Customer Reviews

The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"The Operator" makes for compelling reading. King has done a tremendous job of capturing a frightening time in Hollywood, and showing readers what made it so frightening. This book is not just about Geffen but about all the lives he touched, helped and often ruined. Some of the icons of the 80s and 90s figure powerfully into this story--The Eagles, Neil Young, Michael Eisner, Spielberg, Katzenberg and Nirvana.

King's portrait of a man who was not afraid to burn bridges, betray his mentors, and ingratiate himself with people he loathed is a classic tale of the lonely but powerful maverick who has great skills but also severe character flaws. The tragedy of Geffen is that there is much to admire in this man, but it is impossible to overlook the pain he caused so many people who were apparently loyal to him.

The book is balanced; I understand why Geffen is upset by the book but I think an objective reader comes away with equal measures of fear and respect for the man. In a sense I think King has done Geffen a favor by allowing readers a glimpse of the human component behind the wealth and power. There is no excuse for some of the things Geffen has done, but there is a reason: without psychoanalyzing Geffen, King manages to infer a climate, and provide contour to this man's psyche, that would permit a successful man to behave, at times, with such impunity and disregard for the well being of others. The question at the core of this existential puzzle is: Why would a self-made man with everything do more harm than good? In this book Spielberg is portrayed as a man at the opposite end of the spectrum: a man who is grateful for his success, indebted to the people who helped him achieve it, satisfied with the money he has made, and eager to give something in return.

The richer Geffen became, the more good he did, but it is confounding that he hurt so many people in the process, not because they offended him personally but because they sought to be as good at dealmaking as he was. Geffen's most disturbing trait as relayed in this book is his willingness to sabotage the careers of others by manufacturing toxic and unfounded rumors. What is touching is that Geffen seems at points to realize that his best traits are undermined by his worst traits--greed and a vengeful spirit--but seems at a loss to change his behavior. There is a move towards redemption in the final portion of this book, but it is hard to gauge its sincerity.

King is a spectacular journalist and I hope he writes more biographies. My only criticisms are that 1) the last fifth of this long book is the weakest portion, not owing to King's prose but simply to the fact that that Geffen's life became less interesting after he sold Geffen, and 2) the book feels as if large sections of the manuscript were omitted, perhaps for legal or length reasons. I would love to see what King left on the cutting room floor.

The story of David Geffen is not yet finished and, like Michael Milken, his third act could be a spectacular feat of personal redemption. I think this book sits alongside "Wired," "Outrageous Conduct" and "High Concept" as a truly important book about a watershed but ultimately frightening period for Hollywood.

I found King to be an intelligent and thorough writer. His writing keeps you glued to the page with anecdotes and suggested images to fill in the gaps. Direct writing with good facts makes this book a must read for anyone in the music and entertainment business.

Geffen is a legend who has not yet peaked. His struggle with his class background and achievement is on par with people such as Andrew Carnegie, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. To dismiss Geffen as a cheap opportunist and a hustler would be missing the point of this man's life and King's book.

The story is compelling, the facts are clear, and Geffen is still in the press. Love him or hate him, if you don't know about the man, you can't know about the entertainment business. Right on "KING DAVID".

This excellent biography well researched and beautifully written has but one flaw: the subject. David Geffen is so contradictory, no matter how much information about him is amassed; we are still baffled. In keeping with the rest of his personality, I understand this book was "partially" authorized. That is, when Mr. King began the project, DG was forthcoming and enthusiastic, only to totally reverse himself later on and be bitterly opposed to the undertaking.

David Geffen is a poster boy for ADD. He is frenetically active, but with a remarkably short attention span. He disliked school because it wasted his time. He can be a caring friend or an implacable enemy. He can be embarrassing intimate with almost complete strangers, yet distant as a north star toward his own family. He has lived a gay promiscuous life, yet fell hard for Cher and wanted to marry her. Easy going Cher recognized him as a "controller" and walked away. He shows great generosity personally and publicly; yet hasn't a qualm about financially ruining friend and foe alike for a perceived slight, and sometimes just for the hell of it.

No matter how much you thank your lucky stars that you never, ever have to do business with David Geffen, you cannot help but be awestruck at his genius as a businessman, visualizer and strategist. He is beyond compare, and in spite of Mr. King's admirable dissecting of various business deals, it is impossible to follow Geffen's leap of ideas and creativity to make things happen.

In spite of David Geffen's striving for the most money, the best deal, and the top of the financial ladder, I would not call him a materialistic man. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't feel an emotional bond to his beautiful artwork and homes. Name him a good price and he will sell it to you--as is. He has never had a sustained relationship, and now going on his 60th year, he has everything but someone to leave it to.

"The Operator" is a meticulous undertaking, and Mr. King has an easy writing style that is very balanced toward his multi-sided subject. I will look for other books by this author. A very enjoyable read.

If you're reading this book and it's never been your displeasure to navigate the rather circuitous studio system, you may find the offensive aspects of Mr. Geffen's behavior far too repugnant to appreciate the good aspects of his character. The reason you'll feel this way is because in every hood but Hollywood, loyalty, honesty and trustworthiness are valued, if not expected traits. If you automatically assume that these traits don't exist in your world, however, you're not offended when someone lacks them. It's like the pseudo-look-of-shock that a Pit Bull owner exhibits when his dog has just devoured his neighbor living in the trailer next to him...in Hollywood, people only pretend to be shocked or offended so they can suborn sympathy and, if they're lucky, indebtedness.

What I found most curious about this story was not that Mr. Geffen was such a shrewd and savvy operator--which he is--but that so many around him weren't. Of course, that might be because some of the notables he hangs with, such as Speilberg and Katzenberg, are those rare exceptions; trustworthy and successful all at the same time. Let's face it, the people who gravitate toward Hollywood in their early twenties--which includes virtually everyone in town--rarely have what it takes to play hardball for something other than money...I'm talking real stakes like keeping a roof over your family's head or possibly getting dead. I just read an amazing and powerful book called "Inside Job: Deep Undercover as a Corporate Spy," and came to the sobering realization that me and my pals in Hollywood wouldn't survive out there if the competition didn't live in the 902-- zip code.. But then again, who wants to...this job's a freakin' blast, baby! If you want a balanced perspective, I suggest you read both books...especially if you're working in a place that begins at 10:00 AM and that uses such veracious expressions as "Here's the bad version," which means "I have no idea what I'm talking about," or "We already have a competing project," which translates, "We're stealing your idea, you unrepresented schmuck."

How did a book like this come to be written about a living person of Geffen's power, with Geffen's cooperation ? The Operator opens up endless hidden layers of world class mind games, shameless confabulation, breathtaking intelligence, and inexplicable weirdness. One leaves with the sense of the entertainment business as one great dysfunctional family, loves spinning out of control into hatreds, and mutual disgust converting into strategic alliances. On some level this must have disturbed David Geffen, who sought self understanding through therapy and the EST movement. Yet Geffen was able to move with ruthless prescision in spite of his inner conflicts. He emerges as a disturbing but fascinating man, both compulsively driven to succeed and bored by his successes, everywhere and nowhere, having it all and living in a platinum emotional vacuum. One criticism of the book is that it should have provided more detail on the structures of the businesses Geffen moved within. We should know more about the way the contracts were designed, negotiations orchestrated, the way distribution channels were controlled, how the agent interacts with the broadcast media empires to get maximum airplay, and related drill downs into the hard knuckled fine points of the deal.

This is one of the better biographies around, whether or not you end up liking David Geffen (aka "the prince of pain"). It is full of great inside stories about legendary artists of the music business...Phil Spector, Dylan, the Band, Cher, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Jackson Browne, the Eagles, Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, John Lennon, George Michael, Donna Summer etc., etc. King keeps the narrative flowing, and he provides plenty of authentic detail without ever falling into the biographer's trap of being too academic. Of course Geffen is a very interesting subject...having powered his way to the very top of the entertainment business through sheer drive and cunning...and without having the "golden ear" or creative judgement of his competitors. The stories about his interaction with(and abuse of)fellow moguls like Ovitz, Eisner, Ross, and Davis were jawdropping. I found myself shaking my head at the deals he cut, for example talking Steve Ross into giving him back his music label for free after Ross had bankrolled he whole thing! But don't get the impression that The Operator is all about The Dark Side of David....in fact King balances the book nicely by reporting on the many philanthropic and other positive projects in Geffen's life. All in all, a very entertaining read, and well worth having on your shelf, especially if you're fascinated by the entertainment industry.

In a well documented and relatively well thought out book Tom King paints a varied picture of David Geffen. Geffen is presented as being alternately brilliant and visionary, and then in a flash he becomes a whining, manipulative and cruel little pisher. King does a good job of presenting Geffen in all his many forms and incarnations. In the end, the question becomes, does anything Geffen has done in the past or might do in the future interst you as the reader. If the answer is "yes", then this book is a well thought out biography about a very hard to like little man. If the answer is "no", then you can safely save your money and you will not have missed anything. Overall I liked this book but grew to really dislike and not care about its subject.

I know I'm not being entirely fair, but I simply couldn't bring myself to rate this book a "5" even though it is thoroughly researched, and the author, Tom King, is a very, very good writer. The reason for the "4" rating in two words: David Geffen. Notwithstanding his many contributions to the recording and film industries in particular, and his and phenomenally generous philanthropy, Mr. Geffen is quite simply not a very appealling person. However, thanks in large part to the author's talent I still read every word of Mr. Geffen's fascinating climb to the top of the Hollywood -- and financial -- heap. During the past thirty-five years or so (for better, in the case of spearheading the careers of artists such as Joni Mitchell and other singer/songwriters as well as some exceptional motion pictures and his "liberal" politics; and for worse in the cases of some of those heavy-metal noise machines promulgated by Geffen Records and a few pretty awful motion pictures), Mr. Geffen unquestionably has left his mark on history. Unfortunately, he apparently has been absolutely ruthless in doing so. Mr. Geffen comes across in this book as a selfish and greedy creature for whom (literally) billions of dollars still isn't "enough." Maybe the irony of Mr. Geffen's life (so far), and the subliminal message of this book, is that money truly can't buy happiness. I highly recommend this book but with fair warning: Once you get to the end, you'll probably feel like sticking your finger down your throat. I hope Tom King channels his exceptional journalistic and writing talents towards a more appealling subject for his next literary foray: I look forward to his next book. (And I now know much, much more than I want or need to know about David Geffen.)

This is a book that's basically for the show business junky and even then it can get to be a bit much. About two-thirds of the way into it, I had to put it aside for awhile. The paranoia, betrayal, double dealing, etc. had happened over and over so many times, with so many people, that I wondered if there was anything more to the story. In some ways, there is. We are given a sometimes convincing portrait of Geffen coming out as a philanthropist, although I came to the conclusion that it's mostly just another persona. King hedges his bets, by reminding us that, as the book ends, Geffen is estranged from his remaining family and various other pivotal people in his life.

One thing that would help make the unrelenting scuzziness of Geffen's business life and the lack of meaningful long-term relationships in his personal life more bearable would have been some perspective. Despite pulling off some major deals, Geffen also took on some very weak clients and found himself with some very bad breaks, like taking on Donna Summer as a client just as she found religion and homophobia. He was an uneven judge of talent and largely out of touch with the popular culture his business helped shape. Even the most vile of studio moguls, like Harry Cohn, could have an acute appreciation and respect for talent. It's also telling that some of his greatest feuds were with people like Jerry Wexler, who understood music, built careers and helped open new doors for different styles of music. Geffen was fortunate to be on the ground floor of trends, in popular culture, but did little to actually shape them. Buried in the details is something else that's interesting--much, if not most, of Geffen's money came from his trading in junk bonds, rather than his show business wheeling and dealing. I came away thinking "yes, he's a talented deal maker", but a good salesman is someone who can believe in their product and maintain long-term business relationships. Geffen, like Jack Welch, is overrated and it will probably take a more analytical volume to make this more clear. Someone also needs to figure out a way to get his long-time secretary to tell her story (right now a settlement precludes that). Knowing how to survive for 20 years with a megalamaniac would be almost as interesting as the further betrayal and double dealing she could add to Geffen's story.

I work in Hollywood and when this book came out, word on the street was that Tom King had published a well-researched, well-written, no-holds-barred and blistering account of David Geffen's life and work. Now that I've read this 600-plus-page monster, I'll go along with the well researched and call it a day. Maybe I've worked around too many moguls for too long, but I didn't find anything in here that I found particularly shocking, much less revelatory. I don't doubt the veracity of anything King has written (especially re: Geffen's own childish behavior - his tantrum over this innocuous publication bears that out), but even with Geffen's amazing achievements I closed the book wondering what the hell had made me pick it up in the first place. Geffen's world certainly contains the time-tested elements of a fascinating life - he started from less than nothing and now has a number of careers, fortunes and empires to his name while lacking any essential emotional connections. King has reported all of those elements faithfully, but what separates "The Operator" from great biography is the book's lack of any compelling rationale behind Geffen's behavior. Of course, even the most megalomaniac among us (another title for which Geffen certainly qualifies) don't live our lives thinking about what it's all going to look like when some enterprising reporter commits several years of his life to putting it down on paper. However, if you are that reporter, you had better be able to find the essential threads that knit together the disparate elements - otherwise, you have something that reads more like a melodramatic laundry list and less like a novel (something that my favorite bios, like George Plimpton and Jean Stein's "Edie," certainly resemble). A much better read is David O. Selznick's "Memo From Selznick" - a book that is exactly what it sounds like and yet is still fascinating. I'm not sure if it's still in print, but it's worth the search.