American Dream Machine is the story of two talent agents and their
three troubled boys, heirs to Hollywood royalty. It's a sweeping
narrative about fathers and sons, the movie business, and the sundry sea
changes that have shaped Hollywood and, by extension, American life.
Beau Rosenwald--overweight, not particularly handsome, and improbably
charismatic--arrives in Los Angeles in 1962 with nothing but an
ill-fitting suit and a pair of expensive brogues. By the late 1970s he
has helped found the most successful agency in Hollywood. Through the
eyes of his son, we watch Beau and his partner go to war, waging a
seismic battle that redraws the lines of an entire industry. We watch
Beau rise and fall and rise again, in accordance with the cultural
transformations that dictate the fickle world of movies. We watch Beau's
partner, the enigmatic and cerebral Williams Farquarsen, struggle to
contain himself, to control his impulses and consolidate his power. And
we watch two generations of men fumble and thrive across the LA
landscape, learning for themselves the shadows and costs exacted by
success and failure.
