A headline in the Telegraph asks the question, but doesn't want to know the answer. Apparently, a new West End production of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (starring the cute-as-pie Anna Friel) has none of the ambiguity surrounding Holly's profession that the film version had. "What a shame it is that we live in an age where there seems to be no such thing as a lightness of touch and where the public is deemed able only to understand a single rather than a double entendre," the paper huffs.
Oh, the unbearable heaviness of contemporary theatre! But one can't help but wonder: Was she?
In a 1968 interview in Playboy, Truman Capote addressed the question:
Playboy: Would you elaborate on your comment that Holly was the prototype of today's liberated female and representative of a "whole breed of girls who live off men but are not prostitutes. They're our version of the geisha girl."?
Capote: Holly Golightly was not precisely a callgirl. She had no job, but accompanied expense-account men to the best restaurants and night clubs, with the understanding that her escort was obligated to give her some sort of gift, perhaps jewelry or a check ... if she felt like it, she might take her escort home for the night. So these girls are the authentic American geishas, and they're much more prevalent now than in 1943 or 1944, which was Holly's era.
Later in the interview, Capote has some fun with his interrogator:
Playboy: Holly Golightly alludes to her onetime Lesbian roommate and obliquely expresses a sexual interest in other women. Was Holly a Lesbian?
Capote:: Let's leave Holly out of it. It's a well-known fact that most prostitutes are Lesbians—at least 80 percent of them, in any case. And so are a great many of the models and showgirls in New York; just off the top of my head, I can think of three top professional models who are Lesbians. Of course, there's a Lesbian component in every woman, but what intrigues me is the heterosexual male's fascination with Lesbians. I find it extraordinary that so many men I know consider Lesbian women exciting and attractive; among their most treasured erotic dreams is the idea of going to bed with two Lesbians.
Two thoughts: I love that in 1968 the word "Lesbian" was still capitalized, as if the island were actually the ancestral home of ladies who identified as such. And: Capote's description of the era's working girl/not-prositute who winds up a bored housewife in the sticks is essential reading for "Mad Men" fans. You'll recognize Betty, Peggy, and Joan instantly. The entire interview is reprinted in "Truman Capote: Conversations," and you can read it on Google Books.
