Discuss Scotty Bowers
Discuss → People → Scotty Bowers → General
RIP (1923-2019). Reportedly was Old Hollywood's sexual matchmaker.
posted by genplant29STAFFMOD on October 15, 2019 at 12:23 AM
Scotty Bowers, 96, has passed. I had never heard of him, prior to reading his obituary.
Here's his Variety obituary.
From it:
Scotty Bowers, [was] a “sexual matchmaker” for dozens of stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood....//....[He was] a helpful procurer for everyone, he claimed, from Rock Hudson, Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis and Elsa Lanchester to Cary Grant, Randolph Scott, Spencer Tracy and Charles Laughton. // The actors and filmmakers, who were often bound by morality clauses in their studio contracts, turned to Bowers to arrange meetings, sometimes with same-sex partners who they would not have been able to date in public. //...Bowers moved to Los Angeles after his service in the Marines, and got a job at a gas station at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue, where a chance meeting and sexual encounter with actor Walter Pidgeon helped make his name as the person to turn to for confidential hook-ups. He began by matching up military buddies with customers on the premises and graduated to sending friends on private liaisons with high-profile Hollywood personalities, but claimed never to have taken payment for such introductions. // Among his colorful stories, as Variety‘s review of “Scotty and the Secret History” recalls: “Back in those days, people knew that Cary Grant and Randolph Scott were lovers; Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy’s tabloid love affair was a smoke screen for their homosexual pursuits (“I fixed her up with every bit of 150 girls” over 39 years, he wagers); he shtupped Bette Davis, Vivien Leigh, Lana Turner and Ava Gardner (together!), and J. Edgar Hoover (“He was in drag”); he even describes frolicking with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor at the Beverly Hills Hotel, thanks to a referral from Cecil Beaton.” //....(M)ost of his stories were unverifiable or likely embellished over the years. // Bowers...[stated] that it was time to hang up his matchmaking shingle when the AIDS crisis hit....
There's much more about him in his Wikipedia article. According to it, many people who knew Scotty Bowers have stated that his claims are true.
Reply by Forty-1212
on November 19, 2019 at 9:42 PM
Hard to grasp what's the hardest part of that story to figure.
Whether anyone wanted to get that close to B Davis, K Hepburn, and E Lanchester or
Whether anyone dared to get that close to S Tracy, C Laughton, and J Edgar Hoover or
How L Turner could have ever had time for multiples or
How B Davis could get invites like that or
Whether the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were two women or two men.
Go figure.
Reply by genplant29
on November 20, 2019 at 9:19 AM
When I read Scotty Bowers' Variety obituary, I initially had a "yeah, right" opinion of the claims, like it sounded far more likely to simply be a bunch of intriguing juicy legend than actual fact. Then, however, upon also reading Wikipedia's Bowers article, that names various credible seeming individuals who knew Bowers, and who maintain he was always truthful and "the real deal", the impression became conveyed that the stories do have considerable likelihood to be true regarding things purported about his involvement with arranging liaisons for Old Hollywood.
Of course, whatever was the actual case, there's no doubt that also a solid dose of imaginative "legend" has found its way into the tales that have been passed down throughout the decades.
Following are some testimonials type excerpts from the Wikipedia Scotty Bowers article: