Who Was Truman Capote's Mother and How Did She DIE?? FEUD: Capote vs The Swans s1e2

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

So who was she? How did she die and what was it about her that led him to betray his swans? LEAVE COMMENTS! Tell me what you think!!!

[@ellebassa9288]

So do to the abandoned, he suffered from his mother. He's afraid the very same thing will happen with the swans. Even if he's given them no reason to. So he decided to strike first. when he didn't really have to at all

[@nancyvillines4552]

I honestly believe he caused Ann's death definitely. I think with Babe he thought he was going to ruin Bill. Not realizing he was ruining her whole life. And when he finally realized it, it was too late and he acted as if they should of expected it. He was Babe's best friend and he destroyed her whole being. I personally think he was a vicious little man child who used people for his own purposes. Even the way he tricked Perry Smith and Dick Hickock was disgusting. They deserved what they got. But to wish for someone's death so you can finish a book? That's just sick in my book. He got exactly what he deserved with the Swan's. It shouldn't of been his decision to out her husband. And he had no right to spread his version of Ann's husband's death. As far as his mother, she was a piece of work. It's no wonder he turned out the way he did.

[@jimmccord487]

Very well spoken.For all his literary talent TC was a self serving weasel.@@nancyvillines4552

[@historychannelpodcasts]

I love Jessica Lange! Her character is an awesome way to show not only how truman was affected by his childhood but also a way to show him as the empath child. YOu stated this so brilliantly in your video with he part about the sin eaters. Very smart! Keep 'em coming! I love your channel!

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Thanks so much. I love getting this kind of feedback! And, thanks for joining the conversation!

[@Goodkidjr43]

If anyone is interested, Capote's mother's life and behavior is similar to the female protagonist in a French classic by Flaubert called, "Madam Bovary written in 1856. A very prescient book. Following the god of Materialism is explicit. God bless.

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

I found this interesting. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

[@sherryab3964]

Me too! Thank-you for sharing !

[@sherryab3964]

Me too! Thank-you for sharing this !

[@johelenfugate3498]

Wow! That’s a great observation .

[@elizabethcloutman8913]

Fascinating! Thank you!

[@soniandukwe8981]

This explains Truman’s hatred of women. He probably felt they would dump him like his mother did, so before they dumped him, he would dump them first. It’s a self defense

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

I think it does. Thanks for joining the conversation!

[@honeypure-pye9474]

I agree 💯

[@3506Dodge]

Many gay men resent women for a number of reasons including their mother's failures to establish trusting and respectful relations with their gay sons.

[@nadyarossi5102]

Didn't he love his aged aunties, tho? "A Christmas Memory" was written as an homage to them.

[@AAZEDLARC]

I don't think hated them, but feared them for potential abandonment, a self-fulfilling prophecy. Nina was abandoned by her parents too. I feel like Robbie Baitz addressed this pretty well in an earlier episode@ossi5102

[@lepetitenellie]

I never knew Capote's mother's name was Lillie Mae. His character Holly Golightly's real name is Lulamae. There are always analyses of who the real-life Holly was in Truman's life but now I understand some inspiration came from his mother's country-to-New York ambitions.

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Yes, I've come across some very interesting articles that say the his mother was the inspiration for Holly Golightly. Thanks for joining the conversation!

[@elizabethcloutman8913]

@@fabulouswomeninhistory Yes, while others have suggested it was Carol Matthau, his mother as the inspiration makes far more sense!

[@clivecarser7356]

And a bit of Ann Woodward too.!!!

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Yes, I am doing a video on Carol Matthau and her friendship with Capote. Should be out in next couple of days.

[@thedowagerd.2431]

I would imagine he had a split psyche from the terrors he suffered by being abandoned by Mommy. His emotional and physical growth were also stunted. He searched for the perfect woman, even imitating his version as his persona, in order to destroy both.

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Well said. Thanks for joining the conversation!

[@howto4u705]

I think her dislike of his effeminate nature was also a part of his emotional angst. I read somewhere that she wished she had gotten the abortion rather than have such a 'sissy' son. This must have instilled a lot of self hatred as so often happens with gay men. But, I just watched Phillip Seymour do his capote interpretation in the movie and it seems that Capote didn't try very hard to disguise it. If anyone can find where I can watch the Toby Jones version of Capote, please let me know. This series has made me want to go back and see these earlier representation of Capote. I think Tom Hollander is doing an excellent job and, who doesn't love Jessica Lange. Thank you for this video.I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

It's called, Infamous and was made in 2006 according to IMDB.com. I use justwatch.com to find where to find movies and shows. According to them it is only available to rent at various places include KZbin for something like 3.99. Thanks for joining the conversation!

[@erics1140]

Not all gay men are "sissies" and the self hatred is imbedded by straight people. It's taught not inherent.

[@GiftSparks]

For what it’s worth, “Infamous” is a far better film than “Capote.” Toby Jones deserved the Oscar for it. But it was unfortunate that the film came out after “Capote.”

[@erics1140]

Why did you delete my initial response which was that not all gay men are sissies and that internalized self hate is not inherent but taught by straight people? What was false about that statement and what triggered you enough to get rid of it?

[@xrrrismickey]

Infamous is much better and this is why DVDs and Blu-rays are still valuable

[@carol-lynnrossel8700]

Thanks for illuminating Joe Capote’s background. In the 1960s he and his wife Marge landed in TOTTENVILLE Staten Island and became a bizarre part of our family circle. Marge was certain any day Truman would come visit. Of course he didn’t. I wish I knew more about Joe Capote. He was a fascinating enigma.

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Thanks for the info!

[@beverlyhayshouston2770]

Check out A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. A beautiful and sad memory of his life as a child. It’s available on KZbin. The character Dill in the movie To Kill A Mockingbird is based on Truman.

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

His aunt sook is featured in A Christmas Memory. Thanks for joining the conversation!

[@barbaragrider9136]

He also had his dear.friend, Belle Harper Lee, who wrote To Kill A Mockingbird. They were childhood friends and into adulthood. He is portrayed in her book as the little boy, Dill.

[@elizabethcloutman8913]

@@barbaragrider9136 Yes - minor correction: Her name was Nell Harper Lee.

[@cherylboucher4491]

A theater group performed this in Hudson, NY, as a multi sensory experience. It was in a small, intimate theater and brought me to tears. It's definitely worth reading.

[@tooma4886]

It is rumored that Capote wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird" FOR Harper Lee, and it's completely plausible seeing as she wrote only one other book which was published in 2015.

[@lynnboyd33]

Video was so well done. Makes me feel a bit sad for poor Truman. I'm glad at least, thru childhood, he had grandma Sook.

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Truman once said he would have been better off if his mother had never come back for him and he could have stayed with his aunts. It is sad and I did want to present a side of the story that is integral to who he was and why he did the things that he did. Thanks for appreciating the video. ❤

[@deborahcurtis1385]

@@fabulouswomeninhistory He can't really say that with any certainty, because the life of a small gay effeminate man in Alalbama would not have been so great. He would instead be wistful about the life his mother was leading in NYC and probably would have searched her out. Overall Capote had a lot of opportunities in life and he took them. He could have benefited from modern psychology and facing up to his emotional deficits he was attempting to fill artificially. You. have to find a sense of security within yourself, trying to find it in others makes you vulnerable. He knew that and despised his own vulnerability and that of the swans, who took him for granted. It's a tragedy but at least we can learn from it.

[@marlenemeldrum7382]

A tragic story full of a most Talented human being with unfortunately unresolved mother issues, abandonment, lack of boundaries, self hate, self Sabotage....it is just an incredibly sad story of what we all strive for TO BE LOVED AND ACCEPTED...the video is indeed well done...thank you so much...all the best....

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Thank you for liking the video. He was definitely a product of his childhood. Thanks for joining the conversation!

[@doreendash]

great video! i just finished Feud and this was a helpful capture of who Truman was. thank you!

[@ilanamillion8942]

It is unforgiveable to betray the' confidences and secrets of those women. I don't think I would have behaved any differently than the swans did. He sure underestimated their intelligence, didn't he?.

[@mE-zx7pt]

Most of them were snakes, too.

[@terry4137]

What intelligence?😂

[@thechaz83]

Discovering the names of the swans I say touché my friend. Touché 😂

[@ceceliagarmer5479]

Jessica Lange is glorious!

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

I think she is awesome!

[@kathyblalock8078]

The man-child was always looking for her his mother in the swans the lush styles of life😢

[@maryellengrayberg9146]

Thank you for posting this. I have often wondered what his mother was like and what the actual story was.

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

I did as well; hence the video. Glad you liked it and it's good to have the feedback!

[@elizabethcloutman8913]

Wonderfully done video! Thank you!

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Thank you too!

[@MunchForWellness]

I looked up some old pictures of his mother in the show, Jessica Lange and she was gorgeous! Just like is mother, I guess. I have only watched the first episode and will have to get back to watching it since it looks like more and more people are watching it. Gotta keep up, you know! 😃😃 Good video. Thanks,

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Thank you for liking the video and thanks for joining the conversation!

[@johelenfugate3498]

Thanks for this video . I’ve always thought that Truman’s betrayal of the swans was rooted in his relationship with his mother.

[@dianemiller3682]

This was so interesting! Thank you!❤

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Glad you liked it and thanks for the positive feedback!

[@helenwheels3341]

If you don't want children. Don't have children 😮

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

We are talking the 30's 40's. Birth control was not so availalbe then.

[@patriciagonzales2148]

@@fabulouswomeninhistoryI would say or abortions, but we are almost right back there. No rights at all.

[@thunderousapplause]

Not so much a choice then, or now. Some women could not, cannot afford to leave the state to travel for a safe and legal abortion.

[@gloriamontgomery6900]

There was birth control available-diaphragms and condoms. Not too difficult for a man to get, but fairly tricky for thewoman’s option . My grandparents were birth control (prevention of pregnancy) activists back in the 1920’s and 1930s. Diaphragms for women had to be smuggled in from the UK. Even publishing information about birth control was illegal.

[@rachaelmorgan4025]

​@@gloriamontgomery6900there was adoption. Having a baby and keeping a baby is two speaker things. Had she not been heartless she could have given baby Truman up for adoption where he would have had a fighting chance

[@ammasophia4663]

Interesting how Capote is framed as 'empathetic therapist". Instead of "manipulative user". The wealthy women had no skills to be internally honest. Truman's listening skills got them to feel someone understood them and loved them. Capote wasn't able to even think of being attractive to them as a man, so played off of their need to feel loved, ultimately using them and proving he used them and discarded them... as he felt his mother had discarded him. Had his mother be able to catch a wealthy man when she was young Capote would have been neglected in an entirely different way.

[@AAZEDLARC]

Side note, I am so glad this series is sparking a conversation. Mr. Capote's tragedy is all of our tragedy, high/low, ambition/destruction, acceptance/rejection, love/"hate," and so much more. It's a testament to Mr. Capote's talent that we are talking about this 40-ish years later RIP

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Well said!

[@1234cheerful]

Text was concise and written, narration clear and confident, not sensationalized. But NONE of those cars or hairstyles or clothes are from the 1920s. More like the 1940s and 1950s. A bit jarring. I did enjoy seeing the actual photographs of Truman with his family.

[@johnvonundzu2170]

The use of 1950s imagery for Lillie Mae's & Truman's early life in the 1920s & 30s is a little strange.

[@dividends4retirement]

I wondered just this question after watchin ep. 3 of the series! Good job putting it all together. I like the AI art, too.

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@honeyfungus4774]

Photographs are obviously very deceptive. Capote's mother and several of the Swans are described as beautiful but to my eyes they're not even attractive.

[@Kinikia95]

I think the swans were pretty.

[@TheSahand68]

So, Truman Capote was a wictim of a narcissistic mother, similar to those "swans", he outgrew, and came to resent.

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

You could say that. Thanks for joining the conversation!

[@elizabethcloutman8913]

One correction, coming from Joanne Carson, a close friend of Truman’s in whose home he passed away. She was with him when he passed away. She said that the two causes of his death were liver disease as he was a heavy drinker, as well as phlebitis, a blood clot in his leg. She denies a drug overdose was the cause, but according to the coroner’s report, in addition to liver disease and phlebitis, multiple drug intoxication also a contributing factor. Clearly, he was a very unhealthy man at his death. He was just 59 when he died Aug. 25, 1984. He would have turned 60 on Sept. 30, 1984. 😂😂

[@mallorygraf8574]

I am watching the series and though Diane Lane and Chloe are great the story is so jagged. And adding Jessica Lange to "story plot" is confusing. Sadly, I don't think I have the stomach to finish the series.

[@persia888]

Why does Truman have a full English accent when he was born and bred in the US?

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

My narrator works hard to sound like Capote but sometimes he slips up! Thanks for joining the conversation!

[@bryanspindle4455]

He didn't really have an English accent. He had a strange high- pitched, childlike, feminine way of speaking. I have seen several interviews with him.

[@allinaday9882]

See if you can view him on one his appearances on the old Dick Cavet shows he visited. I do not know how, but I have seen a few of those shows recently. 😊

[@elizabethcloutman8913]

⁠@@allinaday9882 You can find on KZbin both the Dick Cavett interview, as well as one by journalist David Susskind!

[@terry4137]

😂

[@volume2517]

It's obvious that his exposing the problems and flaws of high society women was born by his mother's unfulfilled dreams and her shunning him. Its almost as if he was trying to win his deceased mother's approval, even though he knew she was an awful mother. 😢

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

I agree totally. Thanks for joining the conversation!

[@gregorioprieto6464]

La gran Jessica Lange como su madre hace a la serie "Capote" un aporte de talento calidad y lujo...para contar una historia apasionante!!!..."❤

[@cynthiafritze7418]

Babe Paley wasn’t a great mother either.

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Yes, that is why you see her photo in my video where I am talking about bad mothers, Thanks for joining the conversation!

[@prosperwoman7085]

Brilliant ❤

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Thanks! I really enjoyed making this video. I found Lillie Mae so interesting!

[@pamelacox540]

Truman learned how to support vain, narcissistic women.

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Like attracted to like for sure! Thanks for joining the conversation!

[@lillianmcgrew217]

So sad 😔 for him

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Yes, it does show just how much our childhood afffects us! Thanks for joining the conversation!

[@madelinekimbro2440]

He turned into his mom.

[@thunderousapplause]

Cruelty almost always stems from trauma, I expect.

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Does it? That is an interesting observation. I'll have to think on that. Thanks for joining the conversation!

[@jazzbuff630]

Based on this depiction, his first name should have been Trauma, not Truman. The name "Tru-man"is oxymironic.

[@judithbooth3165]

Might explain why he had in it in for the swans at an unconscious level.

[@christysmith2807]

The clothes and cars are wrong. He didn’t grow up in the 50’s.

[@shadrach6299]

Capote adored Babe, CZ, Joanna and Harper Lee

[@jacqueblue]

Petty little man.

[@joeluisishere]

He seemed very upset about mother’s way so I think he chose these women because they had similar traits as his mother, all were bad mothers. All of them wanted fame and wealth over love. So I think he wrote this book to make them pay for their ways. It backfired and he ended up wishing he never wrote these things about them because like his mother ,he loved them and just wanted their love back. He couldn’t bear living with out them like his mother.

[@shadrach6299]

I could read an entire book on Babe Paley

[@Mishaseymour]

Which perfume did she wear ?

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Evening in Paris (can't remember the source).

[@beverlystraus9300]

My mother has blue bottles of Evening in Paris cologne back in the early 1960's to my recollection.

[@bryanspindle4455]

​@@beverlystraus9300l remember as a kid in the sixties seeing Evening In Paris in every drug store and discount store. It was a cheap perfume.

[@Sherron-e3k]

Mummy, first 🦢!!!

[@donnashomin357]

The simple answer is the Truman wanted to get Bill Pall Paley for the things he had done to Babe.

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

That is the way he explained it away but I read that it didn't stand because Babe was more of a loyalist wife than Capote counted on. Thanks for joining the conversation!

[@shadrach6299]

Who doesn’t have “mommy issues”?

[@gregorioprieto6464]

Jessica s Lange...puro glamur como la madre de Capote!!! talento belleza con la irrepetible Jessica Lange.

[@shelaakaumi]

Such bs. Always an excuse for doing evil.

[@dalehoward3704]

Not an excuse, but some insight.

[@AlphonsodeBarbo]

Arch didn't look like much of 'a catch'!

[@SnarkNSass]

She just thought she was a beauty...🤢

[@a.m.9474]

Who’s Nina

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

Lillie Mae "Nina" Faulk Capaote - kzbin.info/www/bejne/rl7HYZ6Yhr93rKcsi=qDOA92w97qH3Hb50&t=71

[@mizfrenchtwist]

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

[@Richardsonprincess00]

Scandal alert

[@CatherinesChronicles_]

😢

[@AP-wq9dv]

You might have given a spoiler alert for those of us invested in this new series and remain unaware of the circumstances in which these people have died.

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

I think that is evident from the scenes with his molther in the show where she is encouraging him to come join her; but then I read, reseach and have watched the docs and movie about TC so I could be ahead of you on that. Thanks for joining the conversation!

[@thunderousapplause]

wahhh. good grief.

[@migmadmarine]

I dont give a ratz arse about him or his mother

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

😃 I guess you aren't watching the show then! Thanks for joining the conversation!

[@donnashomin357]

Then go take your comments to something that does interest you.

[@Kinikia95]

Then why in the world would you watch this?

[@hyacinth4368]

Jessica Lange sure got old! Hardly recognized her.

[@fabulouswomeninhistory]

I give her credit for not being another Jane Fonda with a face that doesn't match her age.

[@kathychinski6308]

I agree. She was also made up to look like a faded beauty with a bad attitude.

[@mirabellaolson6410]

​@@kathychinski6308 I thought she looked beautiful!