Grace Metalious & Jackie Susann Best-Selling Women Writers in a Mad Men Era

Both movies were so tame d down due to the era. I’d like to see a “Peyton Place” with everything kept in. I found the novel of PP a better read than “Dolls”.

Most entertaining article with great photos. Thanks for sharing.

20th Century Fox bought the film rights to 1957's "Peyton Place" & offered a cleaned-up version of Grace Metalious' scandalous book. Aside from reading between the lines in the movie's storyline, a great cast & still-compelling story puts this super soap over. My peek at "Peyton Place" here:

I have an original copy of "Peyton Place" and it's a good read, feels authentic in its look at small town secrets. I also have an old copy of "Kings Row," an inspiration for Grace to write "PP." And that author was also writing about his hometown. The novel version of "VOTD" is fun for the deeper showbiz dish, guessing who's who.

Some of the residents of her hometown did not want Grace Metalious to be buried there since she'd put their secrets out there for all the world to see.

I always wanted to read Peyton Place, but I never got around to it. I remember when I was a pup seeing it on TV, but my mother didn't really watch it, so I only remember Mia Farrow and her little pixie haircut.

Now VOTD, I could probably recite parts of that book from memory.

Peyton Place was lesser copy of the classic novel Kings Row by Henry Bellaman. I can’t believe I’m the only one that realized this.

The Selena Cross story from Peyton Place was taken from a real incident that happened near Metalious' hometown. That didn't go over well with the locals.

I think the casting of Lana Turner as the lead was a way of working around the censors, that is, everyone knew that if Lana was playing a role it was implied that the character was A. A whore and B. Totally did anal.

Thanks Rick, I enjoy your blog.

I’m making my way through Peyton Place on audible. It’s pretty good. I can definitely see why it was such a hit. The movie is really pretty to look at.

R8, Renee Mallett wrote a book about the real life murder that inspired Peyton Place. It's a good read

Yes, that was clever casting of Lana Turner, soon to be even more scandalous in her own right, bringing her persona of sin to Constance!

Here's a fun post I wrote about the casting of "Valley of the Dolls." Sure, who would change a thing about its entertaining awfulness? Well, author Susann would have, but taste and reality weren't her strong suit--Elvis as Tony Polar? But Jackie was NOT happy with the Fox film version of her mega bestseller. Was just having fun with this one, especially the pix. Although Susan Hayward stole the show as Helen Lawson, it's amazing how many great potential barracudas there were who might have made a great "Hell" as well! Enjoy!

Kings Row....is tops. It even has at least one gay character.....

Well the book does, not the movie.

[quote]Grace Metalious & Jackie Susann Best-Selling Women Writers in a Mad Men Era

Let's not forget Rona Jaffe author of "The Best of Everything" also made into a film.

Yes, Rona Jaffe was sandwiched in between "Peyton Place" and "VOTD." And who made a film of "Best of Everything?" Twentieth Century Fox! With Joan Crawford as the paperback diva version of Helen Lawson!

As for "Kings Row," Robert Cummings made at least one character convincingly gay!

[quote]Yes, Rona Jaffe was sandwiched in between "Peyton Place" and "VOTD." And who made a film of "Best of Everything?" Twentieth Century Fox! With Joan Crawford as the paperback diva version of Helen Lawson!

AND in the same late-'50s /early-60s sexy melodrama genre, there was "All The Fine Young Cannibals" starring Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner, also based on a novel written by a woman.

Rick, you should do a piece on Ruby Gentry, starring Jennifer Jones. It's fun and campy

I'm still shocked by the weird mother in Peyton Place who would give her son enemas everyday.

Natalie Wood also starred in 1964's "Sex and the Single Girl" loosely based on Helen Gurley Brown's smash hit 1962 book of the same name.

How was Return to Peyton Place? Never read the novel and always fell asleep every time I tried to watch the movie on TCM despite my unnatural affinity for Carol Lynley.

I attempted to read Peyton Place when I was eight or nine, back in the late 1960s. My older sisters were reading it, and hiding it from our parents. I ended up reading Oliver Twist instead. Finally read Peyton Place, Valley of the Dolls, and Helter Skelter when I was fifteen. It was a rainy summer at my grandmother's summer cottage in the woods. No TV.

Return was nearly as much fun.....and I love Carol Lynley, too, but her acting was very bad in it......wooden and all the wrong choices.

There was a lot of crazy stuff in the Peyton Place novel regarding Norman's weird mother, Selena's tits, Michael and Connie's hot affair, Betty Anderson's unapologetic sluttiness, etc. And yes, I haven't seen Ruby Gentry in years, another King Vidor campfest!

"All the Fine Young Cannibals" is hilariously watchable, it's like a parody of Tennessee Williams. Worst performances: Wooden Robert Wagner, despite his freeballing ways; and Susan Kohner, amateurishly overwrought as Natalie's bitchy sister in law. Oh, and you know how some movie fans like to say Susan looked just like Natalie Wood? See them side by side, and you will see that it is not true. My takedown of this campfest!

Grace Metalious’s life would be worth a biopic.

She lived large and drank herself to death before she turned 40.

Does Rick’srealreel field Love Has Many Faces? It’s a favorite of mine.

A Rage to Live is another great title.

[quote]I'm still shocked by the weird mother in Peyton Place who would give her son enemas everyday.

Too close to home?

Hey Reply 28, Here's two beach babes for the price of one: Joan Crawford in "Female on the Beach" & Lana in "Love Has Many Faces." What a double feature!

I have Grace's bio. Her life would make a great doc if someone hasn't done it already.

Rick - do you live in Manistique, MI full-time?

Seems a very odd place to live for a gay man - and all the snow? What's the appeal? Parents nearby?

Lena Dunham is loathsome but I could see her playing Grace.

Which one had the spectacularly handsome Hugh O'Bryan prancing around in a ball-hugging little swimsuit?

R35, that's Love Has Many Faces

Love Has Many Faces.....

Mary Astor almost saves Return to Peyton Place from crashing and burning.

Would Bonjour Tristesse count? By Françoise Sagan.

Marguerite Duras?

R34 Don’t call it a comeback, it’s a return!!!!

Reply 33, as an adult I lived in Traverse City for many years, then Portland, OR for a few. All very nice, but when my Dad got cancer and realized my Mom wasn't going to be around forever, I moved back to Upper MI. It's actually a nice home base. And especially since COVID, Upper MI has been a travel destination. The trick is to get away in the winter! And having cute rescue dogs keeps me on my toes.

Love them, R40!!

“They say that the seasons are four/But you and I know there are more/And the best of them all is the one that we call/The Wonderful Season of Love!” Love Theme to ‘Return to Peyton Place’ is another asset besides Mary Astor.

Rick, your dogs are adorable!

Reply 43, thank you! Bambi on the left is part wire-haired terrier and dachshund. Hi-energy, very expressive, and has dark blue eyes! Buddy on the right is a Yorkie mix, very laid back, and is a typical Yorkie. Both love people and dogs if they're friendly. Very loving rescues and they have a lot of fans in the neighborhood!

Spectacular article! You've outdone yourself this time.

Thanks, QuiltSandwich! At the time, I was reading both novels by the two authors. Which made me seek out bios on both. The women had a lot of similarities, but a few key differences. Made for fun writing...

IIRC, I read in a Metalious biography that she was on a TV show and Susann worked behind the scenes and Susann thought Grace really lacked charisma and excitement.

Jacqueline Susann couldn’t write for shit which is why she turned to writing pornography in her books.

Jacqueline Susann was a lesbian and Ethel Merman had to get a restraining order on her for stalking.

I think Susann’s books are fun. I especially love “Once Is Not Enough” as it’s so fucked up in so many ways. Susann clearly didn’t know what to make of the hippies or the downtown art scene or the youth culture but she wrote the hell out of it anyway.

One of the old original cast Star Trek movies, can't remember which, when they go back in time to earth, references how revered Susann is in the future.

A real problem with the VALLEY OF THE DOLLS movie is that the central character, Anne, is so boring. In the book you don't notice this as much, because in the beginning there's a lot of drama around her being Helen's tag-along friend. But the film Anne is just a black hole of nothingness, partially because Barbara Parkins is equally dull.

The part needed someone like Lee Remick: very pretty and classy, but with [italic]verve. [/italic]She was a bit old for the role, however. And she wouldn't have wanted to appear in this trash!

The teacher/principal in the novel Peyton Place was named Tomas Makris, not Michael Rossi. I think some of you are confusing the book with the movie or the TV series.

A lot of years ago I was watching New Hampshire public TV, a show called New Hampshire Crossroads, and the host interviewed George Metalious, Grace's ex-husband. It was very interesting! I just looked him up and he died in Rye, NH, at age 90, in 2015.

The show also featured Gilmanton, which was where they lived when she wrote the book, and which was the basis for Peyton Place. It's a small, quiet town, pretty like a typical NH small town, but not as interesting and colorful as Camden, Maine, where the movie was filmed.

(By the way, the movie was originally going to be filmed in Rutland, Vermont, but the town backed out at the last minute.)

I must have read an old copy of Peyton Place because this is what happened with the Tomas Makris/Michael Rossi thing--

The character of Rossi originally was called Tomas Makris, bearing the name and description of a Laconia resident and co-worker of Metalious's school teacher husband. However, Makris sued for libel, winning an out-of-court settlement for $60,000. Makris was renamed Michael Rossi in later printings, and in the film and TV series which derived from the novel. In editions published in the United Kingdom, he was called Michael Kyros; in Return to Peyton Place, he was named Michael Rossi.

The weakest part of the Peyton Place movie was the actor who played the Principal. Was it Makris or Rossi? I know it was Rossi in the series, with a much stronger actor. ED NELSON?

In the movie he was a squeaky-voiced nothing surrounded by many solid performances.

If the movie and its sequel had aired just recently, to become a TV series, we'd be calling it a reboot.

That interview with her Grace Metallious's husband sounds fascinating. Isn't there a biography? Or maybe it was an article in The New Yorker. I know she was ostracised. she was a heavy drinker and died of liver disease. Cirrhosis?

I think Richard Egan or Jeff Chandler would have made a hot Rossi, not the squeaker!

Lee Phillips. He became a director, he directed The Dick Van Dyke Show (and was on an episode, I think).

Lee Philips was the actor who played Mike Rossi in the PP movie......Robert Sterling played him in RTPP.

Ed Nelson did play him in the tv series - but by then he had been turned into a doctor.