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

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E. was not wound enough, here is news that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, on miserable occasions, when driven to depths of boredom, actually had sex with each other instead of with members of their own sex. A World War II veteran and Hollywood gas-station attendant describes how his good looks and open bisexuality culminated in liaisons with numerous celebrities from Spencer Tracy and Vivien Leigh to Cary Grant and the abdicated Edward VIII, describing how the lifestyle he embraced was part of a growing movement that contributed to the sexual revolution. Bowers is still alive (in his late 80s) and I suspect he's a more interesting man than his memoir discloses. People who tend to believe propaganda, such as those manufactured Tracy/Hepburn romance stories, may be surprised. In the book he is absolutely respectful of the people he fell in love with - he continues to visit and support one of them financially for nearly her entire adult life; he has nothing but good things to say about another one despite their 'drifting apart' after a number of years.

The documentary is still crass, of course, but maybe spending less time soaking in the filth makes it easier to wash off afterwards.Scotty Bowers is a Midwestern World War II vet who, after the war, settled in Los Angeles and took a job at a gas station on Hollywood Boulevard. Now that I have that out of the way, I won't try and say I believe all he has talked about in the book. It seems Scotty had a lot of friends, a lot of good friends and a lot of very good friends; much of Hollywood. But, if so, we will never know the full story: he is smart enough to know that that is not something to put in a memoir in the year 2012.

The secret lives of the stars exist only to make their screened moments shine with glamour and mystery. Scotty grew up in some hard circumstances during the Depression, and he was subjected to sexual abuse at a young age. I also did not need to know that the designer of the original Barbie was into surprising young women while fondling himself in a casket. He seems to have made peace with his childhood so I will accept that even if it makes me sad to read about the adults using him like they did.I have a difficult time believing that Bowers was able to remember details of all of these supposed “tricks” without having kept note of them somewhere. For almost his entire life - and for whatever reason - Bowers has been something of a sex machine and is almost completely unapologetic about it. Bowers' general take on tragedy seems to be that, since tragedy and hardship are real drawbacks to life - life is to be enjoyed whenever and however possible. Like so many young men of the time, the experience gave Scotty the realization that life is too short and cruel not to spend it in the pursuit of pleasure, both giving and receiving. We all knew Rock Hudson was gay, and suspected Cary Grant and Randolph Scott of being involved, and who didn't suspect Hoover of being a cross-dresser?

Full Service is the ultimate guilty pleasure, revealing for the first time the shadow lives of the people who created popular culture, told by the man who was so central to fulfilling their desires. The Atlantic Wire "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. The Daily Mirror (UK) "Scotty Bowers--once a beacon of discretion--finally unveils the carnal peccadillos of many of the studio era's biggest players. Still, I didn’t like to hear it, and I didn’t think my lesbian friends should be disrespected this way.Bowers has always maintained a very matter-of-fact attitude about the benefits of sex - and, apparently, for the most part that worked for him just fine. A lot about the secret lives of these celebrities came out after their death, but not in such lurid and graphic detail. There may be a gray area as far as Scotty's own short latency period and his prism on desire and "making people happy", but he seems to be at peace with what happened to him.

I suppose the bottom line is that the book was vetted before it was published - so what absolutely couldn't be said, hasn't been said. If you like to listen to older people tell stories from their lives, real or made up, and are not squeamish about sex, then you may enjoy this book. Having read an article about the death of old school Hollywood actor Ramon Novarro, and the lives of the hustlers (two brothers) who killed him, one finds some of the details in this volume to be not so improbable. Griffin Dunne, Actor/Director "[Scotty Bowers] made his reputation by sleeping with everyone in Hollywood who wasn't actually Lassie, and now he tells all. Some might wonder if any of this (or all) could possibly be correct, but the well respected author, Gore Vidal, validates this information by admitting that "Scotty" does not lie.Bowers isn't dead (yet), but all but one of the people mentioned in the book are, so not like anyone featured is going to comment. In so doing he exposes Hollywood's double standards: showbusiness relied on gay people and gay actors to make huge fortunes and create masterpieces and yet t it completely covered up and cancelled any hint of homosexuality, bisexuality and difference, instead portraying and propmoting the homogenisation of love and lust.