''Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars'' is a 2012 "

tell-all An unauthorized biography is a biography written without the subject's permission or input. The term is usually restricted to biographies written within the subject's lifetime or shortly after their death; as such, it is not applied to biographi ...

" book about the sex lives of Hollywood stars from the late 1940s to the early 1980s by

Scotty Bowers George Albert "Scotty" Bowers (July 1, 1923 – October 13, 2019) was an American who was active from 1945 to 1980 as a procurer and prostitute for closeted Hollywood film and television industry people interested in homosexual or bisexual l ...

, with Lionel Friedberg as a contributing author. Bowers makes many claims about the sex lives of many people, most of whom were associated with the Hollywood movie industry during that period. The book, which was vetted by a

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

lawyer before publication, was refused by several publishers before ultimately being accepted by

Grove Press Grove Press is an United States of America, American Imprint (trade name), publishing imprint that was founded in 1947. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, and Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it in ...

and

Grove/Atlantic Grove Atlantic, Inc. is an American independent publisher, based in New York City. Formerly styled "Grove/Atlantic, Inc.", it was created in 1993 by the merger of Grove Press and Atlantic Monthly Press. As of 2018 Grove Atlantic calls itself "A ...

Summary

Bowers fought in the Pacific, including at the

Battle of Iwo Jima The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945) was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and United States Navy (USN) landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJ ...

, as a

paramarine The Paramarines (also known as Marine paratroopers) was a short-lived specialized combat unit of the United States Marine Corps, trained to be dropped from planes by parachute. Marine parachute training which began in New Jersey in October 19 ...

in the

Marine Corps Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refle ...

during World War II. In 1946 he was pumping gas at a service station in Hollywood when he says

Walter Pidgeon Walter Davis Pidgeon (September 23, 1897 – September 25, 1984) was a Canadian-American actor. He earned two Academy Award for Best Actor nominations for his roles in ''Mrs. Miniver'' (1942) and ''Madame Curie'' (1943). Pidgeon also starred in ...

gave him $20 for a gay sexual encounter. Word spread about Bowers among Pidgeon's friends, and Bowers turned the service station into a meeting place for paid sexual encounters, which took place in a nearby trailer or hotel, with his old marine friends assisting him in the business. In 1950 he stopped working at the service station and began a legitimate business as a party bartender. Bowers became well known in Hollywood for arranging sexual encounters for gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and heterosexuals as part of his party service. In the book Bowers claims he arranged gay or bisexual encounters for many actors and notable persons. Bowers' illicit activities were never detected by the authorities; he kept all his contact information in his head. In the mid 1970s, when the film '' Deep Throat'' was popular, Bowers claims to have arranged for Linda Lovelace to give instruction on deepthroating at parties. He also claims to have provided women—mostly prostitutes—to

Alfred Kinsey Alfred Charles Kinsey (; June 23, 1894 – August 25, 1956) was an American sexologist, biologist, and professor of entomology and zoology who, in 1947, founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, now known as the Kinsey Instit ...

as interview subjects for his famous study on human sexuality.

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and ...

wrote that Bowers was a long time friend whose stories he believed. Bowers ended this business when the AIDS epidemic began, though he continued to work as a handyman and bartender during this time, and in 1984 he married. Bowers said he never took payment for arranging sexual encounters for others, only when he provided sex himself, and that though he was bisexual, his own preference was for women. Bowers never talked publicly about these experiences before but decided to do so because most of the people involved are now dead and can no longer be affected by his revelations. On June 10, 2012, Bowers was featured on the show ''

CBS News Sunday Morning ''CBS News Sunday Morning'' (normally shortened to ''Sunday Morning'' on the program itself since 2009) is an American news magazine A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published ...

''.

Reception

Adam Tschorn, writing for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', described the book as having an uneven, at times choppy, pace and much

purple prose In literary criticism, purple prose is overly ornate prose text that may disrupt a narrative flow by drawing undesirable attention to its own extravagant style of writing, thereby diminishing the appreciation of the prose overall. Purple prose i ...

, highlighting a passage in which Bowers describes how he milked a cow. Although he considered some of the details too much for the general reader, he wrote that the book was "a good trashy read". Matt Tyrnauer, a writer for '' Vanity Fair'', described Bowers as "like the Kinsey Reports live and in living color", if the reader believed him. Joanna Walters, in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', wrote that the book was a "titillating catalogue of sexual intrigue."

Film adaptation

Matt Tyrnauer Matt Tyrnauer is an American film director. He directed the documentary feature '' Valentino: The Last Emperor'' (2009), which was short listed for an Oscar nomination in 2010, ''Citizen Jane: Battle for the City'' (2016), the Emmy nominated, '' ...

, director of '' Valentino: The Last Emperor'' (2008), made a documentary film about Bower's life titled ''

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood ''Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood'' is a 2017 American documentary film about the life of Scotty Bowers, who acted as an unpaid pimp in Hollywood from the 1940s to 80s. Based on Bowers's book '' Full Service'', it was produced and dire ...

'', released in 2017.

References

{{reflist , refs = {{cite book , last = Bowers , first = Scotty , year = 2012 , title = Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars , publisher = Grove Press , location = New York City , isbn = 978-0-8021-2007-6 , url-access = registration , url = https://archive.org/details/fullservicemyadv00scot {{cite news , last = Barnes , first = Brooks , date = January 27, 2012 , title = Hollywood Fixer Opens His Little Black Book , newspaper =

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, url = https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/fashion/scotty-bowers-and-his-sexual-tell-all-of-old-hollywood.html , page = ST1 , access-date = March 13, 2018 {{cite news , newspaper = Wisconsin Gazette , date = January 31, 2012 , title = Former Hollywood 'pimp' says he fixed up Katherine 'sic''Hepburn with 150 women , url = http://www.wisconsingazette.com/news/former-hollywood-pimp-says-he-fixed-up-katherine-hepburn-with/article_a24ba77b-5f25-5289-8302-0d307f46aca6.html , access-date = June 10, 2012 {{cite news , last = Walters , first = Joanna , date = February 1, 2012 , title = Sex fixer to the stars lifts lid on scandal in Hollywood's golden age , newspaper =

, url = https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/sex-scandal-hollywood-golden-age , access-date = June 10, 2012 {{cite news , last = Tschorn , first = Adam , date = February 14, 2012 , title = Scotty Bowers' 'Full Service' names names from Hollywood Golden Age , newspaper =

, url = http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/14/entertainment/la-et-0214-book-20120214 , access-date = June 10, 2012 {{cite web , work = CBS News , title = A keeper of Hollywood's secrets now spills them , url = http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57450055/a-keeper-of-hollywoods-secrets-now-spills-them/ , access-date = June 10, 2012

External links

''Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars''
at

2012 non-fiction books Non-fiction books adapted into films Works about the history of Hollywood, Los Angeles Grove Press books Books about actors Non-fiction books about same-sex sexuality Non-fiction books about American prostitution

Summary

Reception

Film adaptation

See also

References

External links