All right, girls, it's time to talk!!!!!
When it was first published, on February 10, 1966, no one was prepared for the cultural zeitgeist that Jacqueline Susann's "Valley Of The Dolls" would become. It certainly did not start out that way; in fact, it actually took a couple of years for its impact to be realized.
At the start, the author's intended target audience--disgruntled soccer moms and frustrated beauty parlor matrons--lapped it up. After all, with their limited lives, they were for the first time given a glimpse into worlds they had always fantasized about, or secretly wanted to be a part of. Though you have to hand it to Jackie, even at the time; when it came to depicting that world, no punches were pulled on showing the more negative aspects.
All of which soared the novel to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list--where it remained for twenty eight weeks--eight weeks longer than "The Group" or "Exodus," ten weeks more than "Peyton Place" or "Hawaii," fifteen weeks more than "Marjorie Morningstar."
Eventually, of course, the book came out in mass market paperback, and everyone, it seemed, was buying it. Even my parents. And parents like them. Which also meant that curious Baby Boomer children like myself were partaking of forbidden pleasures. I knew where to find the book in our house, and, darlings, you better believe I found it, and read it!!!!! I mean, that drawing, on the back, of Susann, leg extended, in that slinky white gown!!!! Darlings, it was all the sophistication I wanted for myself!!!!
Honey, I am telling you, it was a revelation!!!! Now, some people might have thought such a grim story would have shied people away from show business, but, let me tell you, ever since I stuck my first dress onto Debbie Reynolds in her Colorforms Dress Designer kit, I knew I was headed for show biz!!!!! Like Ann Wells with Lawrenceville in the novel, I already knew that my province--Highland Park, New Jersey--had its limitations for me!!!!
So, there I was, coasting along on a sea of bliss, reading about the life I knew I wanted, until I hit a rock. That rock was the now famous exchange between Ann and Neely, when the latter tells Ann that "he (Mel Harris, her fiance) went down on me!"
While Ann shrieked a chagrined "Neely!" I cried out to myself, "Down on what?" I had absolutely no clue!!!! And there was absolutely no one I could ask. Not my friends; who may not have known any more than I did. Not my parents, who then would have discovered what I was reading, added to which I am not quite sure they would have known what this meant. And not my teachers, who would not have known either, and would have been appalled I was reading such "adult" literature. But, remember, I had teachers who tried to stop me from reading Dickens!!!!!
It was quite a revelation. The show biz stuff I got. The sex topics (which I somehow knew this was related to) I did not. And it would not be several more years, and several more readings, before I did.
But the book offered other pleasures to me. Like the realization of my show biz precocity, because I knew then (as I am sure my peers did not) exactly whom each character was based on. And with that went an interesting party game I would play with myself (not realizing, till years later, that others were playing, too) called "Who-Am-I-In-"Valley-Of-The-Dolls"?" For me, it was a no brainer--I was Neely O'Hara!!!!
Neely O'Hara--the lovable kid from vaudeville, who became a star, and a monster--was unquestionably based on Judy Garland, whom I had identified myself with, ever since first seeing her in what would become my all-time favorite movie, "The Wizard Of Oz." Like her, I had a deep, soaring, emotional talent, with my voice. And like she and Neely, I knew it!!!!! What those dumb teachers and students in Highland Park did not realize at the time was I had a more than healthy ego. Most back then would describe me as a mass of low self-esteem. Au contraire, you morons!!!! I was simmering with bitterness and resentment, because I knew I was superior to all of you, from the moment I was born!!!!! And STILL believe that! But, with the upbringing I had, the message was one did not call attention to oneself, which was one reason grades 7-12 were so troubling. If I had acted out how I really felt, I probably would have been kicked out of the Highland Park schools, which might have been better, anyway. Actually, I tried to, in fourth grade, but Mitch Frumkin was too dumb and limited (as I am sure he is today!!!!) to understand. I told him I was from superior stock, which I was, because I lived on the North Side, while all the dummies I was forced to traffic in school with, lived on the Wrong Side Of The Tracks!!!! Is this one of my life's themes???? You better believe it!!!! And Mitch just laughed!!!! Well, keep on laughing, bitch...I mean, Mitch!!! You're stuck in Nowheresville, while I am now at the center of my own Self-Imposed New York Fantasy!!!! Fuck you!!!!
Revenge is sweet, which is another thing "Valley Of The Dolls" taught me in droves. Picture me--the resentful adolescent, locked in my room, supposed to be doing my Algebra II/Trig (screw THAT!!!), pulling Susann's book (which I now owned!!!!) off my shelf, and reading aloud my favorite part..."Neely closed the script wearily. No use going over it again. She knew it cold!" Just like ME, darlings!!!! And this is what gave me the courage to debase myself in school each day--the conviction, instilled in me by Neely, that I would get through this mess, because I was BETTER, and I also had one of the greatest voices in the biz!!!! I mean, back then, how many teenage boys could do "Love Child" in Diana Ross' key?????
That is right, darlings!!!!! You damn well better believe it!!!!!
The novel, "Valley Of The Dolls," was a life force. But it was MY life force--or so I thought. But, slowly, things began to happen, that would change all that. One was the inevitable movie version. When it was purchased, VOTD was the top film sale of the year. Financed by an A-list company, Twentieth Century-Fox, it was designed to be a Prestige Production. Mark Robson, who had directed the beautiful adaptation of "Peyton Place" just ten years before, was chosen to direct, and a cast consisting of two Oscar winners (Patty Duke and Judy Garland, who was subsequently replaced by Susan Hayward; three, if you want to count Lee Grant, who would win an Oscar eight years later for "Shampoo"), a TV actress at the top of her game (Barbara Parkins), a bewitching glamour gal (Sharon Tate), and a gaggle of character actors (Naomi Stevens, Robert H. Harris, Martin Milner) recognizable enough to the public at large, everyone, as Parkins and Duke have attested in interviews, approached the project in as serious a manner as possible; Patty Duke, then, was convinced she was going for the Oscar gold!!!! Until they all saw the rough cut!!!! And then the reviews!!!! From that moment on, everyone connected to the film, including Susann herself, deemed it the lowest mark of their lives. But this would eventually change!! What brought about the change??? Several events simultaneously.
In 1969, two things directly connected to VOTD happened. Judy Garland, on June 22, died from what is still considered an accidental death of overdose by barbituates. Less than two months later, on August 9, a very pregnant Sharon Tate, with several others, was murdered by a group of deranged cultists, headed by Charles Manson. The repercussions of both events are still felt today.
Garland's death meant the Gay community had lost one of its icons. Now, Jackie, in her book did not shie away from homosexuality, but, characteristic of her time, demeaned it, by using the word "fag." If I had money for every time that word appears in the book or film script, I would be sitting by my own pool in a bikini, right now!!! Well, things began to change, right after Garland's death; in Manhattan's gay watering holes, in Greenwich Village (where else, kids??) a group of disgruntled homosexuals, impelled by Garland's death, and frustrated by how society had been treating them up till then, fought back in a police raid that became the Stonewall riots. And changed the scope of those living this so-called on-the fringe lifestyle. Slowly, it was brought beyond the fringe, and front and center, where it damn well belonged!!!!!!!!
Tate's death marked the end of some kind of California innocence; the Mamas and Papas Sixties fantasy had been permanently eradicated!!!!!! Culture was at an impasse, and the climate was right for change. Now, what did VOTD have to do with all this??? Well, with Garland gone, homosexuals began reaching out for role models, wherever they could be found. At some point--I would theorize in the early 70's, after the flop of "Myra Breckingridge"--gay men began taking a more pointed look at VOTD, finding kernels of both Camp and truth in it. Its campy dialogue represented every snappy comeback they had wanted to give to any bitch who had mistreated them. Ann's dissatisfaction with Lawrenceville, and that iconic image--oh, my God, here come the tears, girls!!!!!--of Barbara Parkins, face pressed to the train window, as she journeys to New York, while Dionne Warwick shrieks "Is thissssss a dream?" on the soundtrack, gave many the courage to escape their own personal Lawrencevilles, and flee to whatever city they chose for solace and reinvention. Whether one saw oneself as Neely, Helen, Ann, or Jennifer--because who wanted to be the men here, anyway???--
this movie gave gays something to latch onto as a community, an emotional catharsis laced with humor that serves as a template, or permission given, for gay men to live their lives exactly as they please!!!!!!
Which, I suppose, is the work's abiding legacy. But note, it took the movie, with its camp, and surrounding life events, to crystallize it all together, until, today, book and movie seem to many inseparable from the other. Except that they really are. Anyone who comes to Susann's book initially, looking for the movie's campiness, is in for a rude awakening. What surprised me the most, after a ten year absence, was how morally centered the movie actually is. It is designed to be a cultural cautionary tale to mainstream America about show business. In some ways, it turns out to be anti-showbiz. Ann goes back to the suburban bullshit she came from, because the movie wants you to believe that is where everyone belongs. Neely ends up screaming in the gutter; this is a reprimand for those of us who society deems think too much of ourselves, while Jennifer, buying into America's regard of Women as Sex Objects, gives up, offing herself when faced with no longer being one. The movie almost says, "Girls, if you aren't a sex object, what is the point of living?"
Fuck all that! Which is why one needs the gutsiness of Susann's book to balance this out. Taken together, VOTD, book AND film, can be both hilariously entertaining and enervating self-help experiences!!!! Look at all they have done for me, and continue to do, darlings!!!!! The thing to remember, all you newcomers, is that, while you will come to either with already preconceived expectations, try to leave those expectations on your psychological doormat, relax, embrace text and celluloid, and let them speak for you, as they will. That is is what this book has done for changing the face of America. And once changed, we can NEVER go back!!!!!!
And who would want to, anyway???? If only Jackie were around today. (Or maybe it is good she's not, because, were she to write it today, I am convinced she would have done it as a memoir. In 1966, no one would have believed it.) Yet, because of VOTD, she somehow still is. While writing a novel to make money, she set in motion the myths and legends of show biz that fed into the desires of gay men everywhere--an enduring legacy that would eventually surpass Susann's own fame!!!!!!
Take a doll, and sparkle, girls!
Love,
Neely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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