An astonishing—and astonishingly entertaining—behind-the-curtain history of Hollywood’s transformation over the past five decades as seen through the agency at the heart of it all, from the #1 bestselling co-author of Live from New York and Those Guys Have All the Fun.
In 1975, five young employees of a sclerotic William Morris agency left to start their own, strikingly innovative talent agency. In the years to come, Creative Artists Agency would vault from its origins in a tiny office on the last block of Beverly Hills to become the largest, most imperial, groundbreaking, and star-studded agency Hollywood has ever seen—a company whose tentacles now spread throughout the world of movies, music, television, technology, advertising, sports, and investment banking far more than previously imagined.
Powerhouse is the fascinating, no-holds-barred saga of that hot-blooded ascent. Drawing on unprecedented and exclusive access to the men and women who built and battled CAA, as well as financial information never before made public, acclaimed author James Andrew Miller spins a tale of boundless ambition, ruthless egomania, ceaseless empire building, drugs, sex, greed, and personal betrayal. Powerhouse is also a story of prophetic brilliance, magnificent artistry, singular genius, entrepreneurial courage, strategic daring, foxhole brotherhood, and how one firm utterly transformed the entertainment business. Here are the real Star Wars—complete with a Death Star—told through the voices of those who were actually there. Packed with scores of stars from movies, television, music, and sports, as well as a tremendously compelling cast of agents, studio executives, network chiefs, league commissioners, hedge fund managers, tech CEOs, and media tycoons, Powerhouse is itself a Hollywood blockbuster of the most spectacular sort.
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“A chronicle of vaunting ambition, immense wealth and power, and personal betrayal all the more astonishing in a business ostensibly built on loyalty and trust…Even more impressive is Miller’s ability to get nearly everyone involved not only to talk but also go on the record.”
— New York Times Book Review
“Probably the most hotly anticipated book since Julia Phillips’s tell-all You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again dropped more than two decades ago.”
— Variety“It’s dishy. It’s like People Magazine meets The Godfather.”
— New York Post“Fun to read both for the boldface names…and for a glimpse into a largely unseen world of cultural influencers.”
— National Book Review“A no-holds-barred account…Powerhouse is a front-row seat to the building of an entertainment industry icon in all its garish glory. And it’s nearly impossible to look away.”
— Amazon.com“The year’s hottest Hollywood tell-all.”
— New York Daily News“Kirby Heyborne, principal narrator, offers a youthful energy that is fresh and intimate.”
— AudioFileBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
James Andrew Miller is an award-winning journalist and coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestseller Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN; Live from New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of “Saturday Night Live” as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests, which spent four months on the New York Times bestseller list; and Running in Place: Inside the Senate. He has written for the Washington Post, the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and others. He is a graduate of Occidental College, Oxford University, and Harvard Business School.
Kirby Heyborne is a musician, actor, and professional narrator. Noted for his work in teen and juvenile audio, he has garnered over twenty Earphones Awards. His audiobook credits include Jesse Kellerman’s The Genius, Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, and George R. R. Martin’s Selections from Dreamsongs.
Ann Richardson is an Earphones-winning narrator who studied broadcast journalism and Spanish at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Years later, the desire to take up a creative yet productive career lead her to narrating audiobooks and founding Great Plains Audiobooks, an audiobook publishing company focusing on bringing Midwestern literature to audio.