Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars [NOOK Book]

( 107 )

Overview

Newly discharged from the Marines after World War II, Scotty Bowers arrived in Hollywood in 1946. Young, charismatic, and strikingly handsome, he quickly caught the eye of many of the town’s stars and starlets. He began sleeping with some himself, and connecting others with his coterie of young, attractive, and sexually free-spirited friends. His own lovers included Edith Piaf, Spencer Tracy, Vivien Leigh, Cary Grant, and the abdicated King of England Edward VIII, and he arranged tricks or otherwise crossed paths...
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Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars

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More About This Book

Overview

Newly discharged from the Marines after World War II, Scotty Bowers arrived in Hollywood in 1946. Young, charismatic, and strikingly handsome, he quickly caught the eye of many of the town’s stars and starlets. He began sleeping with some himself, and connecting others with his coterie of young, attractive, and sexually free-spirited friends. His own lovers included Edith Piaf, Spencer Tracy, Vivien Leigh, Cary Grant, and the abdicated King of England Edward VIII, and he arranged tricks or otherwise crossed paths with Tennessee Williams, Charles Laughton, Vincent Price, Katharine Hepburn, Rita Hayworth, Errol Flynn, Gloria Swanson, Noël Coward, Mae West, James Dean, Rock Hudson and J. Edgar Hoover, to name but a few.

Full Service is not only a fascinating chronicle of Hollywood’s sexual underground, but also exposes the hypocrisy of the major studios, who used actors to propagate a myth of a conformist, sexually innocent America knowing full well that their stars’ personal lives differed dramatically from this family-friendly mold. As revelation-filled as Hollywood Babylon, Full Service provides a lost chapter in the history of the sexual revolution and is a testament to a man who provided sex, support, and affection to countless people.
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Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher
"A startling memoir." —-Gore Vidal
Kirkus Reviews
A memoir about the author's role in the secret sex lives of Hollywood's Golden Age stars. Bowers, a long-time Hollywood hanger-on, delivers a bizarrely upbeat, frequently stomach-churning chronicle of profligacy and perversion that frankly beggars belief. Presenting himself as some unholy amalgam of a pimp, prostitute and Jiminy Cricket, Bowers maintains an unfailingly aw-shucks tone as he details the erotic peccadilloes of dozens of iconic actors, including a coprophagous escapade with Charles Laughton that will haunt the nightmares of most readers. In Bowers' telling, the author, a good-natured Midwesterner freshly discharged from the Marines, became the center of a prostitution underground almost immediately upon his arrival in Tinseltown, cheerfully arranging trysts by the thousands to suit any and all tastes, however outré, while being relentlessly seduced by every homosexual connected to the film industry. Bowers protests continuously that he sees nothing wrong with facilitating adultery and all manner of deviance on an epic scale, as sex is a natural drive that shouldn't be beholden to social mores. This point becomes harder to defend as he glowingly describes his childhood sexual abuse involving a friend's father, customers along his paper route, and various Catholic priests. Bowers' largesse extends to these predators, who are unfailingly described as sweet, kind, gentle, lonely souls looking for a little harmless comfort. This attitude suggests an insane level of denial or merely denotes the fevered musings of a fantasist with no regard for the reputations of dozens of prominent figures in American popular culture. A singularly off-putting and seamy reading experience.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780802194763
  • Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
  • Publication date: 2/14/2012
  • Sold by: Barnes & Noble
  • Format: eBook
  • Pages: 288
  • Sales rank: 24,231
  • File size: 6 MB

Meet the Author

Scotty Bowers, now 88, still works as a bartender at private functions in Hollywood.
Lionel Friedberg is an Emmy-winning producer, director and professional writer.
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Read an Excerpt

Cary Grant was as suave in real life as he was on the screen. He was the quintessential Mr. Smooth. He was 40 years old when I met him and everything he did was executed in precise, dapper and debonair style. Although she wasn’t around when I met him, he was married to Barbara Hutton at the time. Which did not surprise me. The day I was introduced to him he was actually sharing the house with another actor, Randolph Scott. It was patently clear to me that he and Cary Grant were more than mere friends. The proof arrived that first weekend that I spent with them. The three of us got into a lot of sexual mischief together.

***

Over the next 50 years Katharine Hepburn and I would become the very best of friends. In the course of time I would fix her up with over 150 different women. Most of them she would only see once or twice, and tire of them immediately. But there was one exception. There was a very cute little 17-year-old trick that I set Kate up with early in our friendship. The girl’s name was Barbara. Shortly after they started seeing one another Kate bought Barbara a brand new two-toned Ford Fairlane as a gift. Kate saw Barbara off and on for just over 49 years. Three months before dear Kate passed away in June 2003 Barbara received a letter from Kate’s attorneys. With the letter was a check for $100,000.

***

Another guy in town who had an absolute passion for Marines was the composer and lyricist Cole Porter. I don’t recall exactly when he called me out of the blue at the gas station one evening. He said he’d heard that I knew a lot of Marines and asked me if I could come over to his place with two or three of them at around midnight on the following Saturday night. When I arrived at Porter’s place with three ex-Marines a party was already in progress. There wasn’t a woman in sight. Most of Porter’s guests were younger men, all of them strikingly handsome. I soon learned that his passion was oral sex. He could easily suck off twenty guys, one after the other. And he always swallowed.

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Table of Contents

Authors' Notes Preface Chapter 1: Dream Factory Chapter 2: Gas Station on Hollywood Boulevard Chapter 3: Awakenings Chapter 4: Full Service Chapter 5: Big City Chapter 6: Star Treatment Chapter 7: Turning Tricks Chapter 8: Boot Camp Chapter 9: Into Battle Chapter 10: Firmament of Stars Chapter 11: Vice Squad Chapter 12: Paternity Chapter 13: Mixing Drinks Chapter 14: A Royal Affair Chapter 15: At The Crossroads Chapter 16: Moving On Chapter 17: Myths Chapter 18: Bar Service Chapter 19: Finding Out Chapter 20: Close Encounters of Every Kind Chapter 21: To Each His Own Chapter 22: The Young And The Restless Chapter 23: In High Places Chapter 24: Drag Queens And Music Chapter 25: True Love Chapter 26: Friends Chapter 27: The Seventies Chapter 28: Kew Drive Chapter 29: Looking Back

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 2.5
( 107 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(17)

4 Star

(7)

3 Star

(14)

2 Star

(17)

1 Star

(52)

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 107 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted February 29, 2012

    Pedophile propoganda

    I could not finish this disgusting book. It is a total waste of money. I thought it would be an easy read with some fun Hollywood gossip how wrong I was. First of all the people Mr. Bowers writes about are dead, they can't defend themselves. Probably alot of it is true but what I found truly disturbing were his multiple accounts of being molested as a child and his repeated belief that these encounters were normal. He actually thanks his first abuser farmer Peterson for "revealing a whole new world to me" and believes "he cared for me in a very special way". This after Mr. Peterson fondles him and then masturbates in front of him. Scotty Bowers was seven at the time. How disgusting. There are other accounts of abuse with adult men and these too are recalled fondly and with no remorse or shame. This begs the question: if Mr. Bowers thinks what happened to him as a child was normal, has he engaged in this behavior with children himself as an adult? Please do dont waste your money on this pedophile propoganda disguised as Hollywood dish.

    39 out of 44 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 7, 2012

    Made me feel queasy

    Mr. Bowers' accounts of being molested as a boy and young teen by neighbors, newspaper customers, religious figures and others are truly unsettling. Most of the Hollywood stars he describes as gay, I had already known they were. I had just never heard such explicit details before. Mr. Bowers did do a good job conveying the "aura" of life in 1950s Hollywood. I feel sad for his lost childhhood.

    17 out of 19 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted February 21, 2012

    Disgusting and unbelievable.....

    Scotty Bowers lives in a fantasy world where he tries to persuade the reader that all of the facets in this book are believable.........i started reading thinking "wow, this is unbelievable....." and as the story (yes, story) progressed, I realized i was being had!!! Waste of money......ridiculous.......vile..........don't bother!

    13 out of 17 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 26, 2012

    Pathetic

    Delusional old man. Read it after seeing feature in People. Waste of money and time. SMUT!

    11 out of 14 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 18, 2012

    SHAME ON YOU!!!

    I was so really excited when I saw the review of this "book" in "People". Ordered it from B&N ASAP! What a complete and total waste of my time and money. This book is not well written. I despised the overused "I had a friend who went by the name of". What atrocious wording. I am certain that there are aspects of the truth in this fairy tale, but there are no real details. This poor "man" remembers all the stars but not the names of the people in his little black book. And while the people he so easily writes of are gone, their family members and fans are still here. I had problems with his story about servicing 15 or so Catholic priests per week when he was a very young boy. I also had trouble believing that a group of hardened men playing poker in some bar backroom would go silent when Scotty walked in because they all adored him so. PLEASE! Anyone can say that they have had sex with the rich and famous. Anyone can write about it. Some have and it caused them some serious repercussions. I am guessing that is why the oh, so noble, Mr. Bowers wrote only of the dead and defenseless. What an ego! What a truly pitiful excuse for a book. Shame on you "People" for stooping so low as to review it. Shame on you, Mr. Bowers for the sham!

    10 out of 11 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted March 13, 2012

    Terrible book. This type of expose has been done before and don

    Terrible book. This type of expose has been done before and done better. The writer must be the most altruistic guy in the world. 40 years of being a pimp (when he wasn't tricking himself) and he never made a dime off of it. How noble!!!

    9 out of 10 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 27, 2012

    I too could not finish reading this disgusting book. It is a T

    I too could not finish reading this disgusting book. It is a TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY and TIME.. I saw this book featured in People Magazine and thought it would be a fun Hollywood gossip read. But instead it was a huge disappointment, disgusting book that glorifies pedophiles. I totally agree with the review "PEDOPHILE PROPGANDA" posted before me. Your review is exactly how I feel. Just wish I would have waited to read the reviews before wasting my money on this piece of trash.

    6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted March 10, 2012

    If I could give 0 stars, I would...

    Please believe every single word of the the reviews with one star. This is a vile, disgusting work by a delusional old man. Not worth your time or money.

    6 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 9, 2012

    This is the most disgusting, vile book. It's riddled with acco

    This is the most disgusting, vile book. It's riddled with accounts of child molestation and is nothing short of being pornographic at times. I could not even get through this halfway. If he isn't telling us about molestation as a child (which he seems to think is acceptable), he is spinning ridiculous tales of his sexual encounters as if every man in the world is a pervert or a pedophile. If I could get my money back I would. I may just mail this piece of garbage back to the publisher.

    5 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 10, 2012

    Great read

    An honest and and enlighting read. You will not be sorry you purchased this book.

    5 out of 15 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted February 7, 2012

    Recommended

    A fantastic read. Well written, and believable.
    About time someone opened up to all those known secrets.

    5 out of 10 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 20, 2012

    Horrible

    This book is nothing but poorly written scum. I am very sorry I did not heed the advice of the reviewers. Not worth your money or your time, unless you want to read about some dirty old mans sexcapades. I didn't even finish this book.

    4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 6, 2012

    This book was disgusting. Mr. Bowers talks about being molested

    This book was disgusting. Mr. Bowers talks about being molested as a child like it was a walk in the park with "wonderful, kind people." I thought the story would be a link to some old Hollywood gossip - no so. Don't waste your time with this book - it made me uncomfortable to think that he accepted such a horrific childhood as helping him to grow up. I stopped reading by chapter two.

    4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted February 20, 2012

    Delicious trash!

    This book is definitely trash.....deliciously lascivious. Totally without merit. No one in it is alive to defend themselves. But isn't it what we all suspected all along? Buy it if you love some good dirt......whether you believe it all or not.

    4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted June 8, 2012

    misterhollywood

    A lot of people are trashing this book. Well anyone that knows these celebrities know that he's telling the truth. Only complaint is i didn't need to know that much about Charles Laughton. I am glad that the Hepburn-Tracy love affair was exposed for what it was.

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 1, 2012

    I turly feel sorry for Scotty, if he had not been so tied up in

    I turly feel sorry for Scotty, if he had not been so tied up in his own life *tricking* it seems like all of Hollywood, he might have spent a little more time with his daughter before she went to a back door abortionist and got butchered, he probably knew the doctor that done it and could have taken her to a better one that his *tricksters* used. I am like other writers here I only got this because of the People review. Thought this would be a fun lunchtime read instead I found myself wondering how brain washed he was-is to thank his molester, lastly $20.00!!! your doing stars in Hollywood for $20.00???? PLEASE== NOT charging a pimp fee, AGAIN==PLEASE Remember the old saying you can fool all of the people some of the times, and some of the people all of the times........

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 9, 2012

    Very light weight look on the sex lives of celebrities and movie stars

    This is a fascinating but ultimately very light weight look at the life of Scotty Bowers, pimp and prostitute to the Hollywood stars. He supposedly tells all about the famous movie stars, both men and women that he's ever had sex with. Whether you believe everything you read in this book is up to you. I'd take everything he's written with a grain of salt. I mean, according to Mr. Bowers, Hepburn and Tracy were actually gay and that they contrived this great love affair they supposedly had just to remain relevant and to disguise the fact that they were not straight. Would you believe this? I'm not sure myself. There's alot of anecdotes which would satisfy any reader looking to find out the sex lives of their favorite old time movie stars. As for Scotty Bowers , he portrays himself as basically a simple man with a very healthy sexual appetite who was lucky enough to find himself hobnobbing with the rich and famous. His life other than tricking and hooking is very mundane. He had an affair with a young woman, got her pregnant and then took care of both the woman and their daughter. He suffered some devastating losses in his family but continued on. He remains on good terms with everyone and retired happily with a nice woman he married. One day, I hope someone will write a real biography of Scotty Bowers and tell us what he really is like as a person.

    3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 6, 2012

    Tragic and Pathetic

    A sad story of a sexually abused boy. I couldn't finish this poorly written, graphic account of a child being viciously used by the adult men in his life. Stories of Hollywood ring false. I read this based on People magazines review. Big mistake.

    3 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 30, 2012

    True or not, still a delightful read.

    While I can't help but doubt the veracity of Bowers's claims, this is a deliciously dirty read, sure to please any connoisseur of smutty gossip. Definitely not for The Midwestern Christian Mothers' Bookclub.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 11, 2012

    I'm just sorry I did not read these reviews before. I couldn't

    I'm just sorry I did not read these reviews before. I couldn't finish this trash and deleted from my NOOK. Always go and look at reviews....Pedophile propoganda....exactly.....

    2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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