Culled from Scott Bowers’ infamous memoir Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Life of The Stars as well other equally brilliant (and juicy) books about the celluloid closet.
Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins is best known for playing Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, and he was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in Friendly Persuasion.
Perkins was intense, sensitive, and complex, according to Scotty Bowers in Full Service. He was married with two kids but also gay. His longest gay relationship was with actor Tab Hunter, but he saw many men.
Bowers writes that Perkins always wanted someone different. Bowers writes, "He always wanted someone different. 'Who've you got who's different, Scott?' 'Who do you have for me for tomorrow night that will surprise me? Anything really new?"
“Of course, he was carrying on with Tab Hunter for a long time, we were told on good authority,” artist Don Bachardy told author Charles Winecoff in Split Image: The Life of Anthony Perkins. Only in mixed gatherings, such as a party at acting teacher Elaine Aiken’s, would Perkins allow himself to be seen with Hunter.
They would go on movie dates but buy tickets separately and sit apart. The Vista Theater, near the predominately gay neighborhood of Silver Lake, attracted a primarily male audience, and Perkins felt comfortable sitting with Hunter there.
“Tab was a known homosexual at the time,” camera operator Leonard Smith remembers. “I don’t think Tony was, he kept to himself. But he used to have Tab come on the set two or three times a week, and they’d have lunch or something. The crew made a lot of jokes about it; they were cruel. Of course, Tony was upset. He’d go off to his dressing room, and answer them in a way that said he didn’t want any more of it. If guys made cracks, he’d get upset and just walk away from them.”
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Katharine Hepburn
Katherine Hepburn, most known for her Academy Award-winning performances in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter, and On Golden Pond, knew that socialite and pimp Scotty Bowers set actors up to have sex with anyone they wanted. In Bowers' Full Service, he recalls that Hepburn said, "I know about your reputation, Scotty. When you get a chance, do you think you can find a nice young dark-haired girl for me? Someone that's not too heavily made-up."
Over the next 50 years, Bowers became very close friends with Hepburn. He said, "In the course of time, I would fix her up with over 150 different women. Most of them she would only see once or twice, and then tire of them."
Bowers said there was one exception. Bowers set Hepburn up with a 17-year-old trick named Barbara. Shortly after they started seeing each other, Hepburn bought her a brand-new two-toned Ford Fairlane as a gift. Hepburn saw Barbara on and off for 49 years. Three months before Hepburn passed away in June 2003, Barbara, who had married no less than three times during that period, received a letter from Hepburn's attorneys. With the letter was a check for $100,000.
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Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won two for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. He made nine movies with Katharine Hepburn, and studios concocted a phony romance between the actors that was so well-managed the public accepted it without question. Tracy and Hepburn were always given trailers, dressing rooms, and hotel suites next to each other to keep the myth alive.
In Full Service, Scotty Bowers recalls how Tracy called him to come look at his hot-water cylinder in his house. As Bowers fixed the hot-water heater, Tracy drank an entire bottle of Scotch. Bowers offered to cook for him and Tracy opened another bottle of Scotch. Then, Tracy came on to Bowers.
Bowers writes, "He began to undress and begged me not to leave him. I did not have the heart to say no." Bowers got undressed and climbed into bed with Tracy, who was so drunk and difficult to understand. Bowers tried to calm him down, but Bowers said Tracy "lay his head down at my groin, took hold of my penis and began nibbling on my foreskin."
A few hours later, Bowers woke up to the sound of Tracy stumbling around the bedroom trying to find the bathroom door to pee. Bowers said, "He fumbled for the light switch but couldn't find it, so he just let loose. One moment he was urinating up against the drapes, the next into an open closet, then all over the carpet. Finally he fell back into bed and immediately lapsed into a deep sleep, snoring like an express train."
Bowers continued to have sex with Tracy, which always included Tracy drinking himself into a stupor. Bowers said, "The great Spencer Tracy was another bisexual man, a fact totally concealed by the studio publicity department. That is, if they ever knew about it at all."
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George Cukor
George Cukor was a legend in the movie industry. He had directed Camille, starring Greta Garbo, along with classics like Romeo and Juliet and The Philadelphia Story.
Cukor had sex with Scotty Bowers, author of Full Service. In their first encounter, Bowers writes that Cukor "moved over to me, began to fondle my balls, then rapidly stroked me to a full erection. In no time at all he started to suck on my erect penis. He was so good at what he was doing that before I knew it I was dizzy with ecstasy and simply lay back until I experienced an absolutely exquisite orgasm." Then, Cukor quickly showered, asked Bowers to shower, and insisted on paying Bowers. Bowers realized that he always has blunt sexual encounters like this.
"There was never any foreplay or necking. There was no preamble, nor was there ever any form of penetration. Anal sex was out of the question. To put it crudely, just like my friend, Cole Porter, George just wanted to suck dick. And he would do it with a quick, cold efficiency."
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