by Robert Hofler
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Product Description
Henry Willson started off as a talent scout under powerhouse mogul David O. Selznick, for whom Willson procured women. The starmaker-to-be was therefore on the lookout for promising newcomers—as actors, lovers and sometimes both—when he received an unsolicited photograph from a movie star hopeful named Roy Scherer. Unbeknownst to Willson, the photograph of the handsome young man with bad teeth would have not only a career-defining impact for himself but, more importantly, redefine Hollywood's concept of the male heartthrob. Roy Scherer became Rock Hudson and for the next twenty-five years Henry Wilson became the man behind movie "beefcake." The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson delves into Willson's life in explicit, unsparing detail. Variety reporter Robert Hofler deftly chronicles Willson's maneuvers to sidestep the FBI's investigation into Hudson's sex life; the starmaker's use of off-duty L.A.P.D. cops and Mob ties to scare off Hudson's blackmailers; Hudson's "arranged" marriage to Willson's secretary, Phyllis Gates; as well as Hudson's affair with a Universal Pictures vice-president to help secure starring roles in Magnificent Obsession and Giant. Additionally, the book digs into Willson's other star clients, including Robert Wagner, Troy Donahue, Tab Hunter, and John Derek.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 The Man The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson , 2008-03-14
The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson.
By Robert Hofler
Paperback: 480 pages
Publisher: Carroll & Graf; Reprint edition (August 22, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-0786718023
Robert Hofler's book is not about Rock Hudson. It's not about Troy Donahue, Alain Delon, or Rory Calhoun although these and many other Hollywood stars (mostly male) feature heavily in the four hundred and twenty pages of "The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson".
The story recounts the career of one of Hollywood's most successful film agents--Henry Willson--and it's not pretty at all.
Willson, while he lived, was a man of simple contradictions. Born on the East Coast of the US, he was socially an ultraconservative, politically a Republican and as gay as a holiday table. If one defines a pederast as a person who prefers sex with those between the ages of seventeen and nineteen then Henry is your man. Willson hated effeminate men, often ridiculing them openly and loudly in the swank restaurants and clubs that make up so much of Hollywood legend, yet he loved young boys and he made them famous. If any loved him in return none admitted it. He made them wealthy and immortal in films. They left him old, penniless and forgotten in a charity home.
Artful seduction of naive ambition, career blackmail, and bodily assault all play a part in Willson's wheeling and dealing in the Hollywood of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.
On reading "The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson", I felt I was sitting in an easy chair while an old friend confided secrets long forgotten. Of course none of Robert Hofler's stories about the young and famous men of Willson's casting couch were secret--even when they occurred.
Hofler's writing is witty and I love that, but I confess that I found his cutting from an event, say, in 1960, to another in 1940, eye stopping.
For those who love to read about the movie stars of yesteryear, this book is right up your alley. If however, you are looking for details on the sexual exploits of The Rock, save your money.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 WHAT A BOOK........SO MUCH DIRT TO FIT IN 1 BOOK !!!, 2007-09-06
THIS BOOK REALLY SURPRISED ME.THOUGHT IT WAS ABOUT ROCK, BUT THE OTHER STARS THAT ARE IN HERE WAS A COMPLETE SURPRISE.
COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN........A LITTLE REPETITIVE AT TIMES- BUT WILLSON'S LIFE IN HOLLYWOOD IS A RARE ONE OF A KIND LOOK AT WHAT STRAIGHT MEN WILL DO FOR A SCREEN TEST
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Between Light and Shadows: "The Rise and Fall of Legendary Hollywood agent, Henry Willson, 2007-08-31
Robert Hofler's "The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson" is a magnificently- written and searingly honest biography of actor's agent, Henry Willson.
Mr. Willson, a Hollywood reporter turned agent during the golden age of Hollywood (when the so-called "Dream Factory" was literally in full swing) emerges as a larger than life tragic and sympathetic figure.
Described as a homely homosexual man, with an expertly trained eye for spotting male beauty, he more than compensated for his paucity of good looks by elevating himself, by sheer will and talent alone, into one of the most powerful and influential starmakers in the motion picture industry.
Thought of by many as being a predator who sexually preyed upon innocent, naive, and unsuspecting young men - the opposite, actually, was quite true in retrospect.
While they might well have been naive in the ways of Hollywood, itself, these young men were certainly all well-enough versed in the ways of life to know exactly what it was they really wanted, and what they would be willing enough to submit to in order to achieve it. Nobody twisted their arm. Nobody forced them into doing anything that they, themselves, didn't voluntarily consent to do in the first place.
The question then arises - if Mr. Willson stands guilty of unfairly taking advantage of all the young men that he so carefully nurtured and fashioned into celebrities - why would he so strongly have felt the compelling need to always travel that extra proverbial mile in their behalf, fighting tenaciously, with every fiber of his being, to secure for them the very best of everything in their career and personal lives.
After he had used his very own money, invaluable amounts of time, and unique salesmanship skills in turning them into the successful commodity that they eventually became - they then proceeded to drop him like a hot potato when they no longer had any need for him. When the veritable truth of all these realizations come together, a disturbing, yet vitally important, thought is left to ponder. Who, indeed, appears to have been the most severely emotionally damaged victim (or victims) here? The stable of "pretty boys" he had groomed for stardom? Or the desperately lonely man who, in a futile effort to belong, spent a lifetime trying to fit in by surrounding himself with beautiful people. It was almost as if constantly being in their presence, managing their careers, and sometimes even their personal lives, compensated, somewhat, for the good looks he had been denied, and had the intoxicating power to elevate and place him on an equal playing field with all of them. As hard as he tried, never truly did he ever belong. He was an outsider who always remained on the outside. A physically unacceptable outcast in a self-contained world of superficial beauty, with only looking-in privileges. Yet, his is the character of main focus here, and the driving force that literally propels this mesmerizing biography and sends it crashing clear through the roof.
Most of the so-called "stars" who appear in this biography emerge as rather vain, shallow, unfeeling people who can only be momentarily true to those who give them exactly what they think they need at the very moment that they think they need it. At least, Mr. Willson had feelings enough to show his deep hurt and devastation each time one of his boys (clients) dropped him and went on to someone else who they thought could do more for them. (As most of them later found out - changing wasn't always the better route - and their careers suffered bitterly because of it.)
That Henry Willson suffered immeasurably because of these betrayals, goes without saying. That he died alone and penniless, goes without saying. That he was the better human-being, definitely goes without saying.
With master strokes of an artist's brush, Mr. Hofler has vividly painted the unique and unforgettable portrait of a flawed, but generously big- hearted man, who, at one time in motion picture history, cast a giant shadow across the make-believe landscape of Hollywood. A fairytale state of mind where much heartbreak, sadness, and the unsightly debris of wrecked and shattered lives, that can never be resurrected, are to be found haplessly scattered along the confection-laced, but treacherously dangerous, highway that runs directly through the very center of its heart and soul.
Robert Hofler's "The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson", is a stunning, skillful, and insightful biography that stands as one of the finest ever written. For a fascinating, in-depth, behind the scenes look at the shady workings and double-dealings of an unscrupulous Hollywood in the days of its early beginnings, this biography is a definite must read.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Highly recommended, 2007-03-26
The book is so entertaining! I was sad when I finished reading it. Henry Willson might've done a few dirty deals in Hollywood, but the story reveals he was hardly any worse than many others in that era of Hollywood.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
 Chronicling a Genius with a Unique Talent, 2007-03-06
Henry Willson came to Hollywood from the East Coast and became a part of a group called the Puppets, which consisted of young people seeking to become involved in the ever burgeoning field of talking movies.
Willson had sound instincts when it came to identifying with current tastes. He began as a stringer writing freelance columns about the New York stage while an undergraduate at Wesleyan College in Connecticut. With the Depression making stirring inroads he saw that Broadway was fading while public demand increased to see films.
Soon Willson moved into the agency field, discovering Lana Turner and Rhonda Fleming, but it was in the field of discovering young male talent where his fame and unique impact on the industry would be achieved. Discovering handsome male faces that brought audiences into the theaters and prompted young females to swoon was more than just a business to Willson. It was a labor of love borne of his strong attraction to them as a homosexual man.
He knew that caution needed to be employed in propelling to stardom's number one popularity position among actors a former truck driver from Winnetka, Illinois who gained international fame as Rock Hudson. Willson, a well bred man from a wealthy family whose father had been a leading executive at Columbia Records, assumed the role of surrogate father for Hudson as well as other stars of the Willson stable such as Rory Calhoun, Tab Hunter and Troy Donahue.
In addition to working hard to cultivate relations with those in the industry in positions to propel his clients toward stardom, the flamboyant and highly witty Willson played as hard as he worked, enjoying a good time and sex with many of the handsome men whose destinies he guided.
Since so much of promoting the young performers involved meeting people, Willson took them to local spots such as the famous nightclubs Ciro's and Mocambo as well as dining and drinking establishments such as Cock and Bull, Villa Frascati, Scandia and, at the end of his career, Panza's Lazy Susan, run by an acting client, and where he socialized with the likes of mobster Mickey Cohen.
Willson's excesses, particularly when it came to drinking, ultimately led to his demise, along with a changing studio structure. Within the wildly party atmosphere of Hollywood, along with the concurrent atmosphere of career tension, the Willson propensity for alcoholic consumption and drugs combined with voracious sex were traits he held in common with protégés Hudson and Donahue.
This is a work that captures the cinema capital in the same close-up fashion that Otto Friedrich's "City of Nets" with its focus on forties' Hollywood also did.
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