I did wonder a little about where the star of Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s got her money, but I slipped passed me that she might be something close to a prostitute. I suppose I don’t have the frame of reference to make that insight independently. (I also don’t like to assume the worst of people.) [via Book Trib]
In those days men would give a woman money to tip the attendant in the ladies room. (Rich men=large tips.) It was hinted in the movie that Holly kept the money and lived off that. Though, she and the George Peppard character–a toy boy–were pretty much on an even keel morally, so perhaps she was making her money the old fashioned way, by “earning” it.
I’d rather think of it that way, but Capote wasn’t not a moral man. He may not have intended her living to be moral in any way.