Remembering Truman Capote

Truman Capote would have been 84 today, if liver disease from years of excess hadn't taken him in 1984.

The first time I remember seeing him was late one night when I was about ten, and had waited til my parents were in bed to sneak downstairs and watch TV. I was hoping to find a good bloody horror movie like Friday the 13th to watch, so when I came across something called Murder by Death, I thought "Wow ... Murder and Death, how cool!"

Well, the movie was about a bunch of old people, but I had my eye on one weird little guy who I was sure would start carving them up. Alas, he didn't, but I couldn't help but be fascinated by this odd man. It wasn't until a few years later that I found out it was Truman, the same man who wrote all those books that my father loved. (I was also positive I had seen him as a guest judge on Dance Fever with Deney Terrio, but apparently that was another squirrely little guy, because I can't find any proof of it.)

I've seen most of the Capote portrayals, including the Oscar-winning performance from Philip Seymour Hoffman, as well as turns by Toby Jones, and my favorite, from Robert Morse. They're all good, technically, but for me, none of them really capture the essence of what made Truman ... well, Truman.

There's a reason why Truman was a mainstay on talk shows in the 60's and 70's, and it wasn't because he had a funny sounding voice, or was flamboyant, but because he had a special magnetism that made you want to listen closely to every word, lest you miss something.

After the break, you can see Truman from Dick Cavett's show in 1971, along with Jim Fowler (the animal guy) and an annoying Groucho Marx (who won't shut up). Something happens at about 5:20 in the clip that had me wondering whether it was just an itch, or if it was a message to Groucho. What do you think?