The film documentary The Capote Tapesfrom 2019, which can only be seen in Dutch cinemas now, actually adds little for Capote connoisseurs, but is nevertheless worthwhile as a lasting reminder of a special literary phenomenon thanks to all kinds of archive images.
Truman Capote has left behind a modest body of work in size, but there are brilliant outliers with which he will outlive many of his colleagues: In Cold Blood† Breakfast at Tiffany’s and the story A Christmas Memory† His career is well known: from celebrated writer to famous society figure, who was ostracized from those circles when he wrote about it mercilessly.
This documentary by Ebs Burnough shows much of that imaginary world of glitter, glamor and gossip in which Capote eagerly moved. That’s why the only unknown person in the area stands out so much: Kate Harrington, a woman who became acquainted with Capote as a child when he started dating her father, John O’Shea, a married man and Capote manager.
Her mother divorced O’Shea after she discovered the relationship. She got into drinking and as a 12-year-old girl, Kate called Capote, a sort of uncle to her, for advice. Capote had her come to New York and took care of her. He saw a future for her as a fashion model and introduced her to friends like the photographer Richard Avedon.
He also advised her to start a diary, as he had done before. “That’s what kept me alive throughout my adolescence.” Capote, himself raised without parents with relatives of his mother, must have seen a lot of herself in her.
She didn’t know what happened to her. She attended parties where celebrities like Henry Kissinger, Norman Mailer, Sammy Davis Jr. and Ryan O’Neal attended; O’Neal wanted to seduce her—age 15—but Capote wouldn’t let him. Later, Capote also saw an actress in her and introduced her to the film world. The tables had turned: Capote had become an alcoholic wreck and she had to take care of him. She felt that she had no acting talent and chose a career in the magazine world.
Her appearance in this documentary is a relief: finally someone who talks about Capote with a certain sobriety, but at the same time a lot of affection. I read her story earlier Truman Capote, a book by George Plimpton, who interviewed many of Capote’s friends. The tapes of those conversations ended up in the hands of Burnough after Plimpton’s death, who gratefully used them for his film.
To Burnough, Harrington is living proof of Capote’s softer side, who was notorious for his sharp tongue. Until his last sad years, Harrington cared about Capote. When she tried again to keep him off the booze and the pills, she said to him, “I love you, isn’t that enough?” “Ah, dear,” he sighed, “if only it were true.”
Incurable despair. I was thinking of the autobiographical A Christmas Memory, the scene in which the drunken father has to say goodbye to his son, who goes back home: „’Give me a kiss, please, please. Give me a kiss. Tell your daddy you love him.’ But I couldn’t say a word. I was terrified that I would miss my bus.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of June 1, 2022