spotlight


SCOTTY AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD A CONVERSATION WITH DIRECTOR


MATT TYRNAUER


by tim parks For decades, there were whispers about which actor or actress may have been on the


gay “down low” during the 1940s and 1950s. Such rumors were the fodder for gossip rags of the day likeConfidential Magazine. Much later of course, Rock Hudson’s untimely death from AIDS in 1985 opened that closet door…even if ever so slightly. In the documentary,Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, said closet door gets


completely blown open, shedding light on the shadows that once were a mainstay of not only Hollywood in its Golden Age, but for many gay men and women during the period. Scotty Bowers, who wrote the bookFull Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the


Secret Sex Lives of the Stars, on which the documentary playing at Outfest L.A. is based upon, is something of a Hollywood legend for his time basically as “a pimp to the stars.” Plying his trade based out of a gas station on Hollywood Boulevard, beginning after World War II in which he fought as a Marine. While working as an attendant there, Bowers set up same sex dates for such Hollywood luminaries as director George Cukor, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Cary Grant and Rock Hudson, to name but a few. Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood is a fascinating look at how one man served as


an advocate of sorts to those on the fringe—creating a sort of a secret society that helped them to mask their true proclivities and yet helping them to be themselves—albeit in the short term. Something else the documentary does, is to serve as a reminder of how far we in the LGBTQ community have come. Especially in terms of homosexuality having been labeled a mental disorder and regarding how the police regularly raided gay bars to harass and in order to make their quota for the night. The Rage Monthly spoke with director Matt Tyrnauer on how he became familiar


with Bowers’ story, the reasons why he chose not to focus solely on the scandalous elements, and why this is a timely tale for all members of the LGBTQ community. Tyrnauer, who previously directedValentino: The Last EmperorandCitizen Jane: Battle


for the City, said that he had heard rumblings about Bowers for years, as he explained. “I had heard the legend of Scotty over the course of writing features forVanity Fair magazine. On occasion, I would write long tales of Hollywood, seen through the eyes of major figures who had reached maturity in their careers,” he said. “Among them was a profile on Merv Griffin and he was the first one to tell me about Scotty. He said there was a gas station on Hollywood Boulevard and that people would go there to, in his words, ‘get into trouble.’”


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RAGE monthly | JULY 2018


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