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Today is the anniversary of the birth of
Audrey Hepburn. To me, as well as probably millions of others, her greatest role was that of Holly Golightly in the 1961 film,
Breakfast at Tiffany's. The film was based on the
Truman Capote novel,
Breakfast at Tiffany's.
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The score for the film was composed by
Henry Mancini. Aside from his Award winning song,
Moon River, arguably one of the most beautiful songs ever written and which ranked number 11 on the 1964 top chart list, my favorite song is
Hubcaps and Taillights. The song is one of the great stripper songs of all-time along with
The Stripper, by
David Rose, and the incredibly sensual 1939
jazz standard written by
Earle Hagen and Dick Rogers,
Harlem Nocturne. My favorite version of
Nocturne was by
Earl Bostic; his rendition is outstanding! Both
Hubcaps and
Nocturn are
saxophone spectaculars. Obviously, the sax, with its deep, throaty
timbre, is a sensual instrument that lends itself nicely to eroticism.
The fashion designs for Hepburn/Golightly were by the
French designer,
Count Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy.
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The basic plot of the film is about Holly, a country girl turned New York
café society
girl. As such, she has no job and lives by socializing with wealthy
men, who take her to clubs and restaurants, and give her money and
expensive presents; she hopes to marry one of them. According to Capote,
Golightly is not a prostitute but an "American
geisha."
Breakfast at Tiffany's was received positively at the time, and won two
Academy Awards:
Best Original Score and
Best Original Song for
Moon River. It was also selected as the
fourth most memorable song in Hollywood history by the
American Film Institute in 2004. The film was also nominated for three other Academy Awards:
Best Actress for Hepburn,
Best Adapted Screenplay, and
Best Art Direction.
In 2012, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States
Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the
National Film Registry.
Hepburn was born on May 4, 1929, in
Brussels,
Belgium. She was the epitome of chic. She was a fashion icon as well as a movie star, was ranked by the
American Film Institute as the third-greatest
female screen legend in the Golden Age of
Hollywood and was inducted into the
International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame.
Bud Fraker, who photographed her in 1956 (photo above), was born in
Altoona,
Pennsylvania, in 1916. He Attended Los Angeles City College. He was hired by Hollywood photographer
A.L. 'Whitney' Schafer at Colombia. He photographed stars of the 1930s. He also worked for Paramount Studios in the Publicity Photography Department and assisted in the portrait gallery
Hepburn was appointed
Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF and
George H. W. Bush presented her with the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work with
UNICEF. Grateful for her own good fortune after enduring the German occupation
as a child, she dedicated the remainder of her life to helping
impoverished children in the poorest nations. Hepburn's travels were
made easier by her wide knowledge of languages; besides being naturally
bilingual in English and Dutch, she also was fluent in French, Italian,
Spanish, and German.
On the evening of 20 January 1993, Hepburn died in her sleep at home.
After her death,
Gregory Peck went on camera and tearfully recited her
favourite poem, "Unending Love" by
Rabindranath Tagore.
Funeral services were held at the village church of Tolochenaz on 24
January 1993. Maurice Eindiguer, the same pastor who wed Hepburn and
Mel Ferrer and baptised her son Sean in 1960, presided over her funeral,
while
Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan of UNICEF delivered a eulogy.
A beautiful article by Luca Dotti, the son of Hepburn, appeared in the May, 2013 issue of
Vanity Fair (
link below).
"The best thing to hold onto in life is each other."
- Audrey Hepburn
Viewfinder links:
Audrey Hepburn articles/mentions
Hubert de Givenchy, Kennedy & Hepburn ~ timeless style
Net links:
Audrey Hepburn Filmography and stage roles
Audrey Hepburn website
Vanity Fair ~ My Fair Mother
The Guardian ~ Hepburn profile
YouTube links:
Moon River
Audrey Hepburn sings Moon River
Hub Caps And Tail Lights
Earl Bostic - Harlem Nocturne
David Rose ~ The Stripper
Moon River documentary
Audrey Hepburn ~ A&E Biography
Styrous® ~ Wednesday, May 4, 2016