The Swans of Fifth Avenue

Four of the swans—Slim Hawks Hayward Keith, Marella Agnelli, Gloria Guinness, and Pamela Churchill Hayward Harriman—gather for lunch at the exclusive La Côte Basque restaurant to discuss their outrage over Truman Capote’s new short story, “La Côte Basque 1965,” that was published in the most recent issue of Esquire magazine. As they take turns excoriating Truman for his betrayal and vowing to cut him out of society, Slim thinks bitterly about the way her own secrets had been used, especially when she used to call him “True Heart.” The collective sympathy is with Babe Paley—referred to only as “her” in this section, whose husband’s exploits were only thinly veiled in the story. The swans now piece together their own story, about how Truman made it into their circle in the first place.

Truman had always been a storyteller, Slim recalls, and, like the swans themselves, had come to New York from elsewhere. Truman appeared on Bill Paley’s private plane one day in 1955, a friend of a friend; Bill, the story goes, had been expecting “President Truman.” When the swans—Slim, Marella, Gloria, and Pamela, along with Babe Paley and C.Z. Guest—meet for lunch at Le Pavillon shortly afterward, they argue about who met Truman first, and what the circumstances were. Babe remains quiet and poised, taking in the luxurious surroundings. She is tacitly recognized as the leader among the swans, though she is neither the most beautiful, the most entertaining, nor the most distinguished. Babe’s style is what defines her, so much so that it is able to hide the loneliness that she projects, despite the wealth and glamour of her lifestyle. She finally speaks up to say that how they met Truman doesn’t matter, she’s just glad he’s in their lives. The swans toast to their new friend and Babe smiles to herself. Most of the swans are distracted when the Duchess of Windsor comes in, but Slim notices Babe’s expression and “wondered.”

Truman tells different stories about his childhood, depending on the audience. There is the “marvelous” version that he tells to swans like Slim, Gloria, and C.Z., peppered with fascinatingly quirky stories about Monroeville, Alabama, and the mother who transformed herself from Lille Mae Faulk to Nina Capote. The only scar from his childhood—so he tells Slim—is the puncture wound on his arm from a snakebite that almost killed him. His childhood friend from Monroeville, Nelle, is also a writer—better known to the world as Harper Lee. His mother eventually died of pneumonia while she was still young and beautiful; Truman always has tears in his eyes when he gets to this part.

Truman tells Babe a different story in the privacy of her bedroom at the Paleys’ Long Island estate, Kiluna Farm. In this version, Truman’s mother was a “selfish bitch” who hated him, left him in Monroeville with his “horrible cousins,” and locked him in hotel rooms. Even though she did bring him to New York eventually, she continued to cruelly mock his sexuality and called him a disappointment. Nelle was his only friend. His stepfather, Joe Capote, eventually lost everything, and Nina—terrified by having to go back to being Lillie Mae—“killed herself with booze and pills” (41).

The first version of the story gains Truman entry into the glamorous world of the swans. This is the story that he tells at parties, part of his performance as an effeminate gay man from the south, a fascinating, yet “unearthly creature.” The husbands disdain him, but also, Truman observes, fear him; eventually, however, even they accept him as a strange genius and a safe companion for their wives.

With Babe more vulnerable. Truman marvels to himself that this is the first time he hasn’t told the story of his childhood as means to an end. He and Babe have become fast friends, and they see each other in ways that no one else can. Significantly, Babe understands the work that it takes to maintain one’s façade; she is careful not to respond to Truman’s confidences in a way that would make him too vulnerable. When he turns to her and asks her to tell him a story about herself, she knows it’s only fair.

Babe begins telling Truman her story. She struggles to begin, saying, finally, “I was raised to marry well” (45). Her father was a pathbreaking neurosurgeon, and Gogs, Babe’s mother, raised Babe and her two older sisters to succeed in high society. Truman interrupts Babe, asking for more salacious details about her mother, and the conversation turns to gossip about another swan, Gloria Guinness. Babe tries to defend her, but goes on to talk about Gloria’s “game” of trying to keep Babe off balance when she invites the Paleys to her yacht: Gloria will tell Babe the dress code is casual, then arrive in a formal gown, and vice versa.

Just as Truman marvels that nothing can “ruffle” Babe’s composure, she realizes the time and reacts in “horror.” Her husband, Bill Paley, founder and chairman of CBS, is about to arrive home, and Babe always meets him. In her palatial dressing room, Truman watches her reapply her elaborate makeup and choose exquisite accessories. But when Bill knocks on the bedroom door, Truman watches Babe go from “goddess” to “housewife,” serving the men drinks and hors d’oeuvres, and massaging her husband’s feet as he talks about his day. Truman curses Babe’s mother for having “trained” her for this work.

Truman visits “dragon lady” Diana Vreeland, the editor of Harper’s Bazaar, to tell her that he has fallen in love with Babe—not physically, of course. It is from Diana that Truman hears the full story of Babe’s family, told as a kind of fairy tale: “The Story of the Three Cushing Sisters” (61). When she was 19, Diana says, Babe was in a terrible car accident. People said that the young man driving the car was so distracted by her beauty that he crashed into a tree. Babe’s father got top surgeons to “patch” her up. Babe was as beautiful as before, if not more beautiful. Betsey got divorced, and the oldest sister, Minnie, was having an affair with an Astor, who she later married. The three sisters—Minnie, Betsey, and Babe— made a striking impression whenever they went out, and Babe was “quite the little career girl” (65), until she married the oil heir, Stanley Mortimer. The marriage ended in divorce, amid rumors of domestic violence, even though Babe said nothing. To Gogs’s horror, Babe married Bill Paley, who was Jewish. As a result, in spite of his wealth and power, he was excluded from certain areas of society, as was Babe, who continues to show remarkable fortitude in not letting that bother her.

Diana’s story is interrupted at several points by parenthetical asides, where she and Truman speculate about the sexuality of various players. At one point, Truman mentions Babe’s sadness, but Diana dismisses it. At the end of their visit, Truman takes a cab back to his home in Brooklyn Heights.

Chapter 5 depicts Truman’s writing process, something he hides from his swans. Truman is determined—at least for now—to keep work and play separate, so he writes in his basement apartment in Brooklyn. He works through the afternoon on Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

When his work is finished, Truman goes into the kitchen, where his partner Jack is cooking dinner. Jack is also a writer, but he dismisses his work as “rubbish.” Truman tells Jack the Paleys invited them to Kiluna Farm this weekend, and Jack expresses his contempt for the Paleys and the rich. Truman revels in the easy domesticity he shares with Jack who, as a former dancer, retains his muscular and attractive body. As he tries to fall asleep, Truman reviews his upcoming projects, such as a trip to the Soviet Union with a touring company of Porgy and Bess. But he feels like he’s still missing out on something, that he doesn’t truly belong. He vows to work harder, write better, and discover the best gossip. He vows to fit in.

Across the river in Manhattan, Babe can’t sleep either. She and Bill are at their small pied-à-terre at the St. Regis hotel, the only one of their residences where they have to share a bed. The proximity only reminds Babe of how little Bill desires her, despite his notoriously “roving eye.” Lying next to him, Babe recalls men who did desire her, such as the publisher Condé Nast and Serge Obolensky, a Russian prince. But, she says to herself, she heard her mother’s voice too strongly in her head to pursue a more unconventional path. Since childhood, the message had been the same: Be perfect, an asset, a decoration. She recalls how, when she was younger, she pretended to be a scullery maid named Odeal—much to her mother’s horror. She tries to remember the moment when she stopped living in a world of her own imagination, trading it for a life of outward perfection.

She channels the energy that fueled her childish imagination into appearing perfect, priding herself on her use of cosmetics and on the fact that no one has seen her without makeup, not even Bill. She gets up early to prepare herself and make lists of all the domestic and social details she needs to oversee. She looks forward to seeing Truman at Kiluna over the coming weekend, but she starts grinding her false teeth, remembering the pain of her recovery after the car accident. When she sleeps alone, she takes out her false teeth, but she doesn’t want Bill to wake up and see her without them. Only Truman seems to value her for something other than her appearance. She falls asleep thinking about how long it’s been since she’s had a friend.