Review: Fifth Avenue 5 A.M. by Sam Wasson

Who can forget Audrey's little black dress? 

Back in the 1950s, Hollywood had its good girls - Doris Day - and its bad girls - Marilyn Monroe.  Once an actress was assigned to a persona, she was not to cross to the other side, or, heaven-forbid, skirt along the line between. 

Breakfast at Tiffany's changed all of that.  America's sweetheart, Audrey Hepburn, was about to shatter her mould and make her mark on American cinema history. 

I watched all the old movies with my parents - Breakfast at Tiffany's, Funny Face, Pillow Talk, West Side Story, Cleopatra.  I'm sure my dad wanted me to see as much of of Doris Day as I did Madonna growing up, hoping it would balance my image of women.  There is something safe about watching a movie from the 1950s with your kids - the "fade to black" certainly helps.  Funny, what seemed racy in 1961 was downright tame by 1980s standards.  Breakfast at Tiffany's was at the start the silver screen revolution. 

Sam Wasson's FIFTH AVENUE 5 A.M. gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how Breakfast at Tiffany's came to fruition, skirting around the censors, the drama involved in the casting, the questionable ending, and (in my eyes) the most significant fashion trend of all time. 

There were parts of the book that were a bit slow, and the author was sometimes overly casual with the names of the players, I often had to refer to the "opening credits" at the front of the book to be sure to whom he was referring.  It also helps if the reader has a basic knowledge of Audrey's biography to fully appreciate some of the references made.

As a girl that grew up watching Audrey Hepburn movies, I was glued to this book.  Actresses like Audrey Hepburn, Liz Taylor, and Katherine Hepburn made me fall in love with the movies and the glamour that surrounds them.  To get an inside look into one of the most iconic movies of all time was a treat.

The only thing I wish I could do was add more pictures...that makes me sound like a child, I know.  There were some pictures in the book, but I had to go and watch the movie again instead.  Still magical...but even more so this time!


Synopsis: (from TLC)
Audrey Hepburn is an icon like no other, yet the image many of us have of Hepburn—dainty, immaculate—is anything but true to life. Here, for the first time, Sam Wasson presents the woman behind the little black dress that rocked the nation in 1961. 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 early sixties 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.


Book Extras:
http://samwasson.com/
Sam on Twitter
Sam on Facebook
Sam's Blog
10 Things You May Not Know About Breakfast at Tiffany's

About the Book:
Paperback: 288 pages

Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (August 30, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061774162
ISBN-13: 978-0061774164

About the Author:Sam Wasson is the author of A Splurch in the Kisser: The Movies of Blake Edwards and the forthcoming Paul on Mazursky. He is working on a book about Bob Fosse. He lives in Los Angeles.






 
 
 

Many thanks to TLC Book Tours for inviting me to host Sam Wasson's FIFTH AVENUE 5 A.M.
 
TLC Tours site for FIFTH AVENUE 5 A.M. by Sam Wasson