Full Service (book)
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Cover | |
| Author | Scotty Bowers |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Hollywood gossip |
| Publisher | Grove Press / Grove/Atlantic[1] |
Publication date | 2012 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| ISBN | 978-0-8021-2007-6 |
Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars is a "tell all" book about the sex lives of Hollywood stars from the late 1940s to the early 1980s by Scotty Bowers, with Lionel Friedberg as a contributing author. Bowers makes many claims about the sex lives of many people, most of whom were associated with the Hollywood movie industry during that period. The book, which was vetted by a libel lawyer before publication, was refused by several publishers before ultimately being accepted by Grove Press and Grove/Atlantic.[2] Matt Tyrnauer, director of Valentino: The Last Emperor, is currently in production on a documentary film about Bowers's life.[3]
Summary
Bowers fought in the Pacific, including at the Battle of Iwo Jima, as a paramarine in the Marine Corps during World War II.[4] In 1946 he was pumping gas at a service station in Hollywood when he says Walter Pidgeon gave him $20 for a gay sexual encounter. Word spread about Bowers among Pidgeon's friends, and Bowers turned the service station into a meeting place for paid sexual encounters, which took place in a nearby trailer or hotel, with his old marine friends assisting him in the business. In 1950 he stopped working at the service station and began a legitimate business as a party bartender. Bowers became well known in Hollywood for arranging sexual encounters for gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and heterosexuals as part of his party service. In the book Bowers claims he arranged gay or bisexual encounters for Cary Grant and Randolph Scott (who he says were lovers), George Cukor, and Rock Hudson, and Vivien Leigh. He says he arranged encounters for Katharine Hepburn with "over 150 different women".[2] He claims to have arranged various types of encounters (with men or women) for Desi Arnaz, Alfred A. Knopf, Sr., Spencer Tracy, Cole Porter, Laurence Olivier, Tyrone Power, Tennessee Williams, Howard Hughes, Charles Laughton, John Carradine, Montgomery Clift, Anthony Perkins and his longtime lover Tab Hunter, Malcolm Forbes, Harold Lloyd, Tony Richardson, Errol Flynn, Bob Hope, W. Somerset Maugham, Vincent Price, Édith Piaf, J. Edgar Hoover—who he says was a cross-dresser—Brian Epstein, Raymond Burr, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (both of whom Bowers claims were homosexual; he claims that their marriage was a sham).[2][4][5][6] Grove Press had the book reviewed by a libel lawyer prior to publication. Bowers' illicit activities were never caught by authorities; he kept all his contact information in his head.[2] Bowers claims to have personally had multiple gay sex encounters with Spencer Tracy. He also claims that the romance between Tracy and Hepburn was a myth dreamed up by publicists to give each a facade of heterosexuality, although both (according to Bowers) were homosexual. During the popularity of the film Deep Throat, Bowers claims to have arranged for Linda Lovelace to give instruction on deepthroating at parties. He also claims to have provided women—mostly prostitutes— to Alfred Kinsey as interview subjects for his famous study on human sexuality. The veracity of Bowers' many claims has been endorsed by Gore Vidal.[6]
Bowers put a stop to this aspect of his life and business when the AIDS epidemic began, though he continued to work as a handyman and bartender during this time. He got married in 1984 to his wife, Lois. Bowers claims he never took payment for arranging sexual encounters for others, only when he provided sex himself, and that though he is bisexual, his own preference is for women. Bowers never talked publicly about these experiences before but decided to do so now because most of the people involved are now dead and can no longer be affected by his revelations.[2][5] On June 10, 2012, Bowers was featured on the show CBS News Sunday Morning.[7]
Reception
Adam Tschorn, writing for the Los Angeles Times, described the book as having an uneven, at times choppy, pace and much purple prose, highlighting a passage in which Bowers describes how he milked a cow. Although he considered some of the details too much for the general reader, he wrote that the book was "a good trashy read".[4] Matt Tyrnauer, a writer for Vanity Fair, described Bowers as "like the Kinsey Reports live and in living color", if the reader believed him.[2] Joanna Walters, in The Guardian, wrote that the book was a "titillating catalogue of sexual intrigue", and that its most shocking part was one where Bowers claimed that King Edward VIII abdicated to marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson as a coverup for both being homosexual.[6]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bowers, Scotty (2012). Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars. New York City: Grove Press. ISBN 978-0-8021-2007-6.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Barnes, Brooks (January 27, 2012). "Hollywood Fixer Opens His Little Black Book". New York Times. p. ST1. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
- ↑ "Hollywood Fixer Opens His Little Black Book". New York Times. January 27, 2012. Retrieved December 29, 2013.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Tschorn, Adam (February 14, 2012). "Scotty Bowers' 'Full Service' names names from Hollywood Golden Age". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Former Hollywood 'pimp' says he fixed up Katherine Hepburn with 150 women (sic)". Wisconsin Gazette. January 31, 2012. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Walters, Joanna (February 1, 2012). "Sex fixer to the stars lifts lid on scandal in Hollywood's golden age". The Guardian. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
- ↑ "A keeper of Hollywood's secrets now spills them". CBS News. Retrieved June 10, 2012.