In the new documentary Stty and the Secret History of Hollywood, former V.F. edor Matt Tyrner sh a light on the sexual fixer who tered to secretly gay Goln Age stars
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NETFLIX’S HOLLYWOOD: THE TE STORY OF STTY BOWERS, REAL-LIFE L.A. PIMPRYAN MURPHY’S NEW NETFLIX SERI IS SET LARGELY AT A GAS STATN BASED ON THE REAL-LIFE ONE N BY HOLLYWOOD PIMP STTY BOWERS.BY JULIE MILLERAPRIL 30, 2020STTY BOWERS AT THE ABBEY WT HOLLYWOOD ON JULY 25, 2018.BY TASIA WELLS/GETTY IMAG.SAVE THIS STORYSAVESAVE THIS STORYSAVETWO YEARS AGO, STTY BOWERS—THE LOS ANGEL HTLER WHO CLAIMED TO HAVE HOOKED OLD HOLLYWOOD’S BIGGT STARS UP WH WILLG SEXUAL PARTNERS, GAY AND STRAIGHT—WAS THE SUBJECT OF A FASCATG DOCUMENTARY, STTY AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD. IN , THE WORLD WAR II VETERAN TURNED PIMP DISHED ON THE ALLEGED SECRET SEX LIV OF KATHARE HEPBURN, SPENCER TRACY, CARY GRANT, ROCK HUDSON, CHARL LGHTON, RAYMOND BURR, VCENT PRICE, COLE PORTER, AND VIVIEN LEIGH, AS WELL AS THE LEGENDARY GAS STATN—ON THE RNER OF NORTH VAN NS AVENUE AND HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD—WHERE HE AND HIS LIBERATED IENDS, MALE AND FEMALE, SERVICED MANY OF THEIR A-LIST CLIENTELE. RYAN MURPHY’S LATT NETFLIX SERI, HOLLYWOOD, A FICTNALIZED HOMAGE TO 1940S HOLLYWOOD, PAYS TRIBUTE TO BOWERS BY FEATURG S OWN GAS STATN AND CHARISMATIC PIMP (ERNIE, PLAYED BY DYLAN MCDERMOTT).THE REAL-LIFE BOWERS CLAIMED HE WAS WORKG AS A GAS STATN ATTENDANT AT AGE 23, SHORTLY AFTER THE WAR, WHEN ACTOR WALTER PIDGEON PULLED UP AND ASKED BOWERS TO HOP TO HIS R. IN HIS MEMOIR, FULL SERVICE: MY ADVENTUR HOLLYWOOD AND THE SECRET SEX LIV OF THE STARS, BOWERS RATNALIZED THAT HOOKG UP WH CELEBRI FOR $20 WAS EASY, LUCRATIVE WORK. AS PIDGEON SPREAD WORD ABOUT HIS REPUTATN, BOWERS SAID, THE PIMP EXPAND HIS OPERATN—SETTG UP TWO KG BEDS A PARKED TRAILER AND ENLISTG GOOD-LOOKG MEN AND WOMEN TO HELP HIS SECRETIVE E. AMONG BOWERS’S RACIT CLAIMS: THAT HE TRODUCED KATHARE HEPBURN TO 150 WOMEN OVER SEVERAL S; THAT HE SET UP CARY GRANT WH AN EARLY-REER ROCK HUDSON; AND THAT HE PROCURED SEXUAL PARTNERS FOR WALLIS SIMPSON AND EDWARD VIII. BOWERS ALSO SAID HE SLEPT WH BOTH SPENCER TRACY AND VIVIEN LEIGH; HAD A THREE-WAY WH AVA GARDNER AND LANA TURNER; HAD A THREOME WH CARY GRANT AND HIS ALLEGED LOVER, RANDOLPH STT; AND CLAIMED THAT HIS SEX LIFE WAS SO UNHIBED THAT SURPRISED EVEN SEXOLOGIST ALED KSEY.IN HIS 2012 MEMOIR, WRTEN WH LNEL FRIEDBERG, BOWERS WROTE, “I WAS SETTG UP AN AVERAGE OF 15-20 TRICKS A DAY. THIS WAS A 24/7 OPERATN, EXTENDG OVER A PERD OF, SAY, 30 TO 40 YEARS. AS FOR TRICKS THAT I PERFORMED PERSONALLY, I WAS OFTEN SEEG TWO OR THREE PEOPLE A DAY.”PRR TO HIS MEMOIR, BOWERS WAS FASTIDLY DISCREET. HE NEVER KEPT A BLACK BOOK OF CLIENT NAM, REFG TO SPEAK ABOUT HIS FAMO CLIENTS UNTIL AFTER THEY DIED. HOMOSEXUALY WAS NOT LEGALIZED CALIFORNIA UNTIL THE 1970S; BOWERS’S OPERATN ALLEGEDLY HELPED UNTLS MEN AND WOMEN DULGE SEXUALLY WHOUT ENDANGERG THEIR REERS, REPUTATNS, OR, SOME S, MARRIAG.“THERE ALWAYS WILL BE SECRET LIFE HAPPENG,” BOWERS TOLD THE GUARDIAN 2018. “PEOPLE SHOULD DO WHAT PLEAS THEM AND THE OTHER PERSON—SOME PEOPLE JT PLEASE MORE THAN A FEW.”IN AN TERVIEW WH VANY FAIR, DYLAN MCDERMOTT SAID THAT HIS CHARACTER WAS CERTALY SPIRED BY BOWERS—BUT ALSO BY CLARK GABLE’S CHARACTER THE 1961 FILM THE MISFS. “I HAVE A POSTER OF THE MISFS STG MY BATHROOM AND LOOK AT EVERY DAY,” MCDERMOTT SAID, CG GABLE’S MTACHED AGG PLAYBOY AS A “ME” FOR ERNIE. “THERE WAS A CERTA QUALY HIM I WANTED. HIS HAIR, HIS MTACHE, THE WAY HE RRIED HIMSELF, AND HIS OPTIMISM, IF YOU WILL. IF STTY BOWERS AND CLARK GABLE HAD A LOVE CHILD, WOULD BE ERNIE.”DYLAN MCDERMOTT (LEFT) HOLLYWOOD MOLED THE CHARACTER'S LOOK AFTER CLARK GABLE'S THE MISFS (SET).LEFT, URTY OF NETFLIX; RIGHT, OM THE EVERETT COLLECTN.MCDERMOTT SAID THAT HE LOVED THE NTRADICTNS OF HIS CHARACTER. SURE, ERNIE IS A PIMP—BUT HE’S ALSO A SEXUALLY LIBERATED AND TOLERANT GUY WHO TAK RE OF HIS WORKERS AND FACILAT SATISFYG SEX FOR HIS CLIENTS A REPRSED ERA. “YOU’RE EXPECTG ERNIE TO EXPLO THE GUYS…BUT THE GREAT TWIST ON THE CHARACTER IS THAT HE’S NOT EXPLOG THEM. HE ACTUALLY LOV THE GUYS AND TAK RE OF THEM,” THE ACTOR POTED OUT.DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER MATT TYRNER—WHO IS ALSO A FORMER VANY FAIR WRER AND EDOR—HAS SCRIBED BOWERS G SIAR TERMS. AFTER SPEAKG TO SOME OF THE MEN WHO WORKED FOR BOWERS, TYRNER TOLD BUZZFEED THAT THEY SEEMED TO BE “HAPPY HOOKERS.… IT SEEMED TO BE VERY OL WH EVERYBODY WHO I TALKED TO.… THIS SEEMED TO BE HIGHLY NSENSUAL. AND NO ONE SEEMED TO HAVE A PROBLEM, WHETHER THEY WERE GAY, STRAIGHT, OR OTHERWISE, WH WHAT STTY WAS ASKG.”SPEAKG TO VANY FAIR EARLIER THIS YEAR, MURPHY SAID HE ED THE GAS STATN AS THE BACKDROP OF HIS SERI BEE HE WAS FASCATED BY THE FACT THAT “THERE WAS A MOMENT WHERE PEOPLE HAD TO GO TO THIS GAS STATN TO BE THEMSELV, TO BE ABLE TO EXPRS THEIR SEXUALY, TO BE ABLE TO EXPRS THEIR FANTASY.” AND THAT’S APPARENTLY JT WHAT BOWERS TEND. IN A 2012 TERVIEW, THE HTLER SAID THAT HE NEVER JUDGED HIS CLIENTELE. “SO THEY LIKED SEX HOW THEY LIKED ,” HE TOLD THE NEW YORK TIM. “WHO R?”MORE GREAT STORI FROM VANY FAIR— BEHOLD DUNE: AN EXCLIVE LOOK AT TIMOTHéE CHALAMET, ZENDAYA, OSR ISAAC, AND MORE— HOW TO WATCH EVERY MARVEL MOVIE ORR— DAVID SIMON ON THE WIRE AND HIS EQUALLY PISSED-OFF NEW SHOW, THE PLOT AGAST AMERI— BEYOND TIGER KG: 8 TE-CRIME DOCUMENTARI THAT SPARKED A SEND LOOK FROM THE LAW— DOWNTON ABBEY’S JULIAN FELLOW ON HIS NEW SERI AND THE BETY OF A SCHEMG WOMAN— ALL THE NEW 2020 MOVI STREAMG EARLY BEE OF CORONAVIS— FROM THE ARCHIVE: THE NOTOR RIVALRY OF HEDDA HOPPER AND LOUELLA PARSONS, HOLLYWOOD’S DUELG GOSSIP COLUMNISTSLOOKG FOR MORE? SIGN UP FOR OUR DAILY HOLLYWOOD NEWSLETTER AND NEVER MISS A STORY.MOST POPULAROUR FLAG MEANS DEATH SEASON 2: EXCLIVE FIRST LOOKBY SARAH CATHERALLNEW ON NETFLIX: SEPTEMBER 2023'S BT NEW MOVI & SHOWSBY CHRIS MURPHYFLORENCE PUGH SAYS CHRISTOPHER NOLAN “APOLOGIZED” FOR HER SMALL OPPENHEIMER ROLEBY SAVANNAH WALSHJULIE MILLER
Picture a 1940s gas statn that doubl as a pickup spot, plete wh clanste hetero and homosexual enunters, a trailer out back for secret renz-vo, and young, strappg men offerg their “servic” for $20 apiece. Well, not if you’ve heard of Stty the Goln Age of Hollywood, Bowers, an Illois native, arranged sexual assignatns (both gay and straight) for some of the world’s biggt stars. In the years followg World War II, was a crime to be gay.
Hollywood, once an epicenter of sexual eedom, participated “straightwashg, ” or erasg gay sir and narrativ om s history and prent. This forced gay men and women, pecially those the public eye, unrground and th brought about Stty Bowers.
He garnered even more notoriety due to his iendship wh director Gee Cor, also featured Hollywood for his famed parti, rampant wh gay affairs. Two years ago, Stty Bowers—the Los Angel htler who claimed to have hooked Old Hollywood’s biggt stars up wh willg sexual partners, gay and straight—was the subject of a fascatg documentary, Stty and the Secret History of Hollywood.