I don't understand this part. Why would she be paid to get up from a table with her escort and go to the powder room? Was it so the others she was with could discuss something private? Can someone explain this?
shareIn nicer restaurants and clubs, there would be a lady in the powder room to assist customers. She would hand you a fresh hand towel and had various things for sale such as a comb or lady products. You were expected to tip even if you did not purchase anything.
shareIt was a higher class way for her to be "paid" for her services. She asks for money to tip the restroom attendant but he gives her much more than she needs for that, he's really giving her money like you'd leave on the nightstand when the action is over.
shareYeah, it was a hint at prostitution, because the studio couldn't have the heroine actually being paid for her... time. Films were starting to be more honest about prostitution and such things, but this was a major studio picture and they just couldn't have Audrey Hepburn doing anything really skeevy.
Personally, I think it worked, although if another actress had played Holly it probably wouldn't have. If Marilyn Monroe had played Holly as originally planned, it would have been painfully clear that the "powder room" money was a euphemism, but Hepburn had such an air of grace and innocence that it almost seemed believable!
<< She asks for money to tip the restroom attendant but he gives her much more than she needs for that, he's really giving her money like you'd leave on the nightstand when the action is over. >>
I think this was a pretty standard way to shake some extra cash out'a the johns. In CASINO (1995) hooker Sharon Stone stares down Robert De Niro's gangster character until he forks over something like $100 to tip the powder room attendant with : )
You can see the scene HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvmGHb2zO-U
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She's hooker
shareNo, she’s a callgirl. A hooker is a streetwalker, the lowest class of prostitute. A callgirl is like a Geisha. She’s paid as much for her charm, social graces, conversation skills and poise as she is for the horizontal bop. She knows how to be at ease in ANY social setting, and how to make her trick the envy of his friends. Holly Golightly did NOT walk the street.
shareActually, I'd call her more of a "party girl" than a hooker, call girl, or courtesan. Holly is primarily interested in having a good time and doesn't take her work seriously, she'll take money when it's offered but puts no effort into seeking it out. And she'd totally blow off someone who gave her money "for the powder room" if she heard about a really interesting party, you know she would!
At least in the film. The Holly of the novella may have been a bit more frank.
She was a callgirl in the novel, and the character played by George Peppard was a gay man. That knowledge largely informed my post. Gigilos, or escorts (there were no women”escorts” back then; ladies did NOT attend social functions unescorted, and they paid to avoid the) were a commonplace, and socially accepted, though never acknowledged,
shareI haven't read the novella, which I understand is considerably franker than the film, and which was based on Truman Capote's life in NYC as a cute twink from the sticks.
But the Holly Golightly of the film is depicted as more of a party girl than a whore, someone who lives for the moment and who doesn't really worry about where the rent money is coming from, which can't possibly be true of real prostitutes. Which isn't very realistic, but then this film isn't about realism - it's about the fantasy of going to New York to be faaabulous. And yes, the idea that some uneducated girl from nowhere could develop the international sophistication of Audrey Hepburn in a couple of years really is the stuff of fantasy! But that's what people fantasize about, and that's why everyone likes this movie.
Yes, you’re substantially correct. My reply is based on having known a few real callgirl, who thought of themselves as party girls, and who developed the Geisha skills I described, and whom I valued and liked; but people decieve ourselves a lot. By the way, I loved (both literary and figuratively) these women friends a lot; and, I think, they, me. They nonetheless pleasures clients for money, had skills beyond ordinary women, and looks as well.
shareI've met a few prostitutes too, but nobody on the high end of the profession, most were crack hos or independents with a regular clientele, I only saw one in a "courtesan" relationship with one steady client. I was quite young, seeing them together was my introduction to real-life "geshia skills"; she was a completely different person in his company, presumably she was playing the role of "his ideal woman", or as close as she could get.
Which IMHO is the opposite of Holly Golightly, she was her natural charming self with all the men who gave her money for the pleasure of her company, while a good courtesan pretends to be who her client wants her to be. I suppose high-end "geshia skills" include a certain amount of social polish, but mainly it's the ability to figure out what the client wants, and to then deliver it. Holly didn't do that in the movie, she gave her men friends what she wanted to give, and if that resulted in money for the powder room then great she'd see them again, but she was always herself with them.
Oh yeah, and did the guy in the book get paid to be a walker? Because I've met a few former walkers, and they said there wasn't any money in it, they were just sophisticated men who had presentable clothes, and who liked going to parties. So they'd go when their married female friends needed an escort, and get nothing out of it but some free drinks.
Your knowledge of walkers supersedes mine, so thank you for the education. My take on Holly is based on my real-life experience, inforned by fiction, so I may of course be wrong. My knowledge of callgirls, however, remains real-life rock-solid.
shareThere are many, many, many people in this world who have more knowledge of call girls than I do, so I'm happy to accept you as one!
Oh yeah, the correct term for a gay man who escorted a lady to society functions in those days was not "gigolo", but "walker". With a walker there's no money exchanged and no pretense of romance, the walker is in it for friendship and/or the chance to social climb. It was all very open, the walkers were typically charming company, and the husbands were fine with the wives going out with someone who was no threat. It was all very above-board and friendly.
I thought the gigolos were the ones who provided sex and the pretense of romance, not just escorting services, which can be had for free. How good of a gigolo could a gay man be, can I ask?
You are right. The Peppard character in fiction is a walker. In the movie, he’s politely called a gigolo; impolitely, he’s a prostitute, probably implying a wimpus. The studio insisted that the character be heterosexual, as it insisted that Holly not be a callgirl.
We don’t disagree, my friend. My more burning question here is, why the HELL does the execrable, unfunny, 65 year-old piece-of-trash, predicated-on-spouses-lying-to-each-other, amusing-only-to-morons-and/or-to-geriatrics-and/or-to-the-Alzheimer’s-afflicted allegedle sitcom I Love Lucy keep showing up in trending as often as Trump?
And she's also a tease. She hints to the guys that she would be willing to sleep with them, and even gives them her address, but she doesn't actually open the door, at least not in the encounters that we can see, and so they're left outside yelling for her.
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