I am a Film Freak, a Cinephile. A rewarding moment for me was when AFI, the American Film Institute, came out with their first list of the 100 greatest films (frankly their only list worth anything). By then I had already seen 98 of them! I hate Hollywood Endings. You know, where they take the book or story and paste a happy face on the end to make it fit for the box office.

 My least favorite example is Breakfast at Tiffany’s with Audrey Hepburn, Holly Golightly. It was written by Truman Capote. I have been doing business in New York City since 1994 when I was asked to come there to help a person who had come into some money due to an unfortunate (how inadequate of a word for what happened to them) circumstance.

            The Strand Bookstore is on Broadway a few blocks down from 14th street and Union Square (a wonderful park). I have often just sat in that park people watching for long stretches! The Strand styles itself as the largest used bookstore in the country. I’m not so sure about that. The third floor is the rare book room.            For years I managed to control my curiosity… I did not go up there. I suspected it could lead to a financial calamity. But one day I lost my resolve and went up there.

            As I walked off the elevator on my right was a glass case with a hardcover edition of Dune, $6,000. I had no trouble resisting THAT! In the 1960’s when I was in high school Dune came out in the science fiction magazine Analog. I took the Coral Gables City bus to and from school in those days. The buses were blue. In the terminal was an actual old-time newsstand AND a shoe repair shop where you could get your shoes shined! Analog comes out every month. Dune was published in three installments. To this day Analog serializes longer stories. When my friends and I read it, you can imagine our impatience for the next episode. I drove that poor man in the newsstand nuts asking every day if it was in.

            I’m exploring the rare book room. I came across a small hard cover book, the first edition of Breakfast at Tiffanys, a novella along with two short stories, for $150. Incredibly inexpensive, so I bought it.

            And read it!

            And my jaw dropped. In the movie George Peppard, Holly Golightly’s neighbor and the Truman Capote character (In To Kill A Mockingbird Dill Harris is believed to be based on Truman Capote. He and Harper Lee grew up together in Mississippi) and Holly are in a taxicab in the rain. The stray cat she had been feeding was practically drowning. She picks it up and off they all go into what you are left to imagine was a happily ever after.

            NOPE!

First, Doc Golightly, her older veterinarian country husband (played by Buddy Edson) was NOT a cad. And the book ends with Holly going to South America and coming to a bad ending! The movie? A Hollywood Ending.

            A decade before there was The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Jack Warner to took it over and persuaded John Huston to direct it with his wonderful actor/director Father Walter Huston as the older experienced prospector. This was the only time they ever got to work together. They received academy awards for Best Director and Best Supporting Actor!

            I won’t recount the story. If you haven’t read it or seen it, then get it! Even now studios want a star as a box office draw. In 1948 Humphrey Boyard was as big as they came. He played Fred C. Dobbs who became paranoid, cheated his partners and comes to a bad end.

            “Nope!” said Jack Warner. “The audience won’t stand for the star being killed off before the movie ends!”

            Through several bits chicanery, telling Warner what he wanted to hear AND the movie being filmed on location away from Hollywood in Mexico and Jack, the filmmakers managed to save the story. And killed Bogart! I mean Dobbs! I love them!