Jacqueline Susann (August 20, 1918 – September 21, 1974) was an American novelist and actress. Her novel Valley of the Dolls (1966) is one of the best-selling books in publishing history.Profile, Encyclopædia Britannica. February 23, 2011. Retrieved January 10, 2017. With her two subsequent works, The Love Machine (1969) and Once Is Not Enough (1973), Susann became the first author to have three novels top The New York Times Best Seller list consecutively.Johnston, Laurie. Jacqueline Susann Dead at 53; Novelist Wrote 'Valley of Dolls'. The New York Times. September 23, 1974. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
Early years Jacqueline Susan was born on August 20, 1918, at Lankenau Medical Center in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, the only child of a Jewish couple: Robert Susan, a Wilno, Imperial Russia (now Vilnius, Lithuania)-born portrait painter, and his wife, Rose ( Jans), a public school teacher. It was Rose who added the second "n" to her husband's surname in order to make pronunciation easier for her students; Robert Susan retained the original spelling. Because his surname was never legally changed, his daughter was born Jacqueline Susan, as confirmed in the 1920 and 1930 US census, and her father's record in the U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936–2007. Nevertheless, she used her mother's version of the family surname.
As a child, her teachers reported that she was an inattentive but imaginative student.Seaman, Barbara. Lovely Me: The Life of Jacqueline Susann. 2nd ed. (New York: Seven Stories Press, 1996), pp. 57-58. In the fifth grade, she scored 140 on an IQ test,Hamilton, Alex. Writing Talk: Conversations with Top Writers of the Last Fifty Years (Kibworth Harcourt: Troubador Publishing, 2012), pg. 140. the highest in her school.Seaman, Lovely Me, pg. 61. An only child and devoted to her father, Susann was determined to carry on the family name.Reed, Rex (1977). Valentines & Vitriol, [E-reader version]. BookBaby, 2013. Retrieved January 14, 2017 from Google Books She decided to be an actress, despite the advice of a teacher who said, "Jackie should be a writer. She breaks all the rules, but it works."Seaman. Lovely Me, pg. 56. In 1936, after graduating from West Philadelphia High School, she left for New York to pursue an acting career. Her father told her, "If you're going to be an actress, be a good actress. Be a people watcher."Kasindorf, Martin. "Jackie Susann Picks Up the Marbles", The New York Times, August 12, 1973. Retrieved January 5, 2017.
Stage career In New York, on June 2, 1937, aged 18, Susann landed a small role in the Broadway company of The Women, the "caustic" comedy of manners by Clare Boothe that had opened on December 26, 1936, and would run for 657 performances.The Women [n.d.] Internet Broadway Database (IBDB). Retrieved January 4, 2017. She subsequently appeared in such Broadway shows as The Girl from Wyoming (1938), My Fair Ladies (1941), Blossom Time (revival, 1943), Jackpot (1944), and in A Lady Says Yes (1945), which starred Hollywood siren Carole Landis.Jacqueline Susann. [n.d.] Internet Broadway Database (IBDB). Retrieved January 4, 2017. Only one of her shows following The Women was a hit: Banjo Eyes (1941), starring Eddie Cantor, ran for 126 performances.Banjo Eyes [n.d.] Internet Broadway Database (IBDB). Retrieved January 4, 2017.
Together with a friend, actress Beatrice Cole, Susann wrote a play called The Temporary Mrs. Smith, a comedy about a one-time movie actress whose former husbands interfere with her scheme to marry a man of wealth.Seaman, Lovely Me, pg. 155. Retitled Lovely Me,The title change came about after a very pregnant Susann, spotting her reflection in a mirror, asked, "How did this happen to lovely me?" Songwriter Arthur Siegel, taken with the remark, wrote a song for the show which he called "Lovely Me." The song, in turn, prompted the title change. (Seaman, Lovely Me, p. 187.) the play, directed by actress Jessie Royce Landis, and starring Luba Malina and Mischa Auer, opened on Broadway at the Adelphi Theatre on December 25, 1946. Said to be an "audience-pleaser,"Seaman. Lovely Me, p. 187. the play nonetheless closed after just 37 performances.Lovely Me [n.d.] Internet Broadway Database (IBDB). Retrieved January 4, 2017. Four years later, Susann and Cole wrote another play, Cock of the Walk, which was to open on Broadway with Oscar-winning actor James Dunn.Calta, Louis. "James Dunn Signs for Play in Fall", The New York Times. August 29, 1950. Retrieved January 12, 2017. For reasons that remain unclear,Seaman. Lovely Me, p. 213. the play was not produced.
In 1970, Susann made a brief return to the stage when she appeared in Blanche Yurka's off-Broadway revival of Jean Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot. Clive Barnes in The New York Times panned the production; of the cast, he praised only Yurka, but he did mention that "Jacqueline Susann looks a great deal prettier than the publicity stills on her book jackets might lead you to believe."Barnes, Clive. "Blanche Yurka Offers Inept 'Madwoman'", The New York Times. March 23, 1970. Retrieved January 12, 1970.
Television career From 1948 to 1950, Susann appeared on The Morey Amsterdam Show, a comedy series (telecast first on CBS, then on DuMont), in which she played Lola (later Jackie) the Cigarette Girl to Amsterdam's nightclub emcee. In 1951, she hosted Jacqueline Susann's Open Door (DuMont), the premise of which was to help people—most of whom had experienced hardships—find jobs.Chase, Sam. Television—Radio Reviews: Jacqueline Susann's Open Door. The Billboard, June 2, 1951. Retrieved January 9, 2017.Billboard complimented Susann by writing, "Indicative of Miss Susann's charm is the fact that she did not permit the show to descend to a saccharine, tear-jerking level when there was ample chance to do just such a thing." (Chase, Sam. Television—Radio Reviews: Jacqueline Susann's Open Door. The Billboard, June 2, 1951. Retrieved January 9, 2017.) She appeared in such series as Danger (CBS), Studio One (CBS), and Suspense (CBS), but found herself typecast: "I got cast as what I looked like—a glamorous divorcée who gets stabbed or strangled." In the summer of 1956, she appeared in NBC's revival of the panel show This Is Show Business, which was produced by her husband.McNeil, Alex. Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present. Rev. ed. (New York: Penguin, 1996), pg. 832.
In addition to her acting and hosting work, Susann did commercials. In 1955, she became spokesperson for the Schiffli Lace and Embroidery Institute.Seaman, Lovely Me, pg. 287. Over the next six years, she wrote, produced, and starred in commercials that aired during such shows as New York's local Night Beat (DuMont's WABN), with Mike Wallace,Callahan, Michael. "Peyton Place's Real Victim", Vanity Fair. January 22, 2007. Retrieved January 9, 2017.Susann was present the night Wallace interviewed Grace Metalious, the previously unknown housewife from New Hampshire who was rocketing to fame as author of the then-scandalous novel, Peyton Place. and then nationally on such shows as The Mike Wallace Interview (ABC) and The Ben Hecht Show (ABC).Collins, Amy Fine. Once Was Never Enough. Vanity Fair, January 2000. Retrieved January 5, 2017. Sometimes she was joined on the air by her poodle, Josephine.Ephron, Nora. Books: The Love Machine. The New York Times. May 11, 1969. Retrieved January 6, 2017. Susann energetically promoted the product and made personal appearances on its behalf.Seaman. Lovely Me, pg. 242.Years later, after parting ways with Schiffli and now a well-known author, Susann said, "I would sooner wear a salami around my neck than a Schiffli embroidered collar." (Seaman, Lovely Me, pg. 258.) One night in the early 1960s, as she was leaving a New York restaurant, Susann heard someone shout, "There's the Schiffli girl!" Susann, realizing that 25 years of hard work had culminated only in recognition as the "Schiffli girl," was discouraged.Hamilton. Writing Talk, pg. 137. She later appeared in a 1971 episode of the crime drama Mannix ("The Crime That Wasn't", airdate January 29, 1971). In 1973, Susann played herself in an episode of Love, American Style.
Books Yargo During the mid-1950s, Susann wrote a science-fiction novel called The Stars ScreamVentura, Jeffrey. The Jacqueline Susann Story. (New York: Award Books, 1975), p. 63. (published posthumously as Yargo). In the early 1960s, she considered writing a book about show business and drug use, to be entitled The Pink Dolls.Seaman, Lovely Me, p. 251-52.
Every Night, Josephine! In 1962, after encouragement from showman Billy Rose,Carter, Graydon, Ed. Vanity Fair's Writers on Writers. (New York: Penguin, 2016), p. 310. husband of Susann's friend, Joyce Mathews (1919–1999; twice married to Milton Berle), she began to adapt into book form letters she had written about her beloved poodle, Josephine.
Published by Bernard Geis Associates on November 16, 1963, Every Night, Josephine! sold 35,000 copies in hardcover, and by 1973 sold 1.7 million paperbacks. This affectionate account of Josephine's hijinks earned positive reviewsVentura, The Jacqueline Susann Story, p.97.J. D. Landis, who edited Once Is Not Enough and later became editor-and-chief of the William Morrow and Company publishing house, re-issued Josephine!, and said, "I loved it, I really did.... It was all the evidence I would ever need that this woman is a writer and was a writer right from the beginning of her career." (Seaman, Lovely Me, p. 361.) and appeared briefly on Time magazine's best seller list, peaking at #8. In support of Josephine!, Susann undertook her first book tour, on which she was accompanied by the subject herself; often she and Josephine wore matching outfits.O'Neill, Anne-Marie. The Original Valley Girl. People. October 27, 1997. Retrieved January 10, 2017. Even after publishing her novels, Susann cited Josephine! as her favorite of her own books.Reed, Rex (1974). People Are Crazy Here [E-reader version]. Retrieved from Google Books
Valley of the Dolls
Valley of the Dolls spans twenty years (1945–1965) in the lives of three young women: Anne Welles, the New England beauty who liberates herself from her staid small town by coming to New York, where she falls in love with the dashing Lyon Burke; Neely O'Hara, an ebullient vaudevillian who becomes a Hollywood star and self-destructs; and Jennifer North, a showgirl with little talent but a gorgeous face and figure, who becomes a friend to both. All three women fall prey to the "dolls," amphetamines and barbiturates, a euphemism Susann coined. The book was published by Bernard Geis on February 10, 1966, and "took off like a Cape Canaveral space shot."Daniels, Mary. Susann's Best Love Story a Private Affair. Chicago Tribune. August 15, 1976. Retrieved January 10, 2017. The story was said to be a roman à clef, with characters in the novel reportedly based on real-life celebrities such as Judy Garland, Dean Martin, and Ethel Merman.
Although Publishers Weekly, in an advance review, called the novel "powerful and sometimes fascinating,"Mansfield, Irving and Jean Libman Block. Life with Jackie. (New York: Bantam Books, 1983), p. 162. the book received largely negative reviews. Gloria Steinem panned the book in The New York Herald TribuneSeaman, Lovely Me, p. 314. as did the reviewer in The New York Times.Fremont-Smith, Eliot. Thank You, Franz Kafka! The New York Times. February 4, 1966. Retrieved January 10, 2017. Time magazine called it the "Dirty Book of the Month," and said, "it might more accurately be described as a highly effective sedative, a living doll.""Books: Dirty Book of the Month", Time. April 22, 1966. Retrieved January 10, 2017.