Holly Golightly

He'd published his debut novel at 23.

His novella, Breakfast at Tiffany's, had come out just the year before, and Holly Golightly was already becoming a cultural icon years before Audrey Hepburn ever put on that black dress.

Capote was famous as much for his personality as his prose, the flamboyance, the society connections, his razor wit.

He wasn't just a crime journalist, he was a literary star who decided that a small town massacre in Kansas was gonna be his masterpiece.

I'm living in a laundry room in an anarchist collective.

A woman from Japan who doesn't speak English, who's learning from People's Court, and then a girl named Jules, who is my Holly Golightly, this wild girl who has great fashion sense and is always, one week she's gonna be a architect, and then she's gonna be a fashion designer, and then she's gonna be an actress and she auditions for a porn movie, but she turns it down 'cause she doesn't like the script, and she's wilder than life.

And I live in a laundry room in the anarchist collective.

So when people make...

It's been covered by many crooners through the years.

Let's not forget, originally from the '60s in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's, written for Audrey Hepburn, who played the character Holly Golightly, and famously performed the song while sitting on her apartment balcony strumming a guitar.

Uh, Moon River, beautiful, and it's played there on Joseph Burston's street organ De Carillon, owned by Shane Seagrave.

You're listening to Mechanical Music Radio.

[laughs]

Anyway, Breakfast at Tiffany's gave us one of the most iconic characters in movie history, Holly Golightly.

So today's trivia question: What legendary actress played Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's? I'll be back right after I give Tiffany a call.

I never did return that Tupperware.

[upbeat music]

Those people understood how titles work.

But Breakfast at Tiffany's, no pancakes, no hash browns, not even one sad, soggy bowl of Raisin Bran.

Instead, we get Holly Golightly, one of the most famous characters in movie history, wandering around New York looking glamorous and hanging around outside a jewelry store, which incidentally is exactly how Joe's mom got banned from Kay Jewelers.

This is a classic case of Hollywood altering the DNA of a story to appease the era's sensibilities.

We all know the iconography, right? Audrey Hepburn's iconic Holly Golightly, the chic, whimsical New York socialite standing outside the jewelry store.

George Peppard as her neighbor, Paul Varjak.

"You call yourself a free spirit, and you're terrified somebody's gonna stick you in a cage."

The author of the original novella, Truman Capote, was absolutely furious with the adaptation.

And if you read Capote's original work, you completely understand why.

Capote's Holly Golightly was not a whimsical, romantic heroine.

Nope.

Yeah.

Holly Golightly, which is an incredible name.

Yeah.

It's not her, her actual name either-

No, but that's just Hollywood, isn't it? That's, that's-

Yeah

... 31-year-old Audi- Audrey Hepburn playing a 19-year-old Holly Golightly.

Yeah.

One of his most memorable characters can be found in his classic story, Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Did you know, rather than Audrey Hepburn for that captivating role of Holly Golightly in the film adaptation, Capote always envisioned a very vulnerable,

very beautiful,

blonde, and...

One of his most memorable characters can be found in his classic story, Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Did you know, rather than Audrey Hepburn for that captivating role of Holly Golightly in the film adaptation, Capote always envisioned a very vulnerable,

very beautiful,

blonde, and...