‘Scotty’ a glimpse into secret world of gay Hollywood
In the entertaining, enlightening and, at times, sordid “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood,” the covers, so to speak, are ripped off the lives of Hollywood stars, some known to be gay, some carefully and officially closeted for decades, who used a World War II veteran and exMarineturnedHollywoodgasstationworker named Scotty Bowers, whose career spanned the 1940s’80s, as their pimp.
It was the late Walter Pidgeon (“Forbidden Planet”) who got the — ahem — ball rolling by flirting with Scotty and finding out that homosexual sex was fine with Scotty and his male friends, some of them recruited from
the ranks of his fellow exMarines and not actually gay. (“It’s 20 bucks!”)
Directed by Matt Tyrnauer (“Valentino: The Last Emperor”), “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood” is based on Bowers’ jauntily titled memoir “Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars” and has met with objections from fans of some stars. The film contends Spencer Tracy liked getting drunk and having sex with men, and that Katharine Hepburn never had sex with men — that the legendary TracyHepburn romance was one of Hollywood’s greatest public relations fabrications.
Eyeopening does not begin to describe “Scotty.”
Today, Scotty is a hoarder who was left several homes crammed with stuff in the Hollywood Hills by an exlover. Scotty is seen winding a grandfather clock in one of the dwellings in opening scenes, a stillboyishlooking nonagenarian, and later being feted with a cake in the shape of the male sexual organ. Scotty is currently married to chanteuse Lois Bowers, who hides her head in chagrin whenever Scotty talks about his gay adven tures. Scotty even claims to have had a threeway with Ava Gardner and Lana Turner in a Palm Springs swimming pool.
“Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood” gives us the lowdown on stars and filmmakers we already knew were gay — Rock Hudson, Gore Vidal, George Cukor, Cecil Beaton, Charles Laughton — and some not so well known — Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, the aforementioned Tracy and Hepburn.
Tyrnauer combines interviews with Scotty and such people as the actor Stephen Fry, film executive and historian Peter Bart and William Mann, author of the extraordinary 2001 history “Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 19101969,” with archival footage and swing music. In this age of #MeToo, it’s fascinating to note that being an openly gay movie star is still seen as virtually impossible.
Some “squares,” as Scotty calls them, may be put off by the vintage gay porn Tyrnauer occasionally cuts to or Scotty’s assertion that it was perfectly all right for an adult neighbor and local priests to abuse him sexually as a child. But if you’re a nut for Hollywood gossip and history, you don’t want to miss “Scotty.”
(“Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood” contains profanity, lewd language and graphic sex.)