In the opening scene in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, a New York City yellow cab drives down a quiet Fifth Avenue and drops Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) off near the corner of 57th Street. The formally dressed Golightly stares through her iconic sunglasses into the Tiffany & Co. window as she consumes her morning pastry and coffee. As she later says, “Well, when I get it, the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany’s. Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it. Nothing very bad could happen to you there.” The scene, filmed outside New York’s famed jewelry store, was one of the few not filmed at Paramount Studios’ California backlots.
