Scotty Bowers

George Albert Bowers (1 July 1923 - ), commonly known as Scotty Bowers, was a handsome, well-endowed and personable ex-marine who was, from the 1940s to the 1980s, an underground legend in Hollywood as the go-to sexual procurer for many stars, celebrities and ordinary citizens, both gay and straight.[1]

Stories of his reputation circulated for many years,[2] and were alluded to in books such as Hollywood Babylon. Bowers finally decided to talk about his life since most of the people involved were dead and could no longer be affected by his revelations.[3][4] In 2012 the publication of his memoir Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars, written by Lionel Friedberg from 150 hours of interviews,[5] drew significant publicity, including a profile in the New York Times,[6]and a feature on CBS News Sunday Morning.[7] One journalist has written: "He has a savant-like quality: a result of his refusal to be embarrassed by sex."[2]

Life and career

Scotty Bowers was born in Ottawa, Illinois. After working his way through the Depression in Chicago, he fought in the Pacific, including at the Battle of Iwo Jima, as a paramarine in the Marine Corps during World War II, losing his brother and two close friends.[8]

According to his memoir, his sexual career began in 1946 when he was working as an attendant at the Richfield Oil gas station then located at 5777 Hollywood Boulevard, at the corner of Van Ness.[9] [8] Bowers turned it into a meeting place for paid sexual encounters, with ex-marine friends and others assisting him.

In 1950 Bowers stopped working at the service station and began working as a party bartender, while continuing his sexual services. He also claims to have provided women—mostly prostitutes— to Alfred Kinsey as interview subjects for his famous study on human sexuality.[10]

Bowers was never prosecuted by the authorities for his illicit activities; he kept all his contact information in his head.[3] He 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.

When the AIDS epidemic began Bowers ceased his procuring activities, though he continued to work as a handyman and bartender. In 1984 he married his wife, Lois.

Bowers was still working as a bartender in his late eighties, although he had no need, having been willed three houses by the actor Beech Dickerson.[11] Cinematographer Nestor Almendros also bequeathed him his Oscar.[11]

Reputation & support of claims

According to Variety: "Everyone knows Scotty. After all, he’s been serving drinks to the Beverly Hills crowd for almost 60 years, working a different party almost every night of the week, sometimes two a day."[11]

The veracity of Bowers' many claims was endorsed by Gore Vidal.[12] (In his last public appearance Vidal spoke at the official launch of the memoir.)[13] Robert Benevides who appears in Full Service, and was the partner of actor Raymond Burr, also attested to Bowers' credibility, saying "Scotty just liked to make people happy." He also confirmed that Bowers took no money for making 'introductions', and that he had been the procurer of choice for many Hollywood stars, both gay and straight.[1] According to Oscar-nominated documentary maker and Vanity Fair special correspondant Matt Tyrnauer, "He was trusted by a tight and exalted circle of people. He serviced them sexually . . . and kept them company."[2]

Joan Allemand, a former arts director of the Beverly Hills Unified School District, who knew Bowers for more than 20 years and introduced him to his co-writer, Friedberg said: "Scotty doesn't lie about anything. He's a poor kid from a farm in Illinois, and when he got here, his two assets were his big penis and charming personality. That's what he used to feed his family."[1]

An assignation with Bowers was fondly recalled by Sir Cecil Beaton in his published diaries: "Scotty is a phenomenon…He really is what is known as a flirt. I asked him how much I owed him and he suggested a sum much smaller than I knew was customary. There is nothing he will not do for me. He is helpful and kind and gentle."[14] Debbie Reynolds has written that Milton Berle hired Bowers to present his penis in the guise of a sausage on a tray as a practical joke at parties.[15] Hollywood biographer Richard Lampareski has claimed that Bowers featured in Pool Party, a widely distributed underground pornographic film.[16]

Bowers has assisted a number of authors, including Vincente Minnelli biographer Mark Griffin[17] and William J Mann, author of Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood.[18]

A profile in New York Social Diary attested to Bowers' connections, career of sexual support, and happy-go-lucky character: "Clients all agreed that he was “very good” at what he did, and very agreeable... And very discreet. He did not discriminate. He even had one regular longtime client...who had no arms and no legs...The Scotty I knew was a guy who always seemed to be enjoying his life working morning, noon and night, with never a gripe; always with a smile to greet you, and never with an axe to grind. After a lifetime in Hollywood, that’s a remarkable feat and its own kind of Zen."[19]

Documentary

A documentary film on Bowers, titled Scotty, by Matt Tyrnauer, director of Valentino: The Last Emperor, is currently in production. [6]


See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Teetor, Paul The apparently true story of the man who secured gay lovers for Old Hollywood, 19 March 2012 http://www.laweekly.com/arts/the-apparently-true-story-of-the-man-who-secured-gay-lovers-for-old-hollywood-2372317
  2. 1 2 3 Blakely, Rhys Mr Sex Scotty Bowers' memoirs to lift the lid on Hollywood's debauched underbelly, The Australian, 11 February 2012 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/mr-sex-scotty-bowers-memoirs-to-lift-the-lid-on-hollywoods-debauched-underbelly/story-e6frg6so-1226268137889
  3. 1 2 Barnes, Brooks (January 27, 2012). "Hollywood Fixer Opens His Little Black Book". New York Times. p. ST1. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  4. ↑ "Former Hollywood 'pimp' says he fixed up Katherine Hepburn with 150 women (sic)". Wisconsin Gazette. January 31, 2012. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. 1 2 "Hollywood Fixer Opens His Little Black Book". New York Times. January 27, 2012. Retrieved December 29, 2013.
  7. ↑ "A keeper of Hollywood's secrets now spills them". CBS News. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  8. 1 2 Tschorn, Adam (February 14, 2012). "Scotty Bowers' 'Full Service' names names from Hollywood Golden Age". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
  9. ↑ http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/FullRecord?databaseID=968&record=1&controlNumber=45006
  10. ↑ Bowers, Scotty; Friedberg, Lionel Full Service, Grove Press 2012, pp173-178
  11. 1 2 3 Debruge, Peter Bartender To Babyon, Variety 22 June 2006 http://variety.com/2006/film/features/bartender-to-babylon-1200337270/
  12. ↑ 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.
  13. ↑ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/02/gore-vidal-remembered-by-his-closest-friend-scotty-bowers.html
  14. ↑ Beaton, Cecil Beaton in the Sixties: The Cecil Beaton Diaries as He Wrote Them, 1965-1969, Weidenfeld & Nicholson 2003, p291
  15. ↑ Reynolds, Debbie Make 'Em Laugh: Short-Term Memories of Longtime Friends, William Morrow, 2015, p89
  16. ↑ Lampareski, Richard Manhattan Diary, BearManor Media 2006, p64
  17. ↑ Griffin, Mark A Hundred Or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli, DeCapo Press 2010, p300
  18. ↑ Mann, William J., Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, Viking 2001, See Acknowledgements
  19. ↑ Columbia, David Patrick Its own kind of zen, 30 January 2012 http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/social-diary/2012/its-own-kind-of-zen

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, February 13, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.