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Full service
304 pages
A breezy, unapologetic backstage pass to the secret, sun-drenched hedonism of Golden Age Hollywood.
What it feels like
Reading this memoir feels like sitting at a dimly lit booth in a legendary Los Angeles dive bar, listening to the ultimate insider spill decades of closely guarded secrets. The pace is brisk and breezy, propelled by a relentless, unapologetic parade of name-dropping and scandalous anecdotes. It immerses you in a sun-drenched, hedonistic mood, stripping away the sanitized veneer of Golden Age Hollywood to reveal a sprawling underground of transactional intimacy and queer liberation. The prose is blunt, conversational, and entirely devoid of moralizing, giving the narrative a refreshingly matter-of-fact texture. It is a wildly entertaining, jaw-dropping ride perfect for readers who devour unvarnished celebrity history, queer historical narratives, and anyone who loves peeking behind the velvet curtain of fame.
- Mood
- scandalous
- hedonistic
- sun-drenched
- nostalgic
- Tone
- candid
- gossipy
- unapologetic
- breezy
- matter-of-fact
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- hidden histories · the facade of fame · sexual liberation · transactional intimacy · queer history
- The writing
- Conversational, blunt, and unadorned, reading like a long, juicy barroom confession.
- The arc
- Moves from wide-eyed postwar opportunism to a sprawling, unapologetic catalog of secret Hollywood hedonism.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love Old Hollywood gossip, queer history, and scandalous, unvarnished celebrity memoirs.
Content notes
- explicit sexual content
- sex work
- historical homophobia
- substance abuse
About the book
The wholesome image of America propagated by Hollywood in the 1940s, '50s and '60s is one of the most persistent in popular culture: loving wives, smiling children. But off the set, many of the actors who helped create this image were secretly leading very wild lives, and one man in particular was helping them: Scotty Bowers. At a time when sex outside of marriage was taboo, Scotty built up a reputation as the guy who could discreetly fix you up. Scotty slept with many stars himself, and connected others with his friends. Here, he tells his story for the first time. Scotty came to Hollywood after serving in the Marines in World War II, and began working at a gas station on Hollywood Boulevard. One day, he was approached and picked up by actor Walter Pidgeon, who whisked him off to a friend's villa for the first of many encounters with Hollywood's rich and famous. He developed long-term friendships with stars like Katharine Hepburn and Noel Coward, but he always kept it quiet--until he now provides a lost chapter in the history of the sexual revolution.--From publisher description.
Description from Open Library.
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