Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood

As a vestige of faded “golden” Hollywood, after World War II ex-marine Georgie “Scotty” Bowers was known as the gentleman hustler who operated out of a Hollywood Boulevard gas station to coordinate secret sex partners for gay and bisexual affairs among the who’s who of Hollywood leading men. Some of their names would be shocking at the time when a mere mention in Confidential magazine could end a career. But from the ’40s through the ’70s, Scotty never told a soul until after those involved had died. As a fixer, Bowers provided accommodations for these liaisons in a house trailer behind the station, the station john and the motel across the street for ten years until he moved up in the ranks of Hollywood’s elite, frequenting parties and clubs as a bartender. Among his many exploits, the one with Ava Gardner and Lana Turner was almost made public by the gossip mags but Bowers refused to sign the release to collect a thousand dollars. His steady companion through the decades was Beach Dickerson, who appeared in Roger Corman’s Creature From the Haunted Sea and Attack of the Crab Monsters.  Years later, director Matt Tyrnauer tracked him down and traces his steps with his second wife, Lois, as the habitual hoarder Scotty sifts through storage containers and garages while recalling excerpts from his tell-all memoir, Full Service, as a guy whose ambition was to make people happy during the studio era.

[NR]