Geraldine Page in Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory 1966

I wasn't familiar with this beautiful little story until I was researching specials for this blog, but now, I think it's one of my favorite posts this holiday week. Originally published in Mademoiselle magazine in 1957, the short story about young Buddy and his best friend - an older distant cousin named Sook - was produced for television and aired on ABC Stage 67 in 1966. It's a tender story of companionship and the joy that can be found in simple things. Directed by Frank Perry and set in the rural south in the 1930's, the largely autobiographical story finds Sook and Buddy making fruitcakes to give and send as gifts to people they feel a kinship with, and celebrating Christmas morning together. It stars Geraldine Page as Sook and she gives a delicate and touching performance. Truman Capote narrates the story himself and injects sly and distinctly southern humor into his narration.


The original production was in color, but subsequent broadcasts were in black and white as are erp65's uploads of it to YouTube. The first installment is above. It's available on DVD, however it's received some poor reviews for the quality of the print.

Obscurity factor 7 (Rarely seen on TV, poor quality print available on DVD, full version available on YouTube)

Image from Google Images