Hollywood's

OTHER VOICES
OTHER IMPERSONATIONS

Truman Capote

Having produced one of the most BORING Hollywood films of all time, the producers of this pile of junk-BIO decided that the ONLY WAY to promote and market it was to SELL the public on the 'remarkable performance' by Philip Seymoure Hoffman in the role of the lead protagonist - Capote himself!

In the late 1940s on a cliff a few miles outside of Tangier there was a pensione called El Farhar - with its own private beach below. It consisted of a half-dozen one-room cottages (each with private bath & toilet) plus a large main house with dining room and lounge. Breakfast was served in the various cottages (whatever and whenever wanted) and main meals, lunch and dinner, were available in the large house (if you wanted either). All this for $75 weekly - in those days. Excellent place to retreat from the hustle and bustle of Tangier itself. The perfect place to be more or less on your own in the winter if you were 'writing' something (or other).

Accesss to this comfortable and inexpensive place-location was mainly by 'invitation' from one of the permanent residents - such as Paul and Jane Bowles. The owners of this unique pensione was an Anglo-American couple, Mr. & Mrs. Buckingham and their children, They used the guest cottages mostly to pay for the expenses of keeping up the larger house.

I had already spent one summer and winter at the El Farhar (thanks to Bowles) when in the summer of 1950 two new 'guests' took over one of the cottages. Truman Capote and his partner Jack Dumphy were invited by Jane and Paul Bowles.

I knew who Capote was but had never read his first book that made him quite famous for a young writer: Other Voices, Other Rooms. He was then about my age - 25. I had already started becoming a 'publisher' in Paris (the Zero Press) a couple of years before, but Capote was not necessarily the sort of writer whose work interested me very much.

Yet I thoroughly enjoyed his company at the El Farhar that summer - and his mate Dumphy. Every early evening Capote would invite all the other guests, including myself, for 'cocktails' in his cottage. He was an expert 'martini' mixer. But it was his stories - mainly gossip - that entertained us the most. Talk about a sharp tongue and amusing banter. Machine gun laughter!

Not long after we were settled in for the entire summer a close friend of Capote's arrived from the UK : someone who already knew Tangier well and had taken over a house closer to the centre. This was Cecil Beaton - the British 'royal' photographer. Cecil visited our pensione almost daily - just because of our private beach. Some photos he took of Truman there were splattered over the pages of fashion magazines the following fall.

Cecil also gave a 'costume ball' that summer - for whose birthday I don't remember - and produced the costumes that all of us wore. A pleasant time was held by all.

For some reason Capote decided that I was the only person he wanted to go into Tangier with every few days by private taxi cabs. These trips were for him to check for his mail at the British Post Office and any shopping he needed. As I knew Tangier quit well by then I could show him the main 'socco' (square) where we could sit outdoors at a French cafe and watch the crowds go by. And also show him the 'petit socco' (square down in the old section of town) where the crowds were sleazy and dangerous. I got to know Truman quite well on those trips.

Having said all the above I happened to be in San Francisco last fall when the Hollywood movie CAPOTE opened. My Deputy Publisher persuaded me to check out a screening of CAPOTE - as I normally would not waste my time seeing such films. And I did want to compare the summer I spent with Capote with who/what Hollywood would make out of him.

What a surprise? Yes indeed! The fellow playing Capote (Philip Seymoure Hoffman) had a remarkable resemblance to the real Capote I had known (way back then). But what he said (dialog) was totally unrecognizable. Who ever wrote the 'lines' for him to speak NEVER himself/herself ever knew or spoke with Capote. He would never use those 'words' - if my memory is correct - no matter what the subject was. But, as the movie itself was typically Hollywood junk-dialog, it didn't matter. Whatever the movie was really about - nothing much really - was besides the point.

My conclusion: someone who looked like Capote played him with a dialog script that was written by typical Hollywood hacks. The kind of thing you'd expect from some one like Gore Vidal - who did write many Hollywood screenscripts. GPS