Sweet Bird of Youth

It is evening at the cocktail lounge and outside gallery of the Royal Palms Hotel. A piano can be heard. At a table in the lounge are seated two couples in their late twenties. The bartender, Stuff, is wearing a uniform designed by Chance, who once tended bar at the hotel. 

Miss Lucy, Boss Finley’s mistress, walks in wearing a ball gown. She is angry, telling Stuff that Boss Finley gave her an Easter egg with a jewel box inside that contained a diamond clip. She thought it was a present and went to take out the diamond clip, but the boss slammed the lid of the box on her finger. He told her that she should write a message on the hotel bathroom mirror about the size of the diamond clip and then stormed out. She is angry that he found out about the message she wrote about his prowess as a lover.

The “hillbilly” heckler enters. He tells them that he is there for Boss Finley’s rally. Miss Lucy gives him a jacket, a newspaper, and advice on how to sneak into the ballroom. Fly then comes in looking for Chance Wayne. Miss Lucy, surprised to hear Chance is back in town, goes to look for him.

Chance arrives at the cocktail lounge and helps himself to a gin martini. Aunt Nonnie comes in soon after and pulls him aside to the outside gallery. She urges Chance to leave St. Cloud. Stressed, Chance takes a pill and washes it down with a swig from a flask. He says he “took a wild dream and—washed it down with another wild dream” (81). He tells Aunt Nonnie that there were great expectations of him after he directed and starred in a production of The Valiant at age 17 alongside Heavenly. The play won the state drama competition. He reminds Aunt Nonnie that she was their chaperone to the national contest. After they sing a song from the play together, Chance laments that they only placed second in the national competition. Nonnie corrects him that they only won honorable mention. He recalls that he got stage fright and forgot his lines on the national stage. He tells Nonnie that on the way home from the competition, he bribed the conductor to let him and Heavenly have sex in an unused train car.

Chance shows Nonnie his contract with Alexandra Del Lago. He tells her about his talent contest idea to give both him and Heavenly a shot at stardom. Nonnie tells Chance that Heavenly is “not young now, she’s faded” and that they cannot reprise their youth (84). She again urges him to leave and then exits.

Chance takes another pill with a swig of vodka. Then, he goes back into the cocktail lounge. He sees his old friends Edna, Violet, Bud, and Scotty there. He tries to amuse them by singing his signature song, but they do not sing along and are standoffish with him. The women eventually leave. Miss Lucy arrives and notes that Chance’s hair is thinning. She asks if he recently worked at a hotel in Palm Beach as a “beach-boy,” which he denies.

Bud tells Chance that Boss Finley is planning on giving a speech that evening before the Youth for Boss Finley Rally in the ballroom. He will be addressing the case of a Black man who was castrated “to show they mean business about white women’s protection in this state” (90), and Tom and Heavenly are expected to be there. Chance says he “doubt[s]” that the lynching was done to protect white women; rather, he believes it was the result of “sex-envy.” He grows belligerently drunk and insists that Heavenly would not stand by in endorsement of her father’s racist message. He takes another “goof-ball,” a slang term for a barbiturate.

Miss Lucy asks Chance about the movie star with whom he is traveling. He claims that he has returned because this movie star has offered Chance and Heavenly roles in a forthcoming film called Youth. Bud and Scotty are unconvinced and get up to leave. Chance comments on Scotty’s fading looks as Scotty leaves. Scotty retorts that while he might not be good-looking, he drives his own car and would bury his mother himself. Miss Lucy, too, advises Chance to leave St. Cloud, but he again refuses. 

The Princess appears in the cocktail lounge. She is disoriented and disheveled. Chance chastises her for not waiting for him in the hotel room. She rambles about how she felt inspired when she saw that his “come-back had been a failure like [hers]” and promises that she will never again “degrade” him like she did that morning (98). Chance begins to hustle the Princess upstairs back to her room as Boss Finley’s arriving motorcade is heard offstage. 

Heavenly rushes into the cocktail lounge to look for Chance, but the Boss arrives soon after and drags her away. Chance is at the top of the stairs; Tom Junior and Hatcher demand that Chance come down and talk to them. Chance refuses and taunts Tom, who lunges at Chance. Chance asks what happened to Heavenly. Tom retorts that Chance impregnated Heavenly and gave her a sexually transmitted disease. Heavenly had to have an abortion, which resulted in her infertility. Tom tells Chance that if he stays in St. Cloud, he will “get the knife, too” (103). The Princess begs Chance to leave. She says she has been hearing a lament all day with the words, “Lost, lost, never to be found again” (104). He tells her to return to the room. When she resists, he has her taken away by Stuff and a bellboy.

A drum majorette and parade enter with a banner for Tom Junior’s group, followed by Boss Finley, Heavenly, and Tom. They march up the stairs to the ballroom. Miss Lucy urges the heckler the follow them. The heckler explains that he does not want to “hurt” Heavenly with his question, but he resents Boss Finley disingenuously using his daughter as “the fair white virgin exposed to black lust in the South” (105). He follows the parade.

In the bar, Chase, Miss Lucy, and Stuff watch Boss Finley’s racist speech on the television. As Boss Finley gives his speech arguing for the importance of sexual and racial “purity,” Chance yells at the television, calling Boss a liar. The heckler calls out his question about Heavenly’s operation. He is beaten by a mob as the boss continues his speech. Heavenly walks off, sobbing.