Her literary agents, Annie Laurie Williams and Maurice Crain, received several rejections from New York’s top publishers. The world hidden behind marquees and movie sets, Susann intimates, is sleazy. Not only is it crammed with sex and drugs – “dolls” being the nickname for pills – but Susann’s characters, based on her own experiences in show business, are vicious. The novel was deemed sensational and crude, even within the context of 1960s America. She returned to her pink typewriter and wrote Valley of the Dolls, a novel about the sordid lives of three young women seeking fame and fortune in postwar New York City. She was 45 when she published her first book, Every Night, Josephine! (1963), about her pet poodle. She had landed a few minor roles on Broadway and on television in the 1940s and early 50s, but neither she nor her press agent/producer husband, Irving Mansfield, could generate enough star power. It has since sold 31m copies, according to a website run by the estate of Jacqueline Susann.įor Susann, a struggling actress who wanted nothing more than to see her name in lights, writing was an afterthought. Valley of the Dolls was released in February 1966, hit the bestseller list a month later, and reached No 1 in May.
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