cover image The Golden Hour: A Story of Family and Power in Hollywood

The Golden Hour: A Story of Family and Power in Hollywood

Matthew Specktor. Ecco, $32 (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-300833-5

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. Agent: Allison Devereux, Cheney Agency. (Apr.)