Books Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars Similar Walter Pidgeon, Randolph Scott, Gore Vidal, Spencer Tracy, George Cukor | ||
George Albert "Scotty" Bowers (born July 1, 1923) is a former Marine who, from the 1940s to the 1980s, was a famed Hollywood pimp.
Contents
Stories of his exploits circulated for many years, and were alluded to in books such as Hollywood Babylon. Bowers finally decided to talk publicly about his life when most of the people involved were dead and could no longer be affected by his revelations. In 2012 the publication of his memoir Full Service, written by Lionel Friedberg from 150 hours of interviews, drew significant publicity, including a profile in the New York Times, and a feature on CBS News Sunday Morning. One journalist has written, "He has a savant-like quality: a result of his refusal to be embarrassed by sex."
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.
According to his memoir, his sexual career began in 1946 while he was working as an attendant at the Richfield Oil gas station located at 5777 Hollywood Boulevard, at the corner of Van Ness. Bowers turned it into a meeting place for paid sexual encounters, with Former Marine friends and others assisting him. He was considered to be handsome, well-endowed and personable.
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.
Bowers was never prosecuted by the authorities for his illicit activities; he kept all his contact information in his head. He says 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. He was still working as a bartender in his late eighties.
The actor Beech Dickerson willed three houses to Bowers and cinematographer Nestor Almendros bequeathed him his Oscar.
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."
The veracity of Bowers' many claims was endorsed by Gore Vidal. (In his last public appearance Vidal spoke at the official launch of the memoir.) Robert Benevides, the partner of actor Raymond Burr, also supported Bowers, telling L.A. Weekly: "Scotty just liked to make people happy."
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." Others who had dealings with him include Cecil Beaton and Milton Berle.
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."
Other writings and appearances
Bowers authored the introduction to a collection of archival photographs of male affection in the military My Buddy: World War II Laid Bare. In March 2016 he wrote a profile of himself for the Guest Of A Guest blog. He also appears in Sir Cecil Beaton's published diary for the 1960s, and the biography In Bed With Gore Vidal.
Bowers has also assisted a number of authors, including Vincente Minnelli biographer Mark Griffin and William J Mann, author of Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood.
Documentary
Matt Tyrnauer, director of Valentino: The Last Emperor, is working on a documentary film adaptation of Bowers' memoir titled Scotty