5/4/11

May the 4th be with you the late Audrey Hepburn who would have celebrated her 82nd birthday today! Holly Golightly to Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Dear Readers,

You only have to meet me for five minutes to learn of my love for the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's and its star the late Audrey Hepburn. I've lost count of how many times I've watched this movie since I first discovered it in my teens.



To celebrate, we're including some Getting to Know Audrey Facts and Breakfast at Tiffany's Random Facts and Favorite Quotes below.

Enjoy!

Getting to Know Audrey Facts
1. May 4, 1929 - January 20, 1993

2. Born in the Ixelles district of Brussels, Belgium

3. Ancestry: Dutch, Hungarian, French, Jewish, English, Scottish, Irish and Austrian

4. Three weeks after her birth, Audrey's heart stopped from a severe bout of whooping cough.

5. Perhaps as a tribute to his daughter's natural curiosity, her father nicknamed her "Monkey Puzzle."

6. Her father, whom she adored, walk out on the family when Audrey was six-years-old. She later recalled that it was, "the most traumatic event in my life," an event from which she admits she probably never recovered.

7. Audrey's nineteen-year-old brother Ian was picked up by the Germans and taken away. For the duration of WWII, Audrey and her mom had no idea if he was dead or alive. They would later learn that he spent the war working fourteen-hour days in a munitions factory in Berlin.

8. Surprisingly, Audrey was 5'10" in flats - not the most appreciated height for a ballerina, but she made it work. Power to the tall girls!

9. Had two miscarriages before finally giving birth to her first child Sean. She also had her final miscarriage after giving birth to her second and last child Luca.

10. Dedicated most of the latter part of her life to humanitarian work on behalf of UNICEF.



Breakfast at Tiffany's Random Facts 
1. When BAT's opened in NYC, it broke all box office records.

2. Audrey received her fourth Academy Award Best Actress nomination (did not win) for the role of Holly Golightly.

3. BAT's was loosely based on the Truman Capote novella. Truman was not happy with the direction of the movie and the casting of Audrey. We've read the book and it's much darker. We much prefer the movie.

4. Although Truman Capote was vocal about his belief that Marilyn Monroe was the embodiment of Holly Golightly, in 1960 he wrote Audrey a letter expressing how pleased he was that she was cast and congratulating her on Sean's birth.

5. "Moon River," Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer's masterpiece, is the musical tour de force of the film.

6. Designer Hubert de Givenchy is the power house behind that unforgettable "little black dress."

7. Mickey Rooney's stereotypical and racist portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi, the Japanese neighbor, was sadly a stain on an otherwise amazing movie.

8. George Peppard, who played the leading man Paul Varjack (aka Fred), is probably best known for his role as John 'Hannibal' Smith from The A-Team.

9. Since 1837, Tiffany & Co. has been the world's premier jeweler and America's house of design.

10. BAT’s was filmed at various addresses in Manhattan. Holly Golightly’s apartment was 167 East 71st Street. 



Breakfast at Tiffany's Favorite Quotes

Holly Golightly: He's all right! Aren't you, cat? Poor cat! Poor slob! Poor slob without a name! The way I see it I haven't got the right to give him one. We don't belong to each other. We just took up one day by the river. I don't want to own anything until I find a place where me and things go together. I'm not sure where that is but I know what it is like. It's like Tiffany's.
Paul Varjak: Tiffany's? You mean the jewelry store.
Holly Golightly: That's right. I'm just CRAZY about Tiffany's!
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Holly Golightly: I'm like cat here, a no-name slob. We belong to nobody, and nobody belongs to us. We don't even belong to each other. 
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Holly Golightly: You know those days when you get the mean reds?
Paul Varjak: The mean reds, you mean like the blues?
Holly Golightly: No. The blues are because you're getting fat and maybe it's been raining too long, you're just sad that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?
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Holly Golightly: You could always tell what kind of a person a man thinks you are by the earrings he gives you. I must say, the mind reels. 
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Holly Golightly: You musn't give your heart to a wild thing. The more you do, the stronger they get, until they're strong enough to run into the woods or fly into a tree. And then to a higher tree and then to the sky.
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Paul Varjak: You know what's wrong with you, Miss Whoever-you-are? You're chicken, you've got no guts. You're afraid to stick out your chin and say, "Okay, life's a fact, people do fall in love, people do belong to each other, because that's the only chance anybody's got for real happiness." You call yourself a free spirit, a "wild thing," and you're terrified somebody's gonna stick you in a cage. Well baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it's not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somali-land. It's wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.
[takes out the ring and throws it in Holly's lap]
Paul Varjak: Here. I've been carrying this thing around for months. I don't want it anymore.
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Paul Varjak: I love you.
Holly Golightly: So what.
Paul Varjak: So what? So plenty! I love you, you belong to me!
Holly Golightly: [tearfully] No. People don't belong to people.
Paul Varjak: Of course they do!
Holly Golightly: I'll never let ANYBODY put me in a cage.
Paul Varjak: I don't want to put you in a cage, I want to love you! 



 Source:
The Audrey Hepburn Treasures by Ellen Erwin and Jessica Z. Diamond
Google
Wikipedia

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