The Golden Hour
A Story of Family and Power in Hollywood
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- $329.00
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- $329.00
Descripción editorial
Named a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews
Named a Notable Book of 2025 by the Washington Post
A personal and cultural exploration of the struggles between art and business at the heart of modern Hollywood, through the eyes of the talent that shaped it
Matthew Specktor grew up in the film industry: the son of legendary CAA superagent Fred Specktor, his childhood was one where Beau Bridges came over for dinner, Martin Sheen’s daughter was his close friend, and Marlon Brando left long messages on the family answering machine. He would eventually spend time working in Hollywood himself, first as a reluctant studio executive and later as a screenwriter.
Now, with The Golden Hour, Specktor blends memoir, cultural criticism, and narrative history to tell the story of the modern motion picture industry—illuminating the conflict between art and business that has played out over the last seventy-five years in Hollywood. Braiding his own story with that of his father, mother (a talented screenwriter whose career was cut short), and figures ranging from Jack Nicholson to CAA’s Michael Ovitz, Specktor reveals how Hollywood became a laboratory for the eternal struggle between art, labor, and capital.
Beginning with the rise of Music Corporation of America in the 1950s, The Golden Hour lays out a series of clashes between fathers and sons, talent agents and studio heads, artists, activists, unions, and corporations. With vivid prose and immersive scenes, Specktor shows how Hollywood grew from the epicenter of American cultural life to a full-fledged multinational concern—and what this shift has meant for the nation’s place in the world. At once a book about the movie business and an intimate family drama, The Golden Hour is a sweeping portrait of the American Century.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this affecting memoir, novelist and screenwriter Specktor (Always Crashing in the Same Car) reflects on the glamour and grit of growing up in the film industry, and offers a tender elegy for mid-century Hollywood. The son of CAA talent agent Fred Specktor, the author describes an L.A. childhood straight out of the movies: he bumped into Jack Nicholson at the deli, was playfully mooned by Bruce Dern, and played back melodramatic, rehearsed messages from Marlon Brando on the family answering machine. From the beginning, though, there was a seedy side: Specktor started doing drugs when he was 10, he regularly witnessed professional backstabbing, and he was often left in the care of his bitter alcoholic mother. Meanwhile, his father's priorities always returned to "what all capitalists want: more." Specktor enriches his family portrait with a meticulous history of Hollywood and sharp musings on the film industry's uneasy mix of art and commerce. The movies, he observes, were once "America's dream of itself," but the increased focus on profits and global dominance have sent that dream "winding toward its unfortunate conclusion." Film buffs will relish this potent blend of personal history and cultural critique.
