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[Jazz music]

[Clicks]

[Whirring]

[Recording plays]

Woman: [INAUDIBLE]

George Plimpton: Well it's so
nice to hear your voice.

I'll tell you what I'm doing;
you know I'm doing this

huge history of good old
Truman Capote?

Woman: Yes?

Man: And the people that he knew
and who talk about him
either pro or con

they all seem to have their
Truman stories.

Woman: Yes?

Man: And I was wondering
if you could gather up
some of your memories?

Woman: And one of the most
seductive people I ever met.

Man: I thought he was a freak,
absolute freak.

Man: One of the most lionized
writers since Voltaire.

Man: It's a sleazy bit of work.

Woman: Oh he was wicked.
He was fun.

Man: He was totally
made out of drugs.

Man: It would feel like
a candied tarantula.

Woman: It was still the naughty
little kid in Truman.

Woman: I haven't had
a good laugh since he died.

[Laughing]

George Plimpton: Do you think
he's the writer of the moment?

Do you think Truman's going
to be read by generations?

[Birds singing]

Kate Harrington:
I'm Kate Harrington and I live
in Sheridan, Wyoming.

[Car driving by]

When I was 13 years old I was
basically adopted by Truman.

I met Truman in my mother's
living room.

And Truman was invited by
my father to come have dinner.

And he came in this big
limousine

out to our little neighbourhood,
about an hour outside
of Manhattan.

[Car engine]

Kate Harrington: And of course
all the kids came to look
at the limousine.

I'd never met anybody who spoke
like he did.

Um, and at first I had
to run into the kitchen

and take a tea towel, and cover
my face 'cause I laughed about
his - the sound of his voice.

And then my mother reprimanded
me hardly.

After that my father came home
one day and said

I'm going to become his manager.

So we said oh that's great.

Wonderful, so we didn't think
anything of it,

but he and my father
became lovers.

They had an on and off
relationship, very tumultuous.

My father had a lot of problems.
He was an alcoholic.

When my dad left he left us
with no money.

Truman's number was up
by the telephone, and
so I called him and said

do any of your friends
need a helper this summer?
I need to get a job.

Truman treated me like an adult

and just said OK, well
why don't you come into New York

and we'll have lunch
and discuss it?

[Upbeat music]

Kate Harrington: So I took
money out of the cookie jar,
played hooky,

got on the Long Island Railroad
and went into New York.
[Train whistle]

Truman told me how to do it
because I was so young.

I gave the paper
with the address to the taxi

and I went there to have lunch
with him.

He said the only thing
you can do at your age to make
a good bit of money is model.

I thought that was a crazy idea
because I had never thought
of myself in that way.

He took me to Richard
Avedon Studio [camera flash]

and just slowly, slowly, slowly
my whole world began to change.

'Cause he opened up the doors
of literature, dance,

art, music, fashion.

And meeting all kinds
of accomplished people.

[Camera flash]

He always said he was writing
a wonderful book about them.

Um, I used to get bored
at the lunches

and so he told me once
on the way there that
what I should do

is sit in the booth and listen
to the conversation
of the people next to us.

And on the way home
I could tell him everything
they talked about.

It was sort of fun for him.

And ever since then
when I go to restaurants

I kind of do that out of habit.

And I would write in my journal.

Truman Capote: Tell me are you a
real writer? It depends on what
you mean by real.

Well darling, does anyone buy
what you write? [Laughter]

Not yet.

I'm going to help you
she said. I can too.

Think of all the people
I know who know people.

[Upbeat jazz music]

Fix me a drink darling, then you
can read me a story yourself.

In America there is only one
social class

that really matters
in a cultural sense.

And that is the quote
"high society of New York."

I mean you can be the richest

and most famous person in Boise,
Idaho and it doesn't matter.

Unless you're famous in New York
you're not famous.

These people took him up.

Truman saw everything
and he remembered it.

Sooner or later he was going
to put it down on paper.

Female interviewer: An
assortment of celebrated people
pay $50 to sip the bubbly

and exchanged small talk.

Mr. Capote was on hand
for a benefit preview
of his newest offering.

You're a part of the in-crowd.
You're also referred to
as the beautiful people,

do you know what that
phrase means?

I don't think that
any such thing really exists.

It doesn't mean anything.
Does it to you?

Female interviewer:
I don't know what it means.

Well I don't know then.

Maybe you could tell me.

[Laughs]

Thank you.

Kate Harrington: Truman started
his day getting a cup of coffee

and sitting, and talking
to gossip columnists.

He'd trade all the gossip
and they would discuss
all the happenings,

secrets and you know I'd
hear him laughing hysterically

that kind of hilarious,
guttural laugh.

[Laughing]

Oh well that wasn't
in the thing...

[Laughter]

Sally Quinn: He was a fantastic
gossip. He knew everything. So
you could sit next to

Truman it was just a dream come
true

because he would just you
know? [Laughs]

Just spill it all out.

So you would just eat it up.

And thank god he [laughs]
he never thought he wanted
to write about me

'cause God knows
what I told him. [Laughs]

And he was bitchy,
but he was smart.

I really mean this.

Johnny Carson: Yeah?

That the less intelligent the
performer is the better he is.

For instance Marlon Brando is
an absolutely marvellous actor,

but he's so dumb it makes
your skin crawl.

[Audience laughter]

John Richardson: He'd encourage
you to come up with stories

which he would then make
much more Trumanesque
and-and bizarre,

and conversations with him
were-were-were enormous fun

and had very little to do
with the truth.

I can't remember exactly
when I first met Truman
because he was everywhere.

Any sort of big party
you went to in New York
I mean there was Truman.

You think you could cut
that scene out? [Laughs]

Jay McInerney:
New York for many of us
is the ultimate destination.

The biggest stage that there is.
In New York nobody cares
where you came from.

Nobody cares you know really
even where you went to school

or who your parents are.
They just want to know you know
how entertaining you are.

[Ominous jazz music]

What are you doing tonight?

Narrator: Call it New York
call it whatever you like.
The name hardly matters.

Entering from the great reality
of elsewhere

one is only in search of a city.

A place to lose or discover
one's self.

To make a dream wherein
you prove you're not
an ugly duckling,

but wonderful and worthy
of love.

As you thought sitting
on a stoop,

planning your search for a city.

Woman: Why?

His first book at the age of 23
he was -

it was you know a beautiful
little coming of age novel

set against a rural background.

A small southern town.

I think somebody - one reviewer
called it the Fairy Huck Finn.

[Laughs]

Just about as explicit as you
could be back then I guess
in a book review.

[Upbeat jazz]

Narrator: Radclif eyed the boy
over the rim of his beer glass.

He had his notions of what
a real boy should look like.

And this kid offended them.
He was too pretty, too delicate
and fair-skinned.

Each of his features was shaped
with a sensitive accuracy.

A girlish tenderness softened
his eyes which were brown
and very large.

His hair cut short was streaked
with pure yellow strands.

George Plimpton: Well he was
rather a spectacle wasn't he?

Nothing ever like him on the
American scene really.

I mean a very astonishing
figure. Did you invite him
to your house often?

[Upbeat jazz]

Jay McInerney: For many years
George's parties

were the literary centre
of New York City.

George had given me my break
and he was taking me around
and introducing me to everybody.

And of course inevitably I got
to Truman who was very friendly
shall we say? [Laughs]

There was a little bit of
groping involved, but he was
easily fended off you know,

he was playing the aging queen.

You know early success
is a bit of a curse.

You can get locked into
an image, a persona

which is based on the public's
first glimpse of you.

In my case it was the
coke-snorting. Night clubbing
protagonist of my first novel.

In his case this effete,
elfin little southern boy.

Norman Mailer: We lived
a block away from one another.

♪ Broadway, Broadway
everybody's happy. ♪

♪ Hanging where the nights
are brighter than day ♪

♪ All along Broadway.

Colm Toibin: Every gay life in
those years took courage.

So much self-invention,
so much care, so much work.

So much looking in the mirror

thinking who in the name of God
is this that I'm looking at?

Or everyone did

and I think that fed him,
and nourished him as a writer.

It wasn't as though
he was seeing himself
in television, or in the movies,

or represented in any other way.

There was no one in the mirror
when he looked.

So then he could represent
himself in an entirely new way

with full honesty,
full disclosure.

Well this is who I am.
I am your local gay.

There has to be one,
and I am he.

[Sad piano music]

Narrator: He swished the
lavender curtains apart.

Joel's image floated
on the looking glass.

His formless reflected
face was wide lit

as if it were a heat-softened
wax effigy.

It was a strong feeling you know
with I don't know

the sort of book crowd
that Truman wasn't entirely
serious perhaps.

[Reporter speaking in French]

Jay McInerney: There was a sharp
divide between high culture and
low culture.

And yet Truman kind of straddled
that border.

Truman Capote: Would you like me
to read a scene from Breakfast
at Tiffany's?

[Audience applauds]

Jay McInerney: Most people
say him as the author of
Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Truman Capote: "I've got the
most terrifying man downstairs"

she said stepping off
the fire escape into the room.

"I mean he's sweet, but he isn't
drunk, but let him start

lapping up the vino and oh God
quel beast!

If there's one thing I loathe
it's men who bite."

She loosened a grey flannel robe
off her shoulder

to show me evidence of
what happens if a man bites.

[Moon River plays in background]

Sadie Stein: We all think
of Audrey Hepburn now

and of course you read the book
and it's completely different.

She's a barely legal teenager
from Appalachia or something

and quite openly a prostitute.
Makes no bones about it.

And is a strange combination
of manipulative and used
by the world.

The book is a lot grittier.
There's much less of a facade
of glamour.

Of course it doesn't have
the love story.

What do you think? This ought
to be the right kind of place
for a tough guy like you.

Garbage cans, rats galore.

Scram! I said take off!

George Plimpton: Oh yeah?

Announcer: Audrey Hepburn
as Holly Golightly searching
for love in the big town.

Jay McInerney: I think there's
a lot of Truman's own mother
in Holly Golightly.

Truman's mother was like Holly
from a small southern town.

She was also a bit of
a courtesan.

Kate Harrington: Truman's
childhood was in some ways
heart-breaking.

His mother abandoned him
and left him in rural Alabama,

and he got to stay with
these couple of aunts

and he - his cousin was his
dear friend who he called Sook.

She probably had some
developmental problems.

So she saved him.

Narrator: Spoons spin around
in bowls of butter and sugar.

Melting, nose-tingling odours
saturate
the kitchen

and drift out into the world
on puffs of chimney smoke.

We are cousins,

and have lived together as long
as I can remember.

We are shy with everyone.

Other people inhabit the house
and frequently make us cry.

We are not too much aware
of them.

Colm Toibin: All of those
relationships are distant.

He's brought up in this
household

where there's no possibility
of either mother or father.

Orphanhood, in other words
he was brought up

by the same people who'd brought
his mother up.

And so I mean you just imagine

that you know that it's
the second generation of people
who come from broken marriages.

He said to me once how do you
think I felt living there?

I'm little but I'm old.

Kate Harrington: He said here's
this little gay, sawed off man.

I guess 'cause he means
he was so short. He said
it was dreadful.

Come on. [Mischievous music]

Jay McInerney: Truman shared
a childhood with his aunts,
and with his buddy Harper Lee

in the small southern town
which was later immortalised
not only by Truman,

but also by Harper Lee
in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Kate Harrington: Harper Lee
was someone who he loved.

In To Kill a Mockingbird he's
that little, annoying boy
who lives next door.

Good morning. My you're up
mighty bright and early.

Well I've been up since 4:00.

Calpurnia: 4:00?

Oh yes, I always get up at 4:00.
It's in my blood.

You see my daddy was
a railroad man till he got rich.

Now he flies airplanes.

One of these days he's just
going to swoop down here
at Maycomb,

pick me up and take me
for a ride.

Colm Toibin: I mean people kept
letters from him.

There are two early letters
both of which I love.

One to the novelist
Thomas Flannigan

who is a schoolmate
and just a letter saying

all the lies I have been
spreading about Thomas Flannigan
are untrue.

I promise never to say anything
about him to anyone again.

In other words that already aged
10, 11, 12

he was known as someone who made
things up and caused trouble.

And he also was known as someone

who could switch identities
and wanted to do so.

And the other is to his father.

Narrator: As you know my name
was changed from Persons to
Capote, and I would appreciate

that in the future you would
address me as Truman Capote.

As everyone knows me
by that name.

Announcer: Truman Capote's
Breakfast at Tiffany's.

[Whistles]

Kate Harrington: Truman's
mother went to New York.

Won't you join me?

Kate Harrington: She was very
pretty and she finally captured
a rich man, Joe Capote.

I'd marry you for your money
in a minute.

Would you marry me
for my money?

In a minute.

Kate Harrington: Truman's mother
asked Truman when he was
in his teens

to come live with Joe Capote
and her. And Joe adopted him.

Jay McInerney: Truman's mother
was someone who wanted to

achieve success in the city,
and in fact did.

She actually lived on
Park Avenue for a while and
made a splash as a hostess.

Kate Harrington:
Later in his life in the 50s

Nina had a very sad end
where she killed herself.

So - and Truman always said
that, that was the thing
that he drank over.

He would say to me I watched
my mother die in my arms.

I don't know if that's true,
but I - that's what he said.

I mean Truman used to always say

don't let the truth get in
the way of a good story.

Sadie Stein: His mother
did not accept him.

Despite his celebrity,
despite his brilliance

was never happy about
his sexuality.

But to have a parent
commit suicide,

especially one with whom you
haven't had a good relationship,

that's one of the most traumatic
things that can happen
to someone at any age.

And...

you don't get resolution
for that.

Dotson Rader: He was embittered
by his mother. She essentially
tossed him out.

I don't know how old he was
four, five, six
something like that.

And I don't think he ever
forgave her for that.

And I think it's the reason
he had this terrible need
to be loved.

And I don't think Truman
ever thought he was loved.

I'm serious I don't
think he ever found it.

Hello Carole how are you?
Nice to see you again.
Well here we are.

♪ "The Girl From Ipanema"

Kate Harrington: He loved Babe
more than the others.

And I only say that because
he talked about her the most.

Narrator: Isn't it true that an
impression of coldness
accompanies perfection?

Might it be that what you feel
is actually fear?

It is as much fright as
appreciation which causes
the stabbed-by-an-icicle chill

that for a moment murders us
when a swan swims into view.

Truman Capote: I come
from St. Teresa;

more tears are shared
over answered prayers than
unanswered ones.

And I thoroughly believe
that to be a great truth.

♪ "The Girl From Ipanema"

Dotson Rader: Women ruled
New York society.

At the very top of high society

were some extraordinary
looking women

who had great grace,
intelligence,

and most importantly
great taste.

Sadie Stein: The effort
was visible, and the money
that went into it was visible.

And I think some
of that artistry,

the literal putting on of masks
and costumes

must have very much appealed

to someone as naturally
theatrical as Truman Capote.

These women were brought up
in a world of polish and shine.

Although we were probably doing
the polishing and shining.

Someone I know in fashion
had her handbags polished
by her French maid Yvonne.

Yvonne ironed how $5 bills.

So if she needed to catch a taxi
after dinner she'd have a crisp
$5 bill.

This is the kind of thing that
creates the legacy of style.

And it is permanent.
It is a style that goes forever.

And it's aspirational.
It is totally aspirational.

Truman opened up these gates
to this sort of paradise
he prepared for himself.

Colm Toibin: His letters are
amazing. If he goes on a boat
with five people

he has a vicious thing to say
about each of them. Oh her last
doctor said no more face lifts.

Or the man who had his face
lathered by 10 year old boys
every morning.

It's just disgusting and you
know, everyone's disgusting.
Everyone's boring him.

He's in Greece and he says
the only words of Greek
he's learned

is "go away fat girl.
Go away fat boy."

Dotson Rader: You don't break
into that world; you're taken up
by that world.

Because the chief problem

that rich people face is
the endemic boredom

of living in a social ghetto.

Because one class of people
all think the same way.

All who have the same desires,
all who have roughly the same
amount of wealth

and they bore each other silly.

[Upbeat jazz music]

Dotson Rader:
Can you imagine the dinner
parties he was invited to,

if he didn't go how boring
they would be?

He was expected to perform
and perform he did.

Oh God, didn't you
ever hear this story?

They had him as the
entertainment.

Which must've been exhausting
for Truman on some level

to always feel like you had
to be on,

but I think he thought it was
a small price to pay
to get to live that life.

So watch out. [Laughs]

[Water splashing]

Well in those days homosexuality
was not acceptable.

There were very, very few people
who were out.

But there were you know
people used to call them walkers
you know?

That - a lot of women would have
gay men take them to parties
and that sort of thing.

And everybody sort of knew
who was and who wasn't,
but no one ever discussed it.

I'm sure their husbands did.
The word pansy was flying
around Park Avenue.

Straight people or as we call
them breeders

looked at Truman like they
looked as effeminate gay men.

Objects of contempt
and ridicule.

Loel Guiness: Gloria loved him.
She stayed with him a lot.

I used to say it's bedtime,
off you go because he'd talk
all night.

Yes pa, off he'd go.

Truman had thought of himself
as a master.

And then it becomes clear to him
that they think of him
as a servant.

And that was a blow.

[Wind blowing]

[Laughs]

[Upbeat jazz music]

Colm Toibin:
He didn't get a story.
He was out of his own world.

He would lose himself
in his own world.

And that story
seemed to him Kansas.

It was so far away from what
he was doing that it sort of
woke him up.

Truman Capote: In Cold Blood
is the story of these six people

who died together November
15th, 1959

and my book is the story
of their lives and their deaths.

Jay McInerney: He steps entirely
outside his world, his comfort
zone, and even his genre.

He called it a non-fiction
novel.

But until that moment
novels had been [laughs]
precisely fiction.

Once you blend fiction
and non-fiction things get
a little slippery you know?

It is dangerous.

This is the new adventure
of mine; this experiment is what
I call the non-fiction novel.

Colm Toibin: He did a thing
that journalists do which is
to engrace yourself with people

whom you don't know,
who you hope never to see again

but you want to be
their best friend

just now because you need
to get something from them:
a quote, a story.

The difference with Truman
Capote was that he did it
over a six year period

and that he did it to most
of Kansas.

[Birds singing]

Sadie Stein: There's so much
speculation about the degree

to which Capote manipulated
his subjects especially in
In Cold Blood.

That he became very close
to Perry Smith

to exhort personal confessions
from him to enliven
the narrative.

Truman Capote: This is a picture
of Perry and these were taken

the very day he was captured
and went to prison.

See there they were taken
during the course of my very
first interview with him.

Colm Toibin: Harper Lee
who was there says

the minute he appeared
and Truman Capote saw him

he had something that matched,
something that worked.
It was a sexual thing.

Of course it upped
the whole business of his book

because he was writing a book
about a sort of figure

that he had come to want.

Which do you think?
That's the picture of Perry
I think is the best.

Colm Toibin: It's possible to
say that he went into the story

with his own Cold Blood.

He was using his charm to get
close to all these people.

But he was also emotionally
involved.

Be very, very careful
how you read this story.
He was needy too.

Perry was a strange and
difficult boy,

but we became very um, very,

very close too and very intimate
sort of

an intense sort of friendship.

Don't know if friendship's
exactly the word, but some kind
of very intense relationship

having to do with his total
loneliness.

And of course because of
my work.

His own face enthralled him.
Each angle of it induced
a different impression.

It was a changing face
and mirror guided experiments

had taught him how to bring
the changes,

how to look now ominous,
now impish, now soulful.

A tilt of the head,
a twist of the lips

and the corrupt gypsy became
the gentle romantic.

Man: I really think you've
written a masterpiece here.

Well, thank you. You'll get
a much better dedication

[laughs]
because of that sweet thing.

Announcer: A book about
this crime by Truman Capote

became a worldwide bestseller.

Now a motion picture brings
this book to the screen.

[Gunshot]

Colm Toibin: He wrote too many
letters to too many people

in the months beforehand saying

he needed a goddamn execution
to end this book.

Saying the stays of execution
have to stop.

Meaning these
people have to die.

Colm Toibin: This was one side
of him you know

he really just needed his book
and he didn't care
about anything else.

But I think we have to allow
for something else to be
there too.

It's absolutely clear
to me that it wasn't as simple
as Cold Blood on his part.

That there was fright of
where he had got himself.

Perry was going to die
in this horrible way,

in this public way.

You can say to this day
that nobody has done a real
live murder story as well,

with such an amount
of immediacy and clarity,
and attention to detail,

and sort of coldness.

This may have been the real
Truman Capote.

The rest of the time is
just fun, lunch, dinner.
Self-invention.

Only person who knows me
will be the reader of this book.

[Slow jazz music]

André Leon Talley: In Cold Blood
propels him into a world
of achievements,

and a world of wealth.

So Truman Capote gave arguable

the only important ball
in the 20th Century.

And it is still legendary.

They all met here
at the great ball room
that we're - the Plaza.

So this was a moment in time.
It was a bigger than life event.

As a young black man sitting
in North Carolina about to
graduate from high school

I immediately ripped the pages
of Vogue Magazine out and put
the whole thing up on my wall.

[Upbeat jazz music]

My entire room
was wallpapered in Vogue pages.

The New York Times did
the most unprecedented thing.
They published the entire list.

So if you said oh, I was invited
to the ball but I decided
to go on a vacation

you'd be caught out.
You'd be busted and
that's what I loved the most.

♪ I'm in with the in-crowd and
I go where the in crowd goes. ♪

♪ I'm in with the in-crowd,
and I know what the in-crowd
knows. ♪

♪ Anytime of the year,
don't you hear? ♪

Reporter: All the ladies
are wearing masks
on Truman Capote's order's

and the inky wretches of
the press on his orders also

are being kept at a discrete
distance from the guests
outside this door.

The people arriving here have
come from Rome, from Hollywood,

Venice, Paris, Washington,
San Francisco, London

just to go to a party.

540 or so have dressed,

and coiffed, and masked
themselves, and presented
themselves at the Plaza

for the honour of serving
themselves at Truman Capote's
bar and saying they were here.

♪ Anytime of the year
don't you hear... ♪

Sadie Stein: Maybe that
had always been the pathos
of his childhood dreams.

Being somewhere grand,
having all the most beautiful,
important people in the world

in costumes and Venetian masks.

[Flash bulb]

As people made their appearances

Truman like a 12 year old
clapped his hands,

jumped up and down saying
oh you're my favourite.

Oh, you're the most beautiful.
Oh you are the best.

Oh yours is the most
successful

to every person that walked
into that ball.

My first impressions were coming
into the Plaza Hotel.

The New York gossip press
was behind barricades.

[Camera shutters]
It's the beginning of
the celebrity culture
in America.

My most memorable moment was
dancing with Luciana Pignatelli,

the Princess. She was wearing
in the middle of her forehead

a large jewel rented for an
unconscionable amount of money.

Waltzing her around
the dancefloor I could see
these two heavyset gentlemen

moving in time with the music.

They were sent by the jeweller,
heavily armed Pinkerton men

to keep their eye at all times
on the jewel.

Not on Luciana, on the jewel.

There are many enchanted
kingdoms.

Mark Twain wrote
"a society that is the sum

of its vanity and greed
is not a society at all.

It is a state of war."

And that is the society
of Truman Capote

is putting on stage
in the enchanted kingdom
at the Plaza Hotel.

And the state of war that exists
outside of the magic kingdom

is for the moment
a temporary truce.

[Whimsical music]

George Plimpton: That's right.

[Flash bulb]

[Upbeat jazz music]

Truman Capote: For the first
hours of it before the unmasking

anybody can dance with anybody
they want to,

or talk to anybody they want to.
It's a completely free thing.

And by the time the unmasking
come you've made a lot of
new friends.

[Laughs] And that was the point.

Lewis Lapham:
It worked wonderfully.
It's the same kind of feeling

you get if you're asked to go
on a talk show

and there you are
in the green room
with the famous actress,

and the dog trainer.

And we are a band of brothers.
Temporary, temporary.

Of course when we got away
from the green room

then we're very happy to knife
each other in the back.

Dick Cavett:
I didn't get invited to his
famous masked ball.

[Laughs]

I first met him on my show.

He has managed to become
a darling of the Beautiful
People,

so he conducts that life
and also manages to get
his work done.

Would you welcome please
Truman Capote right here?

He would kind of swing out
onto the stage

and go like that [claps]

and I thought well this is going
to be interesting.

[Excited brass music]

You want to try the hat?

No I can't - I don't need a hat
with three balls.

I'm just an average person.
[Audience laughter]

I remember watching Truman on
stage at Madison Square Garden

with Mick Jagger centre stage

doing his version of grooving.

[Rolling Stones playing
in the background]

I remember thinking is this
what a writer should be doing?

A whole evening standing
on stage while Mick
is enthralling the audience.

The people would say it's Truman
Capote, it's Truman Capote.
Capote, you could hear it.

Truman Capote: A typical
one of my notebooks.

Kate Harrington: He had
a really hard time.

He would get up rather early
and go into his room.

And he would write for
about three hours.

But the day to day life with him
was incredibly calm and
pleasant.

He was delightful.
He was very nurturing.

We didn't have too many
groceries.

We ate out all the time.

He had canned soup,
raw shrimp, and tab soda.

And a lot of vodka
in the freezer.

[Upbeat disco music]

Dotson Rader: Near the end
of the 60s things began
to lighten up for gay people.

A lot of it had to do with
protests over the war.

The police had other things
to worry about.

You could go to a gay bathhouse
and not be afraid the police
were going to come in.

Truman and I used to go
bar cruising.

Bars became very specific
in the appetites they were
seeking to welcome.

Prison theme or registry of
lollipop with the other sailors.

And this was true of bath
houses. They became like
little theatres

only they were sexual theatres.

I thought it was fun and then
you combined that with this
incredible flood of drugs.

I mean eye popping it was
unbelievable you couldn't - it
was hard to accept.

And Truman found it fascinating.

I found it fascinating because
Truman and I shared one thing
that we were both voyeurs.

All writers are voyeurs.

[Motorcycle revving]

John Richardson: Truman
didn't want to go to respectable
nightclubs.

He wanted to go to all kinds
of bad places.

[Motorcycle revving]

I mean one which Truman
absolutely loved was
a lesbian bar

where the lesbians were
all in leather.

They all had motorcycles.
And the girls were very lively,
and they liked Truman.

He got some kind of response
from them, and everybody was
roaring with laughter,

and he knew just how to sort of
get them to as it were perform
for him.

And they went along with it.

I think his writing was affected
slowly, slowly

because he began to care more
about meeting all kinds
of people than writing.

And that's why Jack Dunphy
his long-time lover

shifted away from Truman.

Truman was drawn to all manner
of people.

I mean just the fact that
he fell in love with my father

you know who's like this guy
from the Bronx, this Irish guy
from the Bronx

even though he lived
in Long Island.

O'Shay was a banker.

He was vice president of some
bank out in Long Island.

And Truman said he met him when
he went to open an account.

He was asked that you need
a place to deposit money,

and Truman said well
I don't know about money
but I take deposits.

And Truman said
at that point he - he went down
on Jack O'Shay

and [clears throat]
and as they say [laughs]

he was over the rainbow. So...
[Laughs]

Point of fact he'd met him
at the East Side Sauna,
it's a bath house.

Kate Harrington: I was so happy
for my father with regard to his
meeting Truman.

Because he seemed happy
for the first time in his life.

And I was so, so crushed when
the same problems he had -

his violence, and his
alcoholism, and his cruelty

he was - he had a cruel side
my father -

began to manifest in Truman's
life. I was crushed because
I had -

my fanciful idea that it was
only because he was gay and he
was unhappy um, in our home

wasn't the truth.

[Car engine]

They were driving
along highways at night-time
and they got into a fight.

He slugged Truman and then
opened the door and
shoved him out of the car.

Truman didn't know where he was
and he said I saw this
little light in the distance

and I walked, and I walked
and I went off into this,
and I knocked on the door.

And I said please help me,
help me.

And this man opened the door
and he looked at me and he said
oh my God you're Truman Capote!

He slammed the door
in my face. [Laughs]

Hey, don't you think that's
a good likeness? In his younger
days, his younger days.

Well it's taken from a gentleman
old Avedon photograph. [Laughs]

Reporter: How long ago Truman?

Truman Capote: That photograph?
[Laughs] It was seven,
eight years ago.

He's more handsome now
than then. [Laughs]

Truman Capote: I can see
something extremely clearly
in another person.

All their motivations, and
what's making the whole thing
turn around.

And do it with great
objectivity.

And I hope compassion.

Sometimes not so
compassionate.

But if I were to reverse
the whole thing around on myself
I can't do it.

Jay McInerney: He just
embarrassed his role as
the celebrity and he became

more of a talk show guest
than he did a working writer.

[Big band music]

Well there was a moment
on my show

I asked him in effect
why do you hang out
with all these fancy folks?

And he actually said way back
in the events of his life
I'm writing about them.

I was going [INAUDIBLE] that
these people are my material.

Ah you're there...

And when I now make
my forays occasionally
it's just to check up.

Is admitting this now on
television likely to reduce
the number

of invitations you'll get
because people will be
a little afraid?

Oh everybody knows what the book
is about.

No one's going to be
the least bit annoyed with me
unless they've been left out.

That's probably it.

He must have known that there
was danger in all of that.

He talked about his great book
you know which of course I'd
been hearing about for years.

We had - we all had you know?
The book was called Answered
Prayers, a great society novel.

And he'd been allegedly working
on it since before the
publication of In Cold Blood.

Answered Prayers was supposed
to be Truman's masterpiece.

He compared himself to Proust,
to Remembrance of Things Past

the great masterwork of
modernist literature.
[Page flipping]

Proust wrote about Parisian
high society and the aristocracy
of France in his time.

And this was the terrain
that Truman was exploring.

He was on the yachts,
he was on the private planes,
he was on the private islands.

He was privy to the secrets,
and the gossip.

I think there was a lot of hope
that Truman would pull off
something Proustian.

[Paper tearing and
then being crumpled]

[Upbeat jazz music]

George Plimpton: Shallow?

André Leon Talley: It was
a society he knew.

He was in the inner sanctum
of the Agnellis.

He was on the boats.

He was with Babe Paley.
He thought he could just
change the names

and people won't recognize her.

Bad judgment.

Narrator: Babe Paley had only
one fault. She was perfect.
Other than that she was perfect.

George Plimpton: Why?

George Plimpton: Oh my, nan.

Piedy Lumet: Oh my dear.

Dotson Rader:
When I first met her there
wasn't any warmth at all.

Your feeling was who the hell
does she think she is?

But with Truman she was
very different. She relaxed.

She laughed.
They had fun together.
It was fun. They were -

you're sitting having lunch
with them and somebody says
something and they just look
at each other.

They don't say anything.
They just look at each other
and then they start laughing.

Like kids sitting in
the children's table

giggling about what's going on
at the adult table.

And I thought it was very sweet.

I don't know anyone Truman
was with who had that kind
of unlimited acceptance with.

And I think that's why he was
happy with her. Because she
loved him, and he loved her.

What Truman thought
he was doing and I think
felt justified in doing

was taking the lid
off a bowl of shit.

Dick Cavett: Don't you have
a book about to appear?

Now for a couple of years
we've been waiting for
Answered Prayers

and have you turned it over
to the publisher yet?

No. I refer to it now as my
posthumous novel.

Because either I'm going
to kill it, or it's going
to kill me.

[Upbeat jazz music]

No matter what happens
I'm going to publish a big part
of it this coming fall.

Okay, we'll take a short break
and we'll be right back...

He finally wrote something
that cost him mortally.

This book exposed unspeakably

private things about very,
very famous people.

♪ Broadway, Broadway everybody's
happy... ♪

[Music cuts off]
[Glass shatters]

George Plimpton: That's right,
that's right.

It was these thinly veiled
identities of people he knew.
Stories about their lives.

And outrageous things that
people told him in secret,

and it was about these
cafe society people
that he had known,

these jet set people
and he basically told
all their secrets.

Dotson Rader: I didn't know
that anyone was upset by this
magazine.

Two days later I go to this
party at Josh Logan's.

Josh Logan's this big director -
movie and theatre director
in New York.

And his wife's name
is Netta Logan.

And who was this sort of
a barrel of an Irish cow.

And I - and I go in and
barrelling at me across the room

yelling how dare he?
How dare he?

Is Netta yelling and literally
she's going like this
how dare he? How dare he?

And I said what are you -
ah, you know what I'm talking
about! And she was going
on about Truman.

How could he do that? How could
he do that? How could he do that
to Ann? How could he do that
to Ann?

And that's how I found out
about it.

Ann Woodward is a blond showgirl
and she married old,
old New York money.

One day her husband was shot
to death.

In Truman's account of it
Anne set him up.

Narrator: She grabbed
the shotgun and shot what
she thought was a prowler.

Only it was her husband
with a hole through his head.

You don't think it was
an accident?

Come out of the trenches boy,
the war's over.

Of course it wasn't an accident.

She killed David with malice.

She's a murderess.
The police know that.

Leonora Hornblow: So they say.

[Pills clattering]

Dotson Rader: As a writer
I should probably be proud
because it shows that

what you write
actually can have an effect.

[Sad piano music]

Dotson Rader: She had a terrible
marriage. Bill Paley, Mr. CBS

he was famously a womanizer.

Announcer: They undressed
in the dark.

None of his tricks caught
her fancy.

She lay there like a missionary
outraged by sweating Swahilis.

Dill couldn't come.

He felt as though he were
sloshing around in some
strange puddle.

He felt sticky and strange
as though covered in blood.

As he was. So was the bed.

The sheets bloodied with stains
the size of Brazil.

As a woman reading it
you're like is that even
physically possible?

Menstruation is as normal
as breathing, or sleeping.

Sadie Stain: What was wrong
with her? Was she haemorrhaging?

Clearly this is somewhat
exaggerated.

Also was that considered a thing
that you would insult someone

by having sex with them
when you're? [Laughs]

Sadie Stein: He puts in so much
detail about how incredibly
unattractive the woman is.

Even by the ungenerous standards
of this story the description
of her is particularly cruel.

It's like he's trying to hurt,
and shock in every single way
he can.

Sally Quinn: One response was
[gasp] how disgusting.

And the other was [gasp]
how could your friend do this
to you?

[Thunder cashes]

Narrator: A short, sinister man
who looks exactly like
Truman Capote

is preparing a fiendishly
ingenious crime.

The victim is here at this very
table, at this very moment.

And so too ladies and gentlemen
is the murderer.

[Screaming]

Is he dead?

We touch nothing. We're all
experienced criminologists.

Dick Cavett: The backlash from
the individuals was wicked.

About a year ago you published
a thing in Esquire.
It's a work of fiction.

No it's not.

Well it's not is it? [Laughs]

Who - what friends did you lose
if I may be so bold?

No, no three friends that
I really liked. And it was -

they were very, very good, very
close friends of mine and...

Dick Cavett: It kind of
ruined him. It almost was
sort of suicide.

Nobody would have known
if they hadn't stood up and said
I'm so angry.

How dare he say that about me!

It's fiction for God's sake!

Good lord I mean what is wrong
with these people? Talk about
a lack of sophistication.

If it had been written about me
I'd say wonderful story,

who is he possibly writing
about? [Laughs]

Sadie Stein: Answered Prayers
is an early template
for reality TV.

Like the pettiness,
the interpersonal stuff.
Knowing this cast of characters.

Not really thinking it has
larger meaning except
in a pop cultural way.

I do think it's a precursor
to a lot of what we now
are living with.

Dick Cavett: I remember
his saying once what are they
upset about?

I was a writer. Did they think
I was with them because
they were so interesting?

[Instrumental jazz music]

Babe said for Christ's sake
don't talk to me about Truman.

And then eventually she'd
say well all right let's talk
about Truman.

Well what's happening now?

Kate Harrington: She's
the only one he cried over
their friendship ending.

That's why I think he loved Babe
the most. Because he spoke about
her forever, until he died.

I think he really, really never
got over the fact that she
disappeared from his life.

The main body of people who
he had lunches with, and who
he called first thing vanished.

Only CZ Guest stuck by him.

Kate Harrington: I would go
to this place called Studio 54.

[Party chatter]
[Upbeat disco music]

Once Truman said there's
a new place and we have to go.

It's a night club and it's
fabulous, and you're going
to love it.

Truman was one of the great
favourites there oh my gosh.

There was a huge crowd outside.

And little Truman would get out
of his limousine

and the guys would see him
and make a big path for him

and be like come on Truman.
Come on in.

And in you'd walk
to this inner sanctum.

André Leon Talley: It was
dazzling. It was almost
the Black and White Ball.

Except it was public.

It was very upbeat and positive.
You felt good at 54.

Kate Harrington: I just sat
and kind of watched it all.

Like it was in a movie.

I would stay until he'd make me
go home.

So I never saw the real crazy,
excessive whatever may have
happened after midnight.

André Leon Talley: It was
the last days of Sodom
and Gomorrah.

People having sex, drugged
out of their minds and you'd
just have to step over them.

They didn't even know who
they were having sex with.

You had to just gaze at
the moment of ebullient life.

Narrator: On these evening
patrols Joel had witnessed
many spectacles.

A girl waltzing stark naked,
an old lady dropped dead while
puffing out candles on a cake.

And most puzzling of all
two grown men in an ugly
little room kissing each other.

Dotson Rader: One of the things
that made Studio 54 attractive

is you could get cocaine there.

And I mean you
didn't pay for it.

It's totally integrated both
sexually and ethnically
you know?

Boys and boys, girls and girls,
girls and boys, mules and fire
hydrants. Anything goes.

Kate Harrington: Even though
he had so much fun during that
he was also beginning

a terrible, terrible addiction
to prescription pain medicine.

So that photo
of Gloria Swanson and I

where Truman's basically
passed out

is indicative of some of the sad
things that were going on.

He would come out of it,
and go back into it.

He would function and then
he would fall apart.

Because I had experience
with my father

I knew how to be the adult
and look after the adult
who was acting like a child.

Where were you last night?

Well I haven't actually been
to bed for about 48 hours.
I mean you know I...

How come?

Somehow got here today just...

Kate Harrington: I was just
going to take care of Truman
the way he took care of me.

When I say I'll do something
I do it.

Yes sir.

I really, really do it.
I'm you know?

Jay McInerney:
At the end he unravelled.
And he unravelled on TV.

One appearance in particular
where he clearly came directly
from Studio 54 drunk,

and coked out of his gourd.
He was making a spectacle
of himself.

Is that you have had
a history of alcoholism.

Jay McInerney: It was
a terrible thing to see.

How are you coming along
with the problem of drinking?

Dotson Rader: Truman had been
in and out of rehab.

And as I walked in the room
he looked oh hi Dotson.

And he said just a minute
I have to take my pills -

Antabuse - I have to take
my pill.

They have to see you take it,
and he took the pill.

And the nurse left and she shut
the door

and he goes works every time.
[Laughs]

And he said oh, you want
a drink? The bar's over there.
[Laughs] It's true.

John Richardson: I was walking
near my apartment and I suddenly
saw Truman a little aged dwarf

carrying a huge plastic bag full
of I don't know what. Bottles
and things which were clanking.

[Water pouring] He looked like
a beggar. And I said Truman!

Come back and have a cup
of tea with me. [Tea pouring]

I got him in. he's very wobbly.

Sat him down and went
to put a kettle on.

But by the time I'd made the tea

Truman had emptied
a bottle of gin

which I think was half full

and was drunk to start with, but
this time he was blind drunk.

And there I was looking an idiot
with a little tray with a little
pot of tea and so on

and I said look I've made this
for you. No interest at all.

And so off he went
into the dusk.

I was taking...

Dick Cavett: One program he
seemed ill on the show.

And there was a phrase
he kept using.

I seem to be going through
this terrible haze of pain.

And I said to him one day I said
will you cut that out, stop it.

Dick Cavett: I thought he might
get up and have to leave.

And he just laughed you know?

Haze of pain is a good phrase
though. The writer was still
at work yeah.

Narrator: Let's order something
that takes forever so we can get
drunk and disorderly.

Say a Soufflé Furstenberg
could you do that?

The maître d' tutted his tongue.

Soufflé Furstenberg is a great
nuisance, an uproar.

An uproar said Lady Ena
is exactly what we want.

Jay McInerney: It seems
to have been almost a literary
hoax in a way.

You know certainly he meant
to write it, but

I really - I don't think
there's any evidence
that anything existed

except the few published
excerpts.

Excerpts of a novel
that doesn't exist. [Laughs]
That's a good one.

Kate Harrington: He wrote
on yellow lined legal pads,
and he wrote by hand.

He didn't typewrite anything.

So he had so many pads lined up

and so I just assumed
as the pile grew

that he was in fact
finishing his book.

I don't know what happened
to the manuscript,

but I do believe that
he had one.

He would tell me that it was
just wonderful, and wicked,

and people were going to be
so surprised.

And I know some people think
the whole thing was a lie,

but it couldn't have been
because he was sitting there
writing, and writing,

and writing something.

Yeah, I think he completed
the book. He said he completed
the book.

I mean I don't know if you can
find a source that says Truman
told me he didn't complete
the book.

I don't know, Truman told me
he'd completed the book.
I thought the book was done.

It was one of his really best
friends says that he gave her
a key to a safety deposit box.

And indicated that the novel
was in there.

But I have no idea what
safety deposit box it fits.

There are millions of those
things around.

And I don't know how
you ever would tell.

4 million, 4 million 200,000,
4 million 400,000.

Maybe 20 years from now,
30 years from now suddenly it's
- someone will find it

[clears throat] and you'll have
to pay a pretty penny to get it.

But do I think it exists? Yeah.

It may show up in an auction
someday, who knows?

Auctioneer: Anyone wish
to give more telephone bids?

Someone probably bought it
like they buy art

thinking well maybe
10 years from now darling,

this will be worth something.

Just like the de Kooning
we bought. [Laughs]

All done? [Hammer fall]

Reporter: When he died
at the age of 59

Capote had not finished
what he called his final

and most important book
Answered Prayers.

The book was about life
among the unhappy rich

where Capote spent much
of his time. [Sad piano music]

Dotson Rader: When he writes
about the rich or the powerful

contempt just bleeds
through him.

The most beautiful writing
is about people that don't have
any money.

Who aren't famous, who aren't
celebrated. That's where you see
Truman's heart.

George Plimpton: Yes.

[Tape spinning]

[Sad piano music]

Oh, well then you -
how can you come here

and talk to me about it?

Jesus, we've been having this
big discussion here based on

something that I thought he had
this intimate knowledge.

[Laughter]

Dick Cavett: What is heaven
for Truman Capote?

I think he probably felt
he was in it for a time.

Ballsy little guy.

André Leon Talley:
I have Truman's sofa.

The sofa that he was
photographed on in Brooklyn.

And I bought some little
ornaments for the table.

Little matchstick holders and
lots of little things like that.

[Pop]

What I wanted to buy but
I regret that I didn't

was a box of cookies.

Truman had gone through
his entire life with

ginger cookies
made by Aunt Sook.

They were little gingerbread
men dried and desiccated.

His Aunt Sook's gingerbread
cookies went with him
everywhere.

So extraordinary that his
childhood meant so much to him.

These things mattered you know?

Kate Harrington: Truman had
a composition style notebook.

He just said if you want to live
with me you have to write
about your life.

So I said well why? And he said
because your life's about
to change

and it's the only way you'll
hold onto who you really are.

So I always think of that
with him.

[Sad instrument music]

♪ I didn't know what time
it was. ♪

♪ Then I met you, oh what
a lovely time it was. ♪

♪ How sublime it was too.

♪ I didn't know. I didn't
know what day it was. ♪

♪ You held my hand warm like
the month of May it was. ♪

♪ And I'll say it was grand.

♪ Grand to be alive,
to be young, to be mad,
to be yours alone. ♪

♪ Grand to see your face, feel
your touch, hear your voice. ♪

♪ Say I'm all your own.

♪ I didn't know what year
it was. ♪

♪ Life was no prize.

♪ I wanted love and I hear it
was shining out of your eyes. ♪

♪ Oh eyes and I know
what time it is now. ♪

[Jazz guitar solo]

♪ Grand to be alive,
to be young, to be mad,
to be yours alone. ♪

♪ Grand to see your face, feel
your touch, hear your voice. ♪

♪ Say I'm all your own.

♪ Oh I didn't know what year
it was. ♪

♪ Life was no prize.

♪ I wanted love and here
it was. ♪

♪ Shining out of your eyes.

♪ Oh eyes, and I know what time
it is now ♪

♪ And I know what time
it is now. ♪

♪ And I know what time it is.

♪ I didn't know.

♪ I didn't know what time
it was. ♪

♪ I didn't know. I didn't
know what time it was. ♪

♪ I didn't know. Didn't know
what time was. ♪

♪ Oh, I think I know.

♪ I think I know what time
it is. ♪

♪ I think I know. I know
I know what time it is yeah,
yeah, yeah ♪

♪ I know what time it is.

♪ I got the time.
I got the time. ♪

♪ I know what time.

♪ I know what time. I know
what time it is. ♪

♪ Finally I know what time
it is. ♪

♪ Finally I know what time
it is. ♪

♪ I got the time.

♪ I got the time, I know.

♪ I know what time it is
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. ♪

♪ I know what time it is.

♪ Ooh, I know what time it is.
I know what time it is. ♪

♪ I know what time it is.