The Death of Truman Capote: His Shocking Downfall and Betrayals.
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- Опубліковано 20 вер 2024
- Explore the dramatic decline of Truman Capote and his final years in this captivating deep dive. Step back into the late 60s, an era when Capote dazzled the New York City elite, and witness the unraveling of his friendships with the glamorous 'Swans'-Babe Paley, Slim Keith, Gloria Guinness, C.Z. Guest, Marella Agnelli, Pamela Harriman, and Lee Radziwill. Discover how Capote, once a trusted confidante, ignited a scandal with his explosive, unfinished novel 'Answered Prayers.'
Experience the intricate dynamics of jealousy, rivalry, and betrayal that destroyed cherished relationships and led Capote into isolation. This video meticulously documents Capote's journey from a celebrated author to his tragic demise, highlighting his battles with addiction, his increasing alienation, and the devastating impact of his words on his life and legacy.
Join us to uncover the real stories of these high society icons and the painful truths behind Capote's tumultuous final years. Like, share, and subscribe for more in-depth analyses of history's most fascinating figures. Don’t miss out on our future content-hit the bell icon to stay updated!
#TrumanCapote #SwansFallout #HighSocietyScandal #BetrayalAndTragedy #AnsweredPrayers #LiteraryIcon #NewYorkElite #HistorysMysteries #annwoodward #babepaley
Than you everyone for supporting the Channel. We look forward to continue bringing you high quality content. We will post new stories on history's most famous feuds and people every Saturday. Sorry for mispronunciations, all future videos will be narrated by me personally.
The woman Onassis betrayed the most was his lover Maria Callas, "La Divina", the greatest soprano along with Joan Sutherland " La Stupenda'" of the post war WW2 era. He destroyed her after he married Jackie as surely as if he had pulled the trigger. However, her greatness remains in her recordings and in the hearts of all classical music lovers. Greek Tragedy at its most modern.
Great Comment,
😅Onassis was probably gay
You are absolutely correct
Precise.
That’s because Maria passionately and truly loved Aristotle; the same cannot be said for Jackie,
The quote about answered prayers that you attributed to Truman Capote was used by him but he was not the source. “More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.” - St. Theresa of Avila
The point is well taken, It is the epigraph he chose to use for 'Answered Prayers' I could have been more clear, there is no actual evidence it was said by St Theresa, but it is often attributed to her. You are right though, so thanks.
@@MythicMindScape21Either way, thanks for the fascinating back story!
@@pamcornelius9122 Thanks for Watching
Attributing the quote to St. Theresa makes sense. Capote's co-opting it does, too.
Capote always credited St. Theresa of Avila, Spanish Carmelite nun and mystic, with the quote.
The person who truly stuck by him until the end was Johnny Carson’s ex-wife, Joanne, who allegedly called the ambulance, against his protestations, as she found him dying. She was loyal, regardless of the circumstances, because he introduced her to Hollywood insiders and they shared and understood twenty years of each others ups and downs in life. Ironic that she was his true friend, like Harper Lee, but he sold out so many others. Sad.
Capote was a brilliant writer, very hypnotic, he was also a nasty little narcisstic man.
Social climber as well.
He was terrific!
The more i hear, the more he's a dkhd.
Um, not really. He wrote articles
even me i m little but not nasty. could you please stop to body dhame small people? for obese there is always a lot of compassion
Plumbers and gardeners probably have happier lives than the glamorous people in Capote's life.
The plumbers are wealthier! 🤣
Stealth Wealth.
I lived on the periphery of the “elite”. They live exactly like these people. I used to see them in restaurants hanging all over each other’s husbands. They were sickening.
Why wouldn't they?
When we first bought our house and called the plumber, he showed up in a brand new Cadillac!
They seemed a lot happier than him.
My husband's aunt by marriage was 'a swan.' He has no stories. However, my MIL does... Capote was a scoundrel hiding behind a one-hit wonder...
It is interesting, he tried to blend fact with fiction in his book, however everyone took the stories as fact. Perhaps they were, perhaps they were not. But certainly people believed they were and it ruined many lives including his own
Has it occurred to anyone how shallow Capote was?
Yet he could write until he drank away his talent.
@geraldmartin7703..........SHALLOW , MEAN SPIRITED AND JEALOUS .... he envied his swans their beauty etc because, they were everything he was not , and wished he were . they could attract men , he could only dream about . eventually , he was going to do to them , what he did..............
think he might be gay too
He supported Richard Hickock and Perry Smith to their faces promising legal aid while privately agonizing over how long it took for them to be executed. In Cold Blood was finished except for the last paragraphs. He needed them to be executed so he could publish it. Not sure if that's shallow or a smart way to get people to open up to him.
@owder4016 He had some sort of odd charisma. There was a TV documentary on how Capote did his research for In Cold Blood. When he arrived in Holcomb, Kansas to do interviews with residents and tour the murder scene, many of the residents intensely disliked him and wanted no part of his book and yet somehow, he won many of them over (including Smith and Hickock) but he was essentially doing the same thing to them that he ended up doing to his 'swans'...using them for a salacious story.
How awful to befriend and then betray these women so publicly. Just goes to show be very careful who you confide in and let into your life.
The lunacy of all of them. Just lunacy.
The audacity to betray somebody and then say “I forgive you” as a means to get back in their graces.
Knowing Truman and his presumed inability to 1) consider his actions ever "wrong," and 2) his loathsome, low self esteem, apologizing was probably simply an act he could NOT perform.
He meant it as a joke you fool, worded to invoke a smile, some call it an icebreaker
He was their dwarf. They all belonged and he didn’t. His talent became their entertainment. All he was to them was a witty gossip they could lean into when they became bored with their lives, which was often. A man who wasn’t a threat. He was smoldering angry, and brutal.
He was a disaster waiting to happen.He was not capable of being true friend to anyone.He was a broken man.
He wished he was born a woman married into a wealthy family.
Alcoholic mess. I think he wrote Answered Prayers to come up with something fast to get the publishers off his back. He knew how hugely popular gossip was.
He was very emotionally disturbed...
Probably not a popular opinion, but the pretentiousness, elitism and classism of "these people" is disgusting to me; the fact their culture includes not raising, loving or nurturing their own children because it was "too much of a bother;" horrible people.
I agree. 👍👍👍
Tbh, im fine with everything else but the not raising their kids super well, although to be fair to them, they were also raised this callously and this badly and kids were seen as bargaining chips for a better life rather than people with lives.
Is the people that run the world the and have influence over our leaders
Their socialite life was kind of fascinating to me…I guess sort of like my interest in royalty. Another world…but let me say I like to hear the stories but no way would I have wanted their lives…never. But you’re right about their parenting. They were terrible parents, particularly the wives…even Capote said the same thing.
Yeah in the novel capotes women they come off as lazy losers that let everyone else do the work. Babe was handed he vogue editor job for notoriety but barely worked. CZ and Lee in particular struck me as kinda losers. Neither worked for anything. Once anything got the slightest bit difficult they bailed. To me lee had the extra layer of bitterness and pettiness towards her sister Jackie o.
On his best days he had perfected southern prose in such a way that was very hard to match. maintaining the tools that’s required to achieve those levels are very hard on the soul. Ironic in that exposing everyone else, he only really exposed himself.
He was a horrible human being. Truly despicable.
Right. Of course these women who fell in love with him turned on him, ruined him, when he told the truth about them.
@@hamish11100He gained their trust and subsequently exploited them. Evil little elf.
@@jacqueblue You might be oversimplifying the story, just a bit.
@@hamish11100he was gay, so he didn't fall in love with women
think amoral i would say but not sure these ladies where any better . but agree he was very cruel to the people he wrote books about
Lee had Aristotle first?! How scandalous!
Regardless of his atrocious behavior I focus only on his writing and 'Other Voices Other Rooms' is simply brilliant.
Yes, Tru was brilliant.
I couldn't stand his affected voice. It sounded like hamsters in heat.
Artists who think they can survive the jet set are mistaken: Capote's downfall proves it.
Capote did it to himself. Without his betrayal and lies, he would have received a bunch of jewels on Babes death.
He got what he gave, which was nothing. He lived off the pain of others. He used people, and he acted as though he were the victim. Perhaps he was a sad little man. But he caused his own sadness, and he tried to take everyone down around him, they were insignificant his eye seemed to be that.
The women knew he was writing about them, they had simply expected something along the lines of Proust's Novel, what they ended up getting was a gossip column.
The social elite also took a bruising beating by Proust @@MythicMindScape21
@@MythicMindScape21they got exposed & it was wonderful.
"Was" the victim.
He was a predatory sociopath.
I read "The Grass Harp" when I was very young and really like the way he brought his characters to life.
It seems he was a sad man.
He had a talent, but the drugs and alcohol seemed to slowly rob him of it.
“They won’t know it’s them. They’re too dumb.” Said the high school dropout. They were truly educated in a way he never would be. And wasn’t he wrong. He sure was. He was the one who was “too dumb.”
He destroyed his own life, due to his envy and jealousy. Oh well.
It is amazing he thought so little of them.
Despite their fame and money, none enjoyed longevity.
Or real happiness it appears🤷♀️
Mrs. Agnelli died in 2019 at 91. She cut off relations with him after he read her excerpts from "Answered Prayers". She was not mentioned in " La Cote Basque 1965".
Capote & Gore Vidal [both brilliant wits] never stopped throwing shade at one another until Vidal remained the last of the two standing. Sad.
When Vidal was told that Capote died he responded "a wise career move".
Until The Feud series this year, I never realized what a cruel, shallow narcissist Capote was. So sad.
Those that knew him say he changed dramatically after the publication of 'In Cold Blood' some say it was the effect the crimes had on him, others that it was his new found celebrity status.
Unfortunately, his early family life made him ripe for his feelings. I can't absolve him because of this at all. I did enjoyed the character of Mr Truman Capote, but as a larger than life individual. He did deserved everything the "Swans" did to him. He's lucky he didn't end up like Sebastian Venable on the beach in "Suddenly, Last Summer".
You may try to READ Capote, it will do wonders for your English.
@@juliarmanUnnecessary 😵💫
@@fairyprincess911 Totally necessary. I'm doing a her a favor maam. Consuming literature is better than consuming miniseries.
How do you know she didn't read the play? Suddenly Last Summer is based on?
🤣😂🤣@@juliarman
He wrote Breakfast at Tiffany’s, one of my favorite films. That’s enough for me. What he did was wrong. Every group of friends has one that eventually goes rogue, just like siblings can. It’s unfortunate but it is what it is.
Tut-tut...what he "did" was NO big deal. Onward, Tru!
All these women did was get married and dress up
Sounds like a great life to me ☺️
So you believe everything Capote wrote and was made rich from?
The standard of living back then was nothing like today and people were interested in this. They weren’t jealous like people are today.
@@Donna-cc1ktyes I do. Some of his descriptions are quite apt 👍
@@mayapace6914for a short time maybe but emotionally it must be soul destroying & very empty. I do feel sorry for Babe but the others not so much. I think he described them quite aptly especially the Kennedy sisters.
For me, I found Truman Capote to be absolutely fascinating.
Yes! And what a writer…one of the best.
@@mollytaylor7045 thank you for the highlighted reply & the ❤️
Why? He was nothing more than a petty little man with some talent. He couldn't stand when someone got the spotlight other than him and he was a lying little shit. His attempt to claim credit for To Kill A Mockingbird - showed how yuck of a person he was.
I do too.
Destructive little man
He also pushed Ann Woodward over the edge. Her youngest son, who had his own issues, followed her a short time later.
My late mother was the godmother to the eldest daughter of one of Jock Whitneys first cousins who was also a cousin to Gloria Vanderbilt. My mother never said what she was told but it must have been something. Probably what wasn't said was more like it.
We were not allowed to have anything he wrote in our house, after that. Whe he was on the tv, off it went.
He was hurt a lot as a child, and when he grew up he didn't care who he hurt. Astonishing how casual he was about other people's lives, turning them into dinner party jokes.
Did he ever express regret for her death? Did he ever discuss it?
@@pbohearn He actually said later in life when asked this question ' A writer's only obligation is to himself' Which of course is a play on the Faulkner quote, 'A writer's only responsibility is to the art' Though very different.
BEYO\ND HEARTBREAKING....
When all you offer the world is great writing but nothing else, that is a sad waste. Not one ounce of kindness, just mean spirited
Truman defined the word "schadenfreude".
Most people would trip over themselves just to get a glimpse of these swans. Capote was kindly let into their ⭕ social circles⭕and he repays them like that.
Unfortunately it was tue booze doong the talking for him. Imagine how much better things would ve been for the writer if he wrote from a sober point of view.
Thank you for your sensitive portrayal on
these larger than life characters.
Money doesn’t talk it swears. Capote had talent. A brilliant author. These women married into more money. And they bought designers to design their couture clothing and design their million pound homes.
Actually, some were fairly accomplished. Babe Paley had worked for Vogue magazine before marriage, and C.Z. Guest and Marcella Agnelli were accomplished gardeners and had other talents, as well. However, in the case of all three women, their “masters of the universe” very powerful and rich husbands preferred that their wives’ energies and focus be on them. This combined with Paley’s and Agnelli’s husbands being serial philanderers must have been really frustrating for these women, despite the perks their husbands’ wealth provided them. One could call these marriages very transactional relationships. The women received lifelong financial security through their husbands, and the men had what you could call trophy wives : beautiful, sophisticated and stylish women who knew how to entertain well and provide suitable heirs, even if most of the swans were not devoted mothers with many of them spending most of their time fulfilling their husbands’ demands - “keeping up appearances.”Gianni Agnelli was particularly known as a man who insisted on utter perfection at home.
You are right, as did Bill Paley. Babe would rise every morning hours before him to make sure everything was perfect including herself. She was raised to be nothing more than a wife, that was the aim of her mother. Her sisters both had unhappy marriages. One to Astor, the other to Roosevelt. Society mothers in the nineteen thirties had only one goal for their daughters.
@@MythicMindScape21 Jackie and Lee were also raised that way: to score a very wealthy husband
He was damaged as a child. We never recover.
Yes, that is what I was thinking. Truman was so self-destructive and it came from his childhood, the abandonment by both his mother and father. Women, love your children, you have their souls in your hands.
He was vile, many have tragic childhood memories fuck that
While Truman deserved what happened to him, he had, once upon a time, had been a truly great writer. Some of his short stories are wonderful and I highly recommend his compilation; Music for Chameleons. He had a gift for being fascinated with people and being able to bring that to the printed page. He was at his best when he wrote about forgotten or socially alienated people and gave them a sympathetic voice. I was stunned when I read Answered Prayers. It is a terrible trash novel. I thought it was beneath him. It is so sad to see what he turned into.
I understand that the book “Answered Prayers” was either never finished or hidden away and never found or destroyed. You said you read it; do you mean him that you read his excerpts published in Esquire?
People, like little children, want their heroes and artists to be perfect. Truman was a shallow narcissist and a literary genius of the post-WW2/Cold War Americana.
@@nanny287 Yes. The excerpts were published in a collection and marketed as an unfinished novel.
@@stevengabbard930 Thank you for the information. I need to purchase and read those collected excerpts ASAP.
Truman Capote was one of the greatest writers of all time..He came from nothing in Alabama...His talent as a writer took him to meet the richest people ...He hated the rich and I love him for that. Everyone needs to read A Christmas memory...the greatest short story ever written.
This is funny, I just watched an old AMC movie “Murder by Death” in which Capote had a cameo. If a goofy satire of detective movies with Peter Sellers ( as Charlie Chan) Peter Faulk as a hard boiled detective and parodies of Nick & Nora ( Thin Man) and Poirot.
Truman played a pretty good version of himself in that.
Truman's downfall involved massive quantities of drugs & alcohol which essentially killed his productivity as a writer. Gore Vidal called Truman's death: "a wise career move". It was reported that his brain had shrunk to the size of a cashew.
In 1989 when Robert Morse played Truman on Broadway, Truman's homosexuality made him sympathetic. Now, feminism elevates the victim hood of the insanely wealthy and pampered women he mocked.
Truman was overpaid and overpraised. The swans were overindulged. They all abused substances (and the odd abstraction). There isn't a genuine victim in the bunch.
If a writer spends all of his/her time cavorting with shallow rich people, they will never produce art of any significance.
But he DID produce art and it was and is significant!
He really wasn't much different than Andy Warhol.... Both talented men, both "fabulous", both weird looking, both surrounded themselves with "It" people of the times, the movers, the shakers, the trend setters.... And pretty much sucked them all dry. "VAMPIRES". But at the same time, the people who hung out with Truman and Andy would not have if they had not been famous as well. So there's that. People who think famous people are immune to other famous people are SO WRONG. They bask in the elitism of the circle they get to be in. EVERY ONE OF THEM.
Andy Warhol stalked Truman. Read Gerald Clarke's biography, "Capote". Like you, I believe that Capote and Warhol were twins AND both were energy vampires and incredibly shallow.
Amazing how he loved his life with these ladies but when he violated their trust , he said he’s a writer as an excuse for his betrayal . To me he was a two faced friend who only cared about his needs and used others for money .
He was a sociopath. Harper Lee said he was a pathological liar and psychopath.
I don't understand how his swans could have seen him as anything more than an incessant gossip. He would constantly entertain them at parties with subjective negative gossip about people and while I understand they probably enjoyed the gossip, how could they not see him as being capable of doing the same thing to them.
It's a good question, and he didn't betray them all right away. Lee comes off looking good in Answered Prayers, Marella Agnelli saw him for what he was and left him. He wrote nothing about C.Z, as for Babe, I think she was desperately lonely and believed he was her friend.
He betrayed them all, he made a joke out of their secrets and made fun of their confidences. He was a colossal Ass!
Really great show! Capote was a hard core addict. This is the behaviour of a true alcoholic and drug addict. Addicts destroy others
too. Part of the disease. Awful.
Truman was a social vampire. Sucking bits and pieces from his beloved swans. And was never able to complete his manuscript. Thank goodness. In Cold Blood will be his greatest work, and he will be remembered for the novella Breakfast at Tiffanys.
Music for Chameleons, a collection of short fiction and non-fiction (published in 1980), is ranked by The Atlantic as Truman Capote's "best, most personal work."
I remember when Jackie married Onassis... everybody on TV were pulling their hair out because she was "betraying JFK's memory". Unreal how shallow some people are. However, Truman Capote was the shallowest of them all.
He clearly had some serious mental issues, these women were the "cremedelacreme", they accepted him into their inner circle and considered him a friend. I am baffled by his actions b/c what did he believe would be the result of his betrayl???
Remember one phrase of Ridley Scott's '1492': "If the world remerbers us,it will be because of him"...he made this women immortal,like those women who posed for Singer Sargent... No one would be talking abour them now if they hadn't inspired Capote...and it's hard to see rich people as victims,no matter what they think of themselves
Good point, but inspired him to what end. The worst thing he wrote was 'Unspoiled Monsters', and 'La Cote Basque'. Imagine how much higher people would have viewed his literary canon if not for those works.
Indeed. I was shocked by "La Cote Basque 1965". It was just mean spirited gossip.
Maybe this is one of those times when I shouldn’t learn about the author. I am just discovering Capote and find him one of the most talented authors I have ever read.
I also enjoy his early works, I think it is OK to separate the person from the work after all he was not guilty of any crime. Certainly not someone you would want as a friend, but for me anyway it doesn't diminish 'Other Voices Other Rooms' Breakfast at Tiffany's or In Cold Blood, though with in Cold Blood he did have a lot of help from Harper Lee and his actions with the convicts were pretty reprehensible.
Truman Capote was a user. He wrote one good book and rode that to abuse trust.
He did what his mother did.
Abuse.
2
He did more than write one good book, ALL his writings were spectacular and he's one of Americas greatest writers. He invented journalistic style writing and will always be honored and remembered for that. His estate is used to provide grants and gifts to college writers . Breakfast at Tiffany's, in cold blood, music for chameleons, a Christmas visit, a Christmas story,
He was a tortured soul who fell from, perhaps in the ninth circle of the Inferno, but he shone as brightly as a shooting star. His end was like a Greek Tragedy - his hubris destroyed him. He couldn't escape his childhood and couldn't let go of his demons. We can speculate but will never know what drove him to orchestrate his own destruction.
Dalestayley5637 you are delusional and full of bullshit lies, you don't know a fucking thing about Capote🔥🔥🔥
He wrote countless brilliant articles and several good books. I get why not everyone enjoys his style. I also don't like all his books but his talent was always obvious.
What a waste of a great gift. How sad.
I agree, he had a tragic childhood and perhaps that played a role in it, but it is always a shame to see such talent go to waste.
How was it wasted? We’re still reading his works, they’re still great.
@@theaboucher8884 Of course I did not mean to imply that Capote was not a great writer, he was. What I mean by 'wasted' is that I believe he could have done so much more, if not for the drugs and alcohol. His partner Jack Dunphy agreed, that after the Success of 'In Cold Blood' Truman became too involved in high society and the lifestyle and was no longer writing as he once had. Though, what you say is true, even if that had been the only book he had ever written, he would still be regarded as a great writer. I though, as a fan, am simply sad we didn't get more.
We enjoyed his books, during his brief stint, as a true writer.... Goodbye, Lily Mae's unwanted son.... Rest, in Flames....🔥🔥🔥
What s CAD....!!! He knew what was important, and it wasn't loyalty.....
Truman once said 'i think the only person a writer has an obligation to is himself'
"SOCIETY'S sacred monsters", indeed! not one of them was worth a flip, all sleeping with each other's spouses, rumormongering, living up the high life and not one mention of these people being philanthropists or doing anything to help society, just coifing their hair and putting on their makeup and going to haut restaurants for lunch and dinner and smoking 2 packs a day while chugging Stoli... not much of a life if you ask me. Also, Babe was reportedly a terrible and inattentive mother, and she was also jealous of her own daughter, Amanda! Then there is Truman...a brilliant writer, but there is not much else good to say about him. I think they all deserved what they got in the end, and I think it is hilarious that he outed them for the hypocrites they truly were!
I thought that Joanne Carson confessed years later that Truman had deliberately unalived himself and that she knew that he was going to do it and had agreed to help him.
Interesting comment thanks
Yes, he was at her home taking pill after pill after pill and he asked her to just let him go. His life was over, health gone, please let him go.
he was a great author and story teller, but a bad friend if he disclosed the personal details of his friends lives.
Wow Truman Capote hated those swans because he wasnt a swan. He set out to get in close by working their ego's and found all he could, only to eviserate the woman. Wonder wwhat he thought about Jackie O?
He thought very little of her. He spoke about her in the most disparaging way.
They all sold their souls. Must have been a hellish life. Cry driving a Ferrari rather than a Ford.
Truman was abandoned and traumatized as a child. His behavior is not at all surprising in that context. It’s awful because we’re basically impervious to therapy. Fortunately there’ve been big breakthroughs in treatment. But sadly for him they’ve only popped up in the last decade or so.
The Highest of all Human Virtues is LOYALTY ! ! !
An enemy can be respected - but not a TRAITOR ! ! !
May GOD have mercy on their Souls , for there is no redemption to be found for them in this world ! ! !
One of my fav author in cold blood was a masterpiece.
I read where Harper Lee actually wrote "In Cold Blood" , so it's possible he betrayed her too.
This was the best AI narration, ever. The info is correct. The illustrations, appropriate. This was a great watch! Are you spelling things out phonetically? Is this voice to text? Whatever you're doing, you're doing it right. Thank you 😊
Except the pronunciation of Agnelli. It's ON-YELL-LEE. Prego.
@@esquibelle Yes! Thank you!
Its obviously AI, the pronunciation of C B S is the first clue but every AI voice is annoying and AI will cost live narrators their jobs.
Even if it’s supposedly pronounced correctly, AI narration is still not a good thing.
CZ was impressive. She actually had a life.
Listened to lots of videos wanting to hear the details of the betrayals and finally this gave the summary of the many.
Capote mentioned a lot of no problem if so and so died...it would be good.
My how karma is relentless.
The purpose of life is Friendship development. Betrayal will make you lonely for eternity.
Thank you
Eventually, there are always red flags. This is what happens when you ignore the red flags and let a toxic person into your life.
I wouldn't trade my life for any amount of money. You can have this type of life.
I agree, they were all living debauched lives.
hello " a wise career move "........only gore, could have come up with that quip , 😍😍😍 i love it . great share , thank you , for sharing🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰.................
Thanks for watching!
I've loved all Capote's writings and when I first read Answered Prayers it was like another person wrote it. Snarky, cruel, gossipy and completely bereft of any element of his distinctive warmth and inimitable style. Several insiders say that the story 'Mojave' was originally to be part of Answered Prayers.... how wonderful if the whole book has been like that devastating story.
Why do you think he changed so much? Was it envy? Drugs, Alcohol? He portrayed Holly Golightly in such a sympathetic manner, I believe the Swan's expected the same.
@@MythicMindScape21 The self hate and the anger against his mother was always there - drugs and alcohol just turned his demons loose.
It is breath taking that with Capote's upbringing, scaled to the highest of heights.
If Answered Prayers had been good literature, Capote's betrayal of friends might have been forgivable. The book, however, reads like a Jackie Collins or Danielle Steel novel. Guessing the real person behind each character is the only interesting part. Capote was superficial, far shallower than the Swans. Significantly, he treated Harper Lee ungraciously because she was plain but fawned over Babe, Lee and Slim because they were beautiful, Frankly, I was never a Capote fan because I thought he was pretentious and snide.Also, he looked so old that I was surprised that he was only in his fifties when he died.
The women knew Truman was writing about them and their lives, but they had expected art as you mentioned, not a shallow airport Jackie Collins novel as you said.
They used this guy as some sort of amusement, so they got what they deserved... though I'm not defending Capote because I couldn't stand him!😒
If his personality matched his writing, he’d be forgotten.
In the end it did.
I do have to feel sorry for Truman Capote at the end of his life. I think that because he became of the most celebrated authors in America with the publication of "In Cold Blood" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's", he became somewhat arrogant and thought that he could do whatever he wanted. Capote believed that he was more intelligent than his "swans" and that they would never discover his ruse. How wrong he was! It seems that when his high society friend disowned him, that he slowly committed suicide with booze and pills. I'm glad that a few of the women still stood by him, like C.Z. Guest, and that he died in the arms of Joanna Carson. R.I.P. Truman Capote. You were a great writer.❤
there's a book about Johnny Carson called, "King of the Night." In it, out of the blue, is a riveting chapter about the death of Truman Capote literally in the arms of Carson's ex-wife, a nice lady. if you have any interest, you'll never forget it. Poor boy. His heart was broken and he wouldn't let her call for help while he had a heart attack and laid semi-conscious in her arms for hours, at one point calling out, "Mama!" it's unforgettable. god bless them both.
Gore Vidal called Capote's death "a wise career move".
Homosexuals having a tiff sure can be catty.
Vidal rarely had a good word about anyone.
He had no financial need to write anything at all after In Cold Blood because he claimed he made $3 million from the book and movie(about $18 million in today's money)
I agree, but he had fallen in love with his own celebrity and had been promising this book for 6 years, and had signed a 3 book deal with his publisher in 1969. It can also be said he very much viewed his book as a way to get even with many people, and that it was indeed a modern version of Proust's In search of Lost Time. The problem is though as he got more involved with the alcohol and drugs and the easy life, his talents had diminished.
Many times in Andy Warhol's personal diaries. Andy is quoted as saying after visits with Truman how broke Truman was.... Desperate for new ideas to raise a little bit of money....... Even today in my little world in the back Waters of America.... I see these high rollers in New York or California know they're blowing some more like 5,000 maybe a hundred thousand dollars a day...... The expenses of these high rollers can catch up with them
I think I should probably correct the reply I just gave because the Warhol entries I read or just a couple and they were about 14 years after 1969. Truman may have had his financial house in order in the late 60s. I do think I read somewhere and you said that he was a high school dropout I'll have to look that up
Hurt people hurt people...we sometimes need our entire lives to recover from our sometimes broken and traumatized childhoods...Capote never healed from his past....he became this hateful angry cruel person who bit continually the hands that fed him...not knowing what love loyalty and true friendship were he only knew and practiced betrayal and manipulation( and he was the master manipulator)..the Judas of the the time...what goes around comes around...a truly sad fate...what a way to go...
Certainly not my kind of reading material but absolutely perfect for today's social media savvy bunch… Maybe Capote was WAY ahead of his time?!
I am so excited for the next Feud as The Swans was so fantastic - I am hoping they do a new version of Larry Flynt’s “feud” with Jim Baker story for the next season - all of the involved people have died since the original movie in the 90s so I’d love to see a new version
I thought his feud was with Jerry Falwell.
@@edgregory1 Yes, it was Falwell.
I don't think Agnelli was a Swan. She's continental.
He did use people to gain popularity for sure…but apparently he fascinated everyone socially and thus the close relationships with wealthy people. He let the swans pour out there hearts, problems and shame …not knowing he was writing it all down. Once it was out he lost all but one swan friendship….it was all downhill after that…it took a while but he was destroyed. He died sad and practically broke.
He would often tell some small secret about himself, to show his vulnerability as a way to get them to reveal more and deeper secrets about themselves. He was a great manipulator, and I'm sure a great party guest, but if he is gossiping about everyone, you have to know that he is also gossiping about you.
Truman Capote was a pitiable, lost child. His life remains one of the saddest in human annals -- its tragedy and pathos eclipse and diminish even the brilliance of his literature.
For all Capote's genius, his soul knew no respite, no love, no safe harbor, no comfort. I pray God had mercy on his soul, but I fear not. Truman's influences were tragic, and contributed to his circumstances. But Capote made his bed, and, sadly -- as must we all -- he laid in it. Even until the end. Poor, poor man.
It’s surprising that, according to the series, he was so upset when someone called ‘him’ derogatory names; but he still expected all the socialites to give total acceptance and forgiveness .😮
Good point
Capotes friend, Jack Dunphy, was the most intelligent, classy person in this whole mess. He loved Truman despite everything.
He was, yet they all looked down on him. When in reality, he was the one all the time trying to dissuade Truman from not writing 'Answered Prayers' He viewed them all as phonies, and saw Truman falling into that world and his writing talents diminishing. But could do nothing, as Truman had fallen in love with his own celebrity.
They were beauties for THEIR day. Their wealth, access to fashion and lifestyle were the attraction. They were all miserable
They were always competing with something, bunch of shallow reptiles the lot of them.
Many people find Capote trite and dated. I think he's a man with a sharp eye who wasn't afraid to use it. I recommend "The grass harp" for anyone sitting on the fence about his writing.
Great video and details.
Oh gee what a shock! I expected Truman to be a totally deep and loyal friend and thinker. How can this be?? I’m just at a loss. 😮
I never liked him. He reminded me of a sneaky parasite. I was right.
I know someone like this . Ignore thier so called friendship. 💮
He was one of our most Brilliant writers.
What comes around goes around. However little has changed in today’s world.
The Swans did do anything to him that he didn't let them do to him because of his lust to be a part of that superficial clique
My guess is that Capote did not write anything after the infamous book about the Kansas murders because he had not nothing else important to say. He got to the point where he did not have to write for money or fame, and he waited for a big idea to come. And that idea never came, so he just kept writing about nothing important.
Good comment. I think his style also deteriorated. I am a fan of his early works. But the chapters of 'Answered Prayers' Do not have the beauty or style of his earlier works. Capote would sit in bed with a notepad writing his early stuff trying to find the best phrase or word, it made it poetic. Answered Prayers seems like it was just a different writer.
Capote hated women , who reflected his mother who he was traumatized by
His father wasn't any better. Neither of them wanted him. Ironic that his last word was 'Mama'
He was cute, peculiar, brilliant, funny, cleverly captivating & oh so manipulative. These ‘Ladies’ finally found thē best friend to talk to. He listened. They loved & admired him.He of them as well. They trusted him.
Most of us know that knowledge is power, it’s the sharpest knife a sword. The most secret, scary & or unspeakable truths were told in confidence to Capote. He then used all of this knowledge as ammo against these treasures. He did thē worst & cashed in on the intimacy, the privacy…there really wasn’t or isn’t anything uglier or more painful. They’re best friend used, abused, shown a light exposing…that to me is heinous. PS:Thanx x10😺
I would judge, but I wasn't there. Thoreau pointed out that we live lives of quiet desperation. At my age, I know it's true. The trappings of money don't change that.
Capote, although a fine writer, was still nothing more than a petty attention seeker who always seemed to err on the wrong side. His feud with Harper Lee revealed that on a neon billboard.
Jackie Kennedy married Onassis after JFK and Bobby were killed and Onassis offered her refuge in Greece for her and her kids
Yes, however she felt a great affection for Onasis long before that. While Lee was still married to Stas, Onasis was one of the few people invited to the white house to stay during the time of JFK's funeral and mourning. Nancy Schoenberg in her book 'The Fabulous Bouvier sisters' believe that invitation came from Jackie. In addition the photos that surfaced of Jackie walking arm and arm with Onassis after Patrick died made Jack insanely jealous. Though you are right, that Jackie indeed felt unsafe in New York and even America and Onassis offered her a way out of that.