First published 2012
Scotty Bowers returns from World War II and lands in Hollywood in 1946. The former Marine possesses youth, charm, and striking good looks that immediately attract the film capital's biggest names. Bowers starts intimate relationships with stars while simultaneously organizing sexual encounters for others through his network of attractive, liberated friends. His personal conquests include French chanteuse Edith Piaf, actors Spencer Tracy and Vivien Leigh, Cary Grant, and even former King Edward VIII. Meanwhile, he arranges liaisons or encounters numerous other celebrities including Tennessee Williams, Charles Laughton, Vincent Price, Katharine Hepburn, Rita Hayworth, Errol Flynn, Gloria Swanson, Noel Coward, Mae West, James Dean, Rock Hudson, and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Bowers operates within Hollywood's hidden sexual ecosystem while the major studios publicly promote an image of wholesome, conventional America. The story reveals the stark contradiction between the industry's manufactured moral facade and the reality of its stars' private lives.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, adult-fiction, biography-memoir
Vibes: intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family
Setting: Hollywood
Period: 1946, World War II
288 pages · Hardcover · Grove Press
Content warnings: explicit-sexual-content, sexual-content