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The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson
The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson
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Book Presentation:
Henry Willson was one of the quintessential power brokers in Hollywood during the late 1940s and 1950s when he launched the careers of Rock Hudson, Lana Turner, Tab Hunter, Natalie Wood, and many others. He was also a true casting couch agent, brokering sex for opportunity on the silver screen. While this practice was rampant across Hollywood, for gay actors and film professionals the casting couch was a dangerous cliff: a public revelation could and would ruin a career. The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson is an incredible biography as well as a harrowing look into Hollywood at a time of great sexual oppression, roaming vice squads searching for gay and/or communist activity, and the impossibilities for gay actors of the era.
About the Author:
Robert Hofler survived a forty-year career in journalism, working as an editor at Life, Us, and Variety, among many other publications. He is now the theater critic for The Wrap and lives in New York City. Hofler is also author of the books Sexplosion: From Andy Warhol to “A Clockwork Orange”—How a Generation of Pop Rebels Broke All the Taboos, Variety’s “The Movie That Changed My Life,” and Party Animals: A Hollywood Tale of Sex, Drugs, and Rock ’n’ Roll Starring the Fabulous Allan Carr.
Press Reviews:
"Those who think Hollywood’s current predatory political scene and celebrity partner-swapping activities are new phenomena would be wise to dive into this tell-all tale of Henry Willson, an agent who became a major star maker to actors like Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter, and Troy Donahue in the 1950s."
—Publishers Weekly
"A trove of enticing gossip and little-known facts . . . Hofler chronicles Willson’s life of privilege. He roams through the origins of his paradoxical right-wing attitudes, early intrigues to obtain sexual power, conspiracies hatched in glamorous fabled nightclubs, the Trocadero, the Macombo. He describes nasty sexual antics among powerful studio heads."
—Los Angeles Times
"The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson is a gritty, often coarse but well-researched biography of a tough Hollywood power broker famous for his ‘Adonis factory.’"
—Salon.com
"Hofler, a Variety editor and reporter, is well matched to this shark-tank of a life." —Washington Post
See the publisher website: University of Minnesota Press
See the complete filmography of Rock Hudson on the website: IMDB ...
> From the same author:
The Way They Were (2025)
How Epic Battles and Bruised Egos Brought a Classic Hollywood Love Story to the Screen
Subject: One Film > The Way We Were
> On a related topic:
The Golden Girls of Mgm (2003)
Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, and Others
by Jane Wayne
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