I’ve often said there are 2 events I would like to attend if I could travel back in time. One is the final party at Studio 54, the other is Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball at the Plaza in November 1966,

This interest only intensified with the New York Historical Society’s 2021 exhibition on Kay Graham. So this episode’s devices and voyeuristic point of view was a bit of heaven for me. It’s also an incredibly smart historical fictionalization. The Maysles Brothers did, in fact, follow Truman for a documentary in 1966 but it focused more on In Cold Blood and his relationship with the murderers, not his high society swans. One could justifiably “What-If” the fact that there is this squirreled away footage somewhere, though it seems somewhat doubtful. Though the narrative that this footage was the impetus for Answered Prayers seems unlikely, as he received his advance for the book in January 1966 and the Black and White Ball was in November, it makes for a compelling watch, especially in Black and White.

We open in all black and white. Babe and Truman are making a decision regarding two very expensive pieces of art: a Monet vs. a Manet. Though the Monet is beautiful she says, she prefers the more stark Manet. It’s revealed that the artist was dying when he painted it and in Babe’s eye “The roses telegraph decay.” The significance and weight to her feels very profound and foreshadows things to come. We then see Truman and Babe at dinner together. Seeing them in 1966 is seeing a profound relationship; the mutual love and adoration is palpable.

If you are a strong intelligent women in this world you have 2 options: You can dumb yourself down or you can accept that you will be fundamentally alone.

Slim Keith in Feud

We then, of course, see the swans at La Cote Basque having dinner and commenting on the camera crew. Lee flirts unceasingly, much like her family member Little Edie will do later in one of the Maysles’ other films: Grey Gardens. Truman has decided that he will throw a masked ball to celebrate his cultural ascendancy. the guest list will be a meritocracy mixed with both society swans and artists alike. And it will have a guest of honor! Obviously each of the swans believes it’s going to be her. We see scenes portraying both the glamour and the cracks of each of the swans, and as a result Truman alludes to each of them being the guest of honor. Babe has a run in with Bill’s latest chippy, CZ has a great many possessions seized, Slim realizes that Pamela Harriman (Pamala Churchill Harriman) the woman who stole her husband, would be at the ball. When pressed by Albert Maysles Truman says that he needs to protect these swans, these women for whom great wealth hides great pain. Albert asks Truman where that comes from, Truman replies “Mothers give us our most unbreakable patterns, and mine, she was the torchbearer of unbreakable patterns.”

Albert also gives Truman the title for Answered Prayers based on a quote by St. Teresa of of Avila who once said, “More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.”

In a surprise to all of the swans Kay Graham is made the guest of honor for the ball. This was a strategic move to not offend any of them by giving the title to a newcomer in high society who had recently taken over the Washington Post in the wake of her husband’s suicide.

The party roars on, but the gatecrashers must be put in their place. Not all of them raise Truman’s ire, but one surely does: Ann Woodward. Ann contends that she was at one time one of the swans (to which Truman retorts she’s a Peafowl at best) Ann then tries to persuade Truman by saying how like his mother he said she was. Surly then he would not kick her out, she believes. Truman claps back that his mother was kicked out of parties like this. And that’s why she was mean and cruel and killed herself. (FORESHADOW MUCH?)

After evicting Ann, Lee spies Truman talking to himself and dancing strangely. We cut to her later on in the hairdresser reading Truman to filth. She contends she was never going to be the guest of honor, none of them were. She does an incredibly insulting impression of him and calls him a “celebrated little man trying to outdo himself with the dance of the seven Trumans.” This depiction of Lee as an outsider who trusted no one works for this series but in fact they were just as close as the other swans. The did have a very public end to their friendship in later years which I imagine given this tone, we will see.

The black and white portion of the episode ends with Truman reveling the footage the brothers got would be better as a book and that’s what he’s going to do.

The episode ends in color reveling that the guest that Truman was speaking to when he was seemingly talking to himself was his dead mother. He pronounces to his mother Lillie Me, “The truth is there is only one guest of honor. You are my best friend.” The two dance to Swan Lake, an incredibly appropriate song for many different reasons.

The vibes of this episode, as the kids say, are impeccable. This is not an episode to talk about as much as it is to experience and let it wash over you.