Plato’s Retreat offered something different.

“I’d concentrate on the younger and attractive girls,” Gillis recalls. “I don’t remember a lot of fetish activity. That mainly happened at the Hellfire Club, which was even crazier. I remember one girl, though. She was alone in a private room, very attractive. She seemed to be sort of asleep. So I started to fool around with her, just playing to see if she would come awake. She never reacted. I started having sex with her, and still no response. I could see she was awake, but she acted like she was asleep through the whole thing. A little after I’m done, a guy comes in and whispers in her ear: ‘OK, honey, time to go.’ She got right up and left. That was her thing.”

Also, Plato’s was thriving in an indulgent time where the missionary position almost counted as a kink.

“I feel sorry for people today who missed that pre-AIDS kind of madness,” Gillis says. “I remember Larry asking his doctor if it was healthy that he went from having sex maybe once a week to a dozen times a day. Larry was this middle-aged man, not particularly attractive, and it was like the heavens had opened up for him.”

Sadly, Levenson didn’t worry about more reasonable medical concerns. American Swing winds down to a sad end—and not just for Levenson, who’ll die in 1999 as a 62-year-old cabbie. He returns from his jail sentence to a Plato’s Retreat that’s badly floundering. The club’s been reduced to Foxy Boxing events and even Singles Nights.

Levenson also fumbles the advent of AIDS. “With the smell of chlorine in Plato’s Retreat,” he declares in old footage, “the AIDS virus doesn’t have a chance. That’s a factual thing.”

It isn’t long before Plato’s has signs banning anal sex or fellatio. There’s pressure from gay activists who think the place should be shut down like the bathhouses. Levenson finally tries announcing that all of the club’s profits will go to AIDS research. That can’t keep Plato’s from closing.

None of that counts as a spoiler: It’s an old story, but American Swing does a great job of presenting the facts. There’s a lot of entertainment value, too. That’s partly why Gillis doesn’t mind rehashing the ’70s yet again.

“I’m always happy to talk about Plato’s,” he says. “I’m happy to talk about Larry. He was very much the place. I don’t know why that was, but it’s true. Larry never talked about money. He just loved the opportunity that Plato’s gave him to screw himself crazy. There was never a more perfect melding of a man and his mission.”