Happy Birthday, Audrey Hepburn! 10 Things You Never Knew About _Breakfast at Tiffany’_s Inline
Photo: Getty Images1/10Truman Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe to play the role of Holly Golightly.
"She was Truman Capote's first choice,” Sam Wasson, author of Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s,’ has said. “Another thing you may not know: Marilyn didn't take the part in part because Paula Strasberg, her advisor and acting coach, said she should not be playing a lady of the evening." Capote, author of the 1958 novella, was reportedly very disappointed that the studio went with Hepburn, saying, “Paramount double-crossed me in every way and cast Audrey.”
Photo: Getty Images2/10Audrey Hepburn’s dress was designed especially for her.
Hubert de Givenchy designed the famous black dress in 1961 for Audrey Hepburn’s turn as Holly Golightly. After Hepburn’s death in 1993, Givenchy donated the black satin gown to City of Joy Aid, and in 2006 the dress was auctioned off at Christie’s for more than $900,000.
Photo: Courtesy of Jurow-Shepherd3/10Despite the famous shot, Hepburn didn’t care much for Danish.
According to a 1960 New York Times report, “Miss Hepburn, it developed, had no affection for the Danish, preferring ice cream at Schrafft’s.”
Photo: Courtesy of Jurow-Shepherd4/10Holly Golightly’s apartment went on sale in 2011.
While the interiors of Holly’s apartment were reportedly shot on a Paramount sound stage, the famous façade is very much in scene. Located on East Seventy-first Street in Manhattan (just a stone’s throw from Tiffany’s flagship), the townhouse, which features three bedrooms and a solarium, was listed for $5.85 million.
Photo: Everett Collection5/10You can buy Holly’s famous shades.
Some have mistaken Hepburn’s oversize glasses for Ray-Bans, but they’re actually made by Oliver Goldsmith. In 2011, the sunglasses were rereleased for the 50th anniversary of the film, and can now be had for $440.
Photo: (from left) Getty Images; Photofest Digital6/10The role of Paul Varjak was originally offered to Steve McQueen.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s director Blake Edwards reportedly wanted Steve McQueen to play Audrey Hepburn’s paramour. McQueen was interested in the part, but his commitment to the series Wanted: Dead or Alive precluded him from accepting the role that would inevitably go to George Peppard.
Photo: Courtesy of Jurow-Shepherd7/10Fred Flintstone had a role in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Alan Reed, who played the incarcerated mobster Sally Tomato in the film, was best known as the original voice of _The Flintstones’_s patriarch.
Photo: Everett Collection8/10Mickey Rooney’s performance as Mr. Yunioshi has not stood the test of time.
Mickey Rooney’s portrayal of the Japanese character Mr. Yunioshi has faced an increasing backlash over the years. In 2008, a Sacramento screening of the film was canceled due to protests of Rooney’s offensive caricature. “They hired me to do this overboard, and we had fun doing it,” Rooney said at the time. “Never in all the more than 40 years after we made it—not one complaint. Every place I've gone in the world people say, ‘God, you were so funny.’ ”
Photo: Getty Images9/10Paramount wanted to remove the movie’s famous track, “Moon River.”
After a preview screening of the film, Paramount executive Martin Rackin reportedly said that he wanted the song, composed by Henry Mancini and written by Johnny Mercer, to be removed. Legend has it that the normally mild-mannered Hepburn responded with “over my dead body.” The song would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Photo: Everett Collection10/10Breakfast at Tiffany’s marked the first time Tiffany’s had been used as a film location.
The titular jewelry shop was reportedly “grateful for the kind words and free publicity.” During filming, however, the store assembled 40 guards and sales clerkss to protect the jewels inside. Even though, as Holly says, “Nothing very bad could happen to you there.”
