Despite Anne's protests that she does not want to marry him, Allen alerts the media, and the apparent love story becomes a sensation. After a short period of dating, Allen reveals to her that he is secretly a millionaire testing her feelings for him, and that he is in love with her, before proposing to her. Anne is warned, especially by Henry, not to get involved with Lyon, a known heart breaker.

When the nephew of Henry's partner, theatrical attorney Lyon Burke, returns from the war to the agency, Anne quickly befriends and falls in love with him despite already casually dating an apparent small-time salesman, Allen Cooper. She quickly finds employment as a secretary at a talent agency, working under Henry Bellamy, and befriends neighboring girl Neely O'Hara, an ebullient vaudevillian and aspiring stage actress. In 1945, beautiful ingenue Anne Welles moves to New York to start a new life, seeking to escape the ennui of her hometown of Lawrenceville, Massachusetts. To date, it has sold more than 31 million copies, making it one of the best-selling works in publishing history. Published in 1966, the book was the biggest selling novel of its year. Agent: Mary Evans, Mary Evans Inc.Valley of the Dolls is the first novel by American writer Jacqueline Susann. Anyone seeking nonfiction escapism will be well served by Rebello’s loving dissection of a camp classic’s print and screen incarnations. When the much anticipated movie premiered, a combination of projection snafus and the actual film’s “rancid dialogue and over-the-top performances” drew ridicule-yet over time, the film attained cult status in its own right. Garland herself was cast as an older performer (in turn inspired by Merman), but the troubled actress was soon replaced by fellow star Susan Hayward. Patty Duke, a Hollywood veteran, resented being given second billing to newcomer Barbara Parkins-who, for her part, had pursued Duke’s role, as a Judy Garland–inspired singer.

Rivaling the book’s salacious plot, the making of the 1967 film version was fraught with drama. Rebello recounts Susann’s early experiences as an actress and playwright, and numerous affairs with stars, including Ethel Merman and Eddie Cantor, and the scorn she drew from literary heavyweights, including Truman Capote and Gore Vidal, when Valley of the Dolls, marketed as a scandalous roman à clef of her showbiz career, hit 1966 bestseller charts. Screenwriter Rebello ( Bad Movies We Love) plunges into all aspects of a famously guilty pleasure in this exuberant examination of Jacqueline Susann’s racy tale of sex, drugs, and Hollywood.

Valley of the dolls paperback