Scotty Bowers

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George Albert "Scotty" Bowers (born July 1, 1923 in Ottawa , Illinois ; † October 13, 2019 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American pimp who apparently became many Hollywood stars between the 1940s and 1980s counted his clients. His autobiography Full Service , published in 2012, earned him international attention.

Life

Scotty Bowers served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II , including the Battle of Iwojima , in which his brother and best friend died. According to Bowers' portrayal, he became a gas station attendant on Hollywood Boulevard after the end of the war , where the actor Walter Pidgeon is said to have paid him US $ 20 for sex for the first time in 1946 . Subsequently, his reputation spread in Hollywood and Bowers began to recruit young men and women from his circle of friends for straight, bisexual and homosexual customers. Officially, he worked as a bartender and personal assistant, for example for the director George Cukor .

Bowers did not see himself as a pimp in the strict sense of the word, as he did not take any money to mediate other people, but only when he was directly involved in the sex. Since many of his activities were illegal, he always kept the addresses of his customers in mind. Bowers also claimed that he helped sex scientist Alfred Kinsey with his sexual behavior research by telling him about his clients' behavior. With the spread of the HI virus in the 1980s, he withdrew from sex mediation. Bowers was still a bartender at Hollywood parties when he was over 80.

Bowers died at his Laurel Canyon home in October 2019, aged 96 . Bowers' wife, who described himself as bisexual , had already died in 2018.

Full service and documentation Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood

His autobiography Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars , published in 2012 and written in collaboration with author Lionel Friedberg, first garnered Bowers widespread public attention. She was reviewed by well-known international newspapers and he gave several interviews for US television. Johanna Adorján wrote in her review for the FAS : “Several large publishers did not want to print the book because it is so blunt gossip, not well written, rather hastily counting on, no deeper meaning, no second level - just station toilet gossip about famous people who are dead today and cannot defend themselves. Unfortunately, some of it is very interesting. "

Bowers claimed, among other things, that the relationships between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson and Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were publicly staged, as both couples were predominantly homosexual. In addition to lesser-known customers, he has worked for famous people such as Cole Porter , Laurence Olivier , Tyrone Power , Tennessee Williams , Howard Hughes , Charles Laughton , Montgomery Clift , Anthony Perkins , Malcolm Forbes , Harold Lloyd , Tony Richardson , Bette Davis , Gloria Swanson , Rita Hayworth , Errol Flynn (who, according to Bowers, had a penchant for underage girls), Bob Hope , W. Somerset Maugham , Vincent Price , J. Edgar Hoover - he allegedly was a transvestite - and Brian Epstein worked as a pimp. He personally had sex with Cary Grant and his alleged partner Randolph Scott , Édith Piaf , Lana Turner and Vivien Leigh , among others .

Many of his prominent customers would have had socially unacceptable, sometimes criminal preferences; their disclosure could have led to the end of their careers through the moral clauses of the Hollywood film studios. Bowers was therefore valued for his discretion. Bowers, who was 88 when the book was published, stated that he had been silent for a long time because he did not want to hurt any of his customers. In 2017, director Matt Tyrnauer released the documentary film Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood , in which Bowers and other contemporary witnesses had their say.

Credibility of statements

Scotty Bowers' claims have been widely debated among historians and journalists studying classic Hollywood. The Daily Telegraph was critical and found many allegations bizarre, but the New York Times and the Guardian treated his statements as credible. The New York Times wrote that the existence of Bowers and his activities was mentioned behind closed doors by many older Hollywood personalities even before the publication of his book.

Author Gore Vidal supported the claims and mentioned Bowers in his autobiography. He is also mentioned in the diaries of Cecil Beaton . Robert Benevides, the longtime partner of Bowers 'client Raymond Burr , reiterated Bowers' claims in an interview in 2016. Bowers also cited gifts from his clients as evidence of his activities; the actor Beech Dickerson bequeathed him three houses and the cameraman Néstor Almendros gave him his Oscar . The director Matt Tyrnauer, who made the documentary about Bowers, found further clues to the truth of his claims and interviewed people who were referred to Hollywood figures about prostitution through Bowers.

Media reception

The character of the tank attendant Ernie West in the Netflix series Hollywood (2020) is based on Bowers and his experiences.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Teetor: The Apparently True Story of the Man Who Secured Gay Lovers for Old Hollywood. March 19, 2012, Retrieved October 16, 2019 (American English).
  2. ↑ Amy Nicholson: Hollywood's secret history: Scotty Bowers on sex and stars in the Golden Era . In: The Guardian . August 3, 2018, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed October 16, 2019]).
  3. ↑ Pat Saperstein: Scotty Bowers, Old Hollywood's Sexual Matchmaker, Dies at 96. In: Variety. October 14, 2019, accessed October 16, 2019 .
  4. ^ Paul Teetor: The Apparently True Story of the Man Who Secured Gay Lovers for Old Hollywood. March 19, 2012, Retrieved October 16, 2019 (American English).
  5. ↑ Amy Nicholson: Hollywood's secret history: Scotty Bowers on sex and stars in the Golden Era . In: The Guardian . August 3, 2018, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed October 16, 2019]).
  6. ↑ Amy Nicholson: Hollywood's secret history: Scotty Bowers on sex and stars in the Golden Era . In: The Guardian . August 3, 2018, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed October 16, 2019]).
  7. ↑ Hollywood men loved a call boy. Retrieved October 16, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Peter Debruge: Scotty Bowers: Bartender to Babylon. In: Variety. June 23, 2006, accessed October 16, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Martin Pengelly: Scotty Bowers, 'male madame to the stars', dies aged 96 . In: The Guardian . October 15, 2019, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed October 16, 2019]).
  10. ↑ Scotty Bowers, “Male Madame” to the Stars, Dies at 96. Retrieved October 16, 2019 .
  11. ^ Johanna Adorján: Erotic Biography “Full Service”: Which Belt Line? ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed October 16, 2019]).
  12. ^ Johanna Adorján: Erotic Biography “Full Service”: Which Belt Line? ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed October 16, 2019]).
  13. ↑ Hollywood men loved a call boy. Retrieved October 16, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Martin Pengelly: Scotty Bowers, 'male madame to the stars', dies aged 96 . In: The Guardian . October 15, 2019, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed October 16, 2019]).
  15. ↑ Scotty Bowers, “Male Madame” to the Stars, Dies at 96. Retrieved October 16, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Hollywood men loved a call boy. Retrieved October 16, 2019 .
  17. ^ Lewis Jones: Full Service by Scotty Bowers: review . March 9, 2012, ISSN  0307-1235 ( telegraph.co.uk [accessed October 16, 2019]).
  18. ↑ Martin Pengelly: Scotty Bowers, 'male madame to the stars', dies aged 96 . In: The Guardian . October 15, 2019, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed October 16, 2019]).
  19. ↑ Brooks Barnes: Scotty Bowers and His Sexual Tell-All of Old Hollywood . In: The New York Times . January 27, 2012, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed October 16, 2019]).
  20. ↑ Joanna Walters: Sex fixer to the stars lifts lid on scandal in Hollywood's golden age . In: The Guardian . February 1, 2012, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed October 16, 2019]).
  21. ^ Cecil Beaton: Beaton in the Sixties: The Cecil Beaton Diaries as He Wrote Them, 1965-1969 . Alfred A. Knopf, New York 2004 ( archive.org [accessed October 16, 2019]).
  22. ^ Paul Teetor: The Apparently True Story of the Man Who Secured Gay Lovers for Old Hollywood. March 19, 2012, Retrieved October 16, 2019 (American English).
  23. ↑ Peter Debruge: Scotty Bowers: Bartender to Babylon. In: Variety. June 23, 2006, accessed October 16, 2019 .
  24. ^ Anne Thompson: 'Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood' Exposes Star Myths, from Tracy & Hepburn to Cary Grant. In: IndieWire. August 2, 2018, accessed October 16, 2019 .
  25. ↑ Michael Schulman: A Hollywood Hedonist Turns Ninety-Five . August 9, 2018, ISSN  0028-792X ( newyorker.com [accessed October 16, 2019]).
  26. ↑ Town & Country Mag: How the Hollywood Cast Compares to Their Real-Life Counterparts, In Photos
  27. ↑ Express co.uk: "Hollywood on Netflix: Is Hollywood based on a true story?"
  28. ↑ TIME.com: The True Stories Behind Ryan Murphy's New Netflix Series Hollywood
  29. ↑ Vulture.com: The True Hollywood Stories Behind Hollywood's Alternate History
  30. ↑ Screenrant.com: "Netflix's Hollywood True Story: The Real History Explained (& What Was Made Up)"
  31. ↑ Entertainment.ie: What's fact and what's fiction in Ryan Murphy's 'Hollywood'?
personal data
SURNAME Bowers, Scotty
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bowers, George Albert (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Hollywood personality
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Ottawa , Illinois , United States
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 2019
Place of death Los Angeles , California , United States