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Ever since Breakfast at Tiffany's debuted on the big screen in 1961, the absurd vision of a waiflike woman dressed for a cocktail party in a black frock and pearls gazing into the famed jewelry store's window in broad daylight has become an emblem of the American dream. The film serves as a reminder of an abiding fantasy to rise from a mundane existence and bask in unadulterated freedom, with style and charm of course. Even after 40 years, posters of the film's heroine, Audrey Hepburn, in the iconic role of Holly Golightly continue to hang above the beds of countless girls enjoying the newfound independence of their college careers.
Sam Wasson's book, Fifth Avenue, 5 a.m.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman, weaves together a narrative of the people who, despite the rigid gender roles and expressions of sexuality of the Eisenhower era, transformed a story about a high-class hooker into a Hollywood classic and the morally questionable leading lady into a timeless heroine. In eight cleverly titled chapters beginning 10 years before Breakfast at Tiffany's captivated audiences and concluding after the film's release, Wasson's book takes the reader on a journey back to America's “Golden era,” a time before Betty Friedan's (1963) Feminine Mystique hit bookshelves and gave “the problem” a name. Wasson focuses his narrative on the birth of the character Holly Golightly and her journey to the big