I just read Valley of the Dolls

How many times are you gonna make a Valley of the Dolls thread??? Seriously. Your schtick old and stale at this point.

If poorly written, how can the story be told so well?

I'm not a despicable "Oh Dear" basement living troll, just curious.

Henry Bellamy turned out to be a really crummy vindictive guy - He was so lovely and generous with Anne - turning her into the Gillian Girl and helping her get rich with Gillian Stock but he turned on her like a snake…. The last chapters when Anne finally bags and marries Lyon after all of those years and she secretly pays his salary and he has such a sneaky humiliating affair with Neely - that awful “you know something is wrong” feeling - it makes me squirm!! ….. I really enjoy the book. As much as it is panned it has a “Mad Men” vibe to it.

R1, this is the only Valley of the Dolls thread I've ever made.

R2, when I say the book is poorly written, I mean the prose is bad. Despite the bad prose it's wildly entertaining.

r4: r1 is a troll. She posts similar things on other threads to get a rise out of posters

R5 why did you just reply to yourself???

You know how bitchy fags can be r6!

And r1 also trolls by posting things like r6 (r5 was my first post on this thread)

The Narcissism of Small DIfferences by Michael Zadoorian

The acquistion editor's wife said "It's terrible and I stayed up all night reading it to see what would happen." He bought it immediately.

A literary success was born, to the horror of many in the industry.

And here's to you, Mrs. Susann. Jesus loves you more than you will know ...

Poorly written books can often make good films. Or trashy good films as in this case.

It's trash, but trash I love. I own the 50th Anniversary hardback edition of the book, and the special edition version of the film.

I read the book, after years of eldergays quoting it and giggling, thinking they were being funny/witty. Their love of the story, of course, comes from the film which is awful and makes huge changes to the original source material.

The book is so depressing in its final chapters. Neely is a horrible human being - she is intentionally cruel to Anne, who had never been anything but a true friend. Lyon's a schmuck whose affair with Neely would be devastating to Anne if she weren't so numbed (thanks to the dolls she's popping over and over) to the life she's living.

Yes, the book is a trashy read, but it's also compelling for many, many pages, and Susann closes it in probably a much more realistic manner than many readers expected.

OH - and the repulsive Senator at Jennifer’s end! When she met the Senator who loved her for herself and and was going to marry her. She was thrilled that she could quit her career and not have to obsess over her appearance anymore. When she got breast cancer and had to have a mastectomy - -the Senator wept and fondled her breasts and cried”Don’t take my Babies!!!” Yuk! …….. I still think the part of the book about the “Sleep Cure” is interesting.

Some of Travilla's best film costumes.

So, it’s not really about dolls?

It's about dolls doing dolls.

One of my favorite reads. Good and trashy. My favorite character is Helen Lawson. I can't sit through the film, bad costumes and cinematography. I have never seen the film from beginning to end.

The "sleep cure", popped up in my feed recently. It was a real thing tried to help people just as the novel describes. This treatment killed more people than it helped.

Not sure if there’s an audience for it but I hope someone turns the book into a miniseries and includes everything that was left out of the movie AND keeps the books timeframe. That tv miniseries remake was awful. Netflix maybe? So many wonderful casting possibilities.

Anyone but Ryan Murphy.

Todd Haynes could do it. Julianne could play Miss Helen Lawson.

He might be getting too old now, but I can picture Dominic West playing Lyon.

Why not let Helen play herself this time? They can use Scorsese’s de-aging CGI. I suppose it would be terribly difficult to get insurance on the production.

If Patti LuPone played Helen Lawson and sang "I'll Plant My Own Tree," the Datalounge server would explode from everyone logging on at once.

r23. You need to be in charge of casting this.

Margot Robbie (with padding) would have to be Jennifer. Or Sydney Sweeney.

Is “I’ll Plant my own Tree” from the book? I think the soundtrack could used updating. Perhaps Lin-Manuel has something?

*

[quote]The book is trashy and poorly written

Those are its good points, dear.

What about Jennifer’s lesbian lover, Maria??

Lily Collins for Anne? Flo Pugh for Neely?

Zac Efron could play the rethahded nightclub singer.

So very many stand-out odd titbits in this book: The regimen of Susann's character applying her husband's semen to her face (kept in the fridge), the random observations that she's a lazy and lousy cook who buys store-bought cheap salad dressing, this novel was MADE FOR DATALOUNGERS!

I couldn't put it down either OP... I believe it was twenty-seven years ago I read it, and still remember laughing to myself at these passages. So much snark... Trash or not, it is a must read IMHO.

I read the book several times back in the 20th centuries but my memories of the book are mixed with memories of the movie.

I recently listened to an abridged version of the book on audio streaming, and some of the best lines in the movie did not make it into the abridgment, including “you know how bitchy fags can be” and Neely yelling at Ted Casablanca that he was a fag, and telling Helen Lawson about the fags she usually hung out with.

I don’t know if all the fag references were in the original book, or were added to the movie, but I certainly miss them in the abridged version. I assume an editor thought that it wouldn’t fly in today’s climate, but that was actually one of the more entertaining parts of the movie/book.

[quote] So, it’s not really about dolls?

r16 Lol. It took me years to realize the dolls are barbiturates.

I dunno, with coke & meth & opiates, it's quaint to imagine a time when sleeping pills were the Hollywood rage. Yeah, simpler times. Haha.

[quote]R32 The regimen of Susann's character applying her husband's semen to her face (kept in the fridge)

Wasn’t this from “Once is Not Enough”?

R35 Could have sworn it was in Dolls, but perhaps I'm mistaken. So much for my good memory! I reckon I read all her novels in short order, so things could have certainly blended together in my mind.

I never did see the films however, only read her books.

R35 Maybe it was The Love Machine...? I loved them all!

There is a reading of the screenplay online done about 10 years ago. Martha Plimpton plays Anne and she is hysterical. I think that Craig Bierko plays Lyon and DL agave Tovah Feldsuh plays Miriam.

[quote] Maybe it was The Love Machine...?

They call me "The Love Machine".

R33, the use of the word "fag" is in the original text and yes, it's said by Neely, multiple times. Early on it's not an epithet... rather it's used by Neely to show how she's grown up very fast, working in vaudeville and theatre. The book starts in the '40s and Neely's already been performing for years.

Neely's coarse language is in contrast to the beautiful, very proper and virginal Anne Wells.

It's later, when Neely's a mess that she uses the word "fag" in a derogatory manner.

[quote] DL agave Tovah Feldsuh

Agave’s not kosher, R38.

Ah - auto correct! I meant fave^!

R35 you are correct, and I am so happy to be in a community where somebody could beat me to this correction. I love you bitches.