One is a culturally-important, best-selling, drug-fueled, homoerotic classic with several unfortunate movie adaptations; the other is well, a culturally-important, best-selling, drug-fueled, homoerotic classic with this gem in it: Valley of the Dolls is the first novel by American writer Jacqueline Susann. Published in 1966, the book was the biggest selling novel of its year. [1] As of 2016, it has sold more than 31 million copies, [2] making it one of the all-time best-selling fictional works in publishing history. [3] Plot [ edit ] Valley of the Dolls isn't a mushy romance that sinks into an abyss of paper-tasting plastic characters, who seem to melt under a tighter scrutiny, or a glossy, emotionally simplistic, and rose-tinted fairy tale world, where predictability is a given. Instead, it actually makes you invested in the characters, although they are practically one-dimensional vehicles of psychological exploration. Anne: Lyon we can’t move to Lawrenceville I hate it there, I’d rather die [followed by a huge fight and Lyon went awol]

50 years of Valley of the Dolls - The Guardian

If that was being said today by my boyfriend about my best friend, I’d rethink my whole life and punch him in the face. I’d let no man disrespect my best friend by calling them names like a petty 6 year old. This book took me on a wild adventure and I loved every second of it. It was fascinating going on a journey with the three girls. They all started off so naive and sweet and then things took a turn for them and they became so hardened.

Robson, Mark (February 9, 1968), Valley of the Dolls, Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, Paul Burke , retrieved January 3, 2018 The creation of the novel, film and the never-made film sequel meant to star Parkins and Burke are the subjects of an acclaimed 2020 non-fiction book written by Stephen Rebello, Dolls! Dolls! Dolls!: Deep Inside Valley of the Dolls, the Most Beloved Bad Book and Movie of All Time. In an interview with Roger Ebert, Susann offered her thoughts on why Garland was let go. “Everybody keeps asking me why she was fired from the movie, as if it was my fault or something,” she said. “You know what I think went wrong? Here she was, raised in the great tradition of the studio stars, where they make 30 takes of every scene to get it right, and the other girls in the picture were all raised as television actresses. So they’re used to doing it right the first time. Judy just got rattled, that’s all.” 5. PATTY DUKE PARTIALLY BLAMES THE DIRECTOR’S BEHAVIOR FOR GARLAND’S EXIT.

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann | Goodreads

Susann had apparently been thinking about the novel for some time. Some years earlier, she had begun Underneath the Pancake, a show-business novel, with her actress friend Beatrice Cole (c. 1910–1999). [4] Later, she considered writing a novel about drug usage in show business to be called The Pink Dolls. [5]Don't bother coming up with complex motivations for when you need your characters to do stupid, destructive shit: just pin it on love. Before embarking on her national tour—which never really stopped until she began hawking The Love Machine in 1969—Susann consulted a notebook she had kept while plugging Every Night, Josephine! Into it went minute notations about every reporter, bookshop clerk, and talk-show host she had encountered. Wives’ and kids’ names were recorded, as were birth dates, hobbies, and comments on their importance, personality, and physical appearance. “She studied it, memorized it, wrote the people on it letters,” says Love Machine publicist Abby Hirsch. “She was a politician.” Yasmin, Seema (24 Aug 2016). "As 'Dolls' turns 50, comparing mother's little helpers, then and now". Dallas Morning News . Retrieved 4 June 2022. What a scary story!! Encapsulated in a wonderful setting of New York in the 1900s. Anne, Jennifer & Neely felt like real people to me, and Anne has now become one of my favourite fictional characters <3 Let me write a sequel about her life after this ending!!