In Fifth Avenue, 5 AM, Sammy Wasson goes behind the scenes of Breakfast at Tiffany's, one of the country's most iconic movies, offering a delicious slice of social history. With a cast of characters including Truman Capote, Edith Head, director Blake Edwards and, of course, Hepburn herself, Wasson immerses us in the America of the late '50s, before Woodstock and birth control, when a not-so-virginal girl by the name of Holly Golightly raised eyebrows across the nation, changing fashion, film and sex forever. Peter Bogdanovich praised the book as "a brilliant chronicle of the creation of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Wasson has woven the whole so deftly that it reads like a compulsively page-turning novel. This is a memorable achievement."
Here the author offers five things you may not know about Breakfast at Tiffany's:
- Marilyn Monroe was first choice to play Holly Golightly.
- Audrey Hepburn was afraid Holly would debase her image--she didn't want the part.
- Harper's rejected Truman Capote's manuscript.
- There were two different endings--one romantic, the other melancholy--and both were shot.
- Breakfast at Tiffany's had the most expensive party scene Paramount ever shot.