Fifth Avenue, 5 AM: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast Ad Tiffany's, And The Dawn of the Modern Woman

The first complete account of the making of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. reveals little known facts about the cinema classic: Truman Capote desperately wanted Marilyn Monroe for the leading role; director Blake Edwards filmed multiple endings; Hepburn herself felt very conflicted about balancing her role as a mother and a movie star. With a colorful cast of characters including Truman Capote, Edith Head, Givenchy, “Moon River” composer Henry Mancini, and, of course, Hepburn herself, Wasson immerses us in the America of the late fifties before Woodstock and birth control, when a not-so-virginal girl by the name of Holly Golightly raised eyebrows across the country, changing fashion, film, and sex, for good. Indeed, cultural touchstones like Sex and the City owe a debt of gratitude to this quietly subversive film. Meticulously researched, and written with delicious prose and considerable wit, Wasson delivers us from the penthouses of the Upper East Side to the pools of Beverly Hills, presenting Breakfast at Tiffany’s as we have never seen it before—through the eyes of those who made it. Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. shines new light on the beloved film and its incomparable star.