Jacqueline Susann
Jacqueline Susann | |
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| Occupation | Novelist and actress |
| Period | 1963-1974 |
| Signature | |
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Jacqueline Susann (August 20, 1918, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – September 21, 1974, New York City) was an American author known for her best-selling novels. Her most notable work was Valley of the Dolls, a book that broke sales records and spawned a 1967 movie and a short-lived TV series.
Early years
Jacqueline Susann was born in Philadelphia to Robert Susann, a portrait painter, and Rose Jans a schoolteacher. In school, Susann was an intelligent but lazy student. She scored the highest on her class's IQ test, a 140, prompting her mother to predict that she would someday become a good writer. Susann had other ideas and instead had aspirations of being an actress.[1] The young Jackie's rocky relationship with her hard-to-please mother, as well as her starry-eyed view of her roguish father, would later be woven into Susann's novels.
By the time Susann entered high school, she was dabbling in drugs and had earned the reputation of being a party girl. Although Susann's parents hoped she would enter college, Susann left for New York City after graduating from West Philadelphia High School in 1936 to pursue an acting career.[1]
Acting career and marriage
Arriving in New York City, Susann landed bit parts in movies, plays (such as The Women), and commercials. A year later, Susann landed a decent theatrical job playing a lingerie model, earning $25.00 a week. While in New York City, Susann met a press agent, Irving Mansfield. The two dated despite the fact that Susann was not sexually attracted to Mansfield. In turn, Mansfield wooed Susann by placing items and photos of her in theater and society sections of New York newspapers. The ploy worked, and the couple married on April 2, 1939, at Har Zion Temple in Philadelphia.[2]
After the wedding, Mansfield went on to manage Susann's career. Mansfield made sure Susann was placed in news columns, and she soon was a regular on The Morey Amsterdam Show. She then got a spot in the Broadway show A Lady Says Yes, starring Carole Landis and Jack Albertson. The following year, Susann wrote her first play, Lovely Me for production on Broadway. It closed after only 37 performances.[1]
Despite Mansfield's devotion to Susann, rumors of Susann's infidelities surfaced throughout their marriage. One of Susann's first affairs was with actor/comedian/singer Eddie Cantor. Cantor hired Susann for a role in the touring production of the play, Banjo Eyes. Cantor dumped Susann after his wife discovered the affair and demanded that he quit the play. In 1942, Susann met comedian Joe E. Lewis and the two began an affair. Susann fell hard for Lewis which prompted her to write Mansfield a "Dear John" letter shortly after he was drafted by the United States Army in 1943. When Lewis learned that Susann and Mansfield separated and that Susann intended for her and Lewis to marry, he applied for a USO position, and was sent to New Guinea.[2]
In late 1944, Mansfield and Susann got back together, and in 1946, the couple had a son they named Guy. At age three, Guy was diagnosed as autistic. The following year, Guy was committed to an institution where he remains to this day. Mansfield and Susann told no one of their son's true condition. The couple told friends that Guy was asthmatic, and placed in a school in Arizona for the healthy climate. For the rest of her life, Susann was tormented with guilt over institutionalizing her son.[2]
Her Own Sexual Behavior
For decades, rumors have persisted that Susann was bisexual. The rumors began around 1945 when Susann appeared in A Lady Says Yes, with Carole Landis. The two reportedly had an affair and some claim that Susann modeled the Jennifer North character in her novel Valley of the Dolls after Landis. According to Susann's biographer, the affair had begun when Landis bought her earrings and a fur coat, Susann later describing to her female friends how "sensual it had been when she and Carole had stroked and kissed each other's breasts"[3]. However, in 1945, Landis married her third husband, the Broadway producer W. Horace Schmidlapp, to whom Susann had introduced her. There are also reports that Susann had an affair with the fashion designer Coco Chanel in 1959, and she repeatedly attempted to start a physical relationship with the Broadway play and movie legend Ethel Merman. None of the rumors has been confirmed, and most of Susann's friends and colleagues who knew her well dismiss these rumors entirely.[2]
Her Career In Writing Novels
In 1955, Susann acquired her poodle Josephine, and a contract to be the fashion commentator for "Schiffli Lace" on the Night Time, New York program. Susann wrote, starred in, and produced two live commercials every night. She continued to be the "Schiffli Girl" until 1961.[2]
In the early 1960s, Susann tried writing a show business & illegal drug exposé that she intended to call The Pink Dolls. However, she changed her mind and wrote her first successful book, Every Night, Josephine!, which was based on her experiences with her poodle. She sometimes dressed up that dog in outfits to match her own. Although this book was widely viewed as a novelty book, it sold well enough for her to wrtie and publish her second book, the fiction novel Valley of the Dolls.[2]
Around that time, Ms. Susann contracted breast cancer. She had a mastectomy surgery on December 27, 1962, but she kept the cancer her secret. Despite her illness, Susann had determined that she would become a bestselling author, and she began writing her first novel, Valley of the Dolls.[2]
Valley of the Dolls became the number one best-selling novel in the United States for many weeks. Next, she followed up this great success with her best-selling follow-on novels, The Love Machine, published in 1969, and Once Is Not Enough, published in 1973, the year before her death.
Valley of the Dolls
Initially, Valley of the Dolls was rejected by publishers. When the book was finally released on February 10, 1966, it was an instant hit with the public. The subject matter was considered inappropriate at the time, and was a mixture of soap-opera style storytelling with bold, non-traditional characters. The story was a roman á clef of sorts, and characters in the book were reportedly based on real life celebrities like Judy Garland and Ethel Merman.[2]
Valley broke sales records (at around 30 million copies), and has been cited as the best-selling novel ever.[4] As popular as Valley was, many contemporary authors dismissed Susann's writing talents. Novelist Gore Vidal said, "She doesn't write, she types!". Critics attacked her by saying Susann, "typed on a cash register". Susann responded to literary critics saying, "As a writer no one's gonna tell me how to write, I'm gonna write the way I wanna write!".[2] Part of the book's success stemmed from Susann and Mansfield's tireless effort to promote. The couple traveled the globe promoting her books on talk shows and in bookstores. Wherever Susann went on her cross-country tours, she signed each copy of her book that was available. She wrote down the name and address of every person she met and later sent everyone thank you cards. [1]
In 1967, Valley was made into a movie starring Patty Duke, Barbara Parkins, and Sharon Tate. Susann made a cameo in the movie as a reporter at the scene of Jennifer North's suicide. Valley of the Dolls was a commercial hit, but was panned by critics. Audiences, it was reported, laughed at some of the dramatic scenes. Susann herself hated the movie and walked out of the premiere.[2]
Fame
Both Susann and Mansfield enjoyed the fame that her books garnered. Susann went on to publish several more novels, all in a similar vein to Valley of the Dolls. She also became a frequent appeared on TV, particularly as a guest on TV talk shows. Her pointed repartee added spice to the programs she was featured on. However, not everyone was a fan. On July 24, 1969, the author Truman Capote, himself a talk show regular and a controversial man, created a media storm when he appeared on The Tonight Show. Capote stated that Susann looked like "a truck driver in drag." Susann threatened to sue Capote and NBC-TV over that and other comments. In turn, Capote apologized "to truck drivers everywhere." Johnny Carson gave Susann the chance to fire back at Mr. Capote, and Carson asked her on the air, "What do you think of Truman?" Susann quipped, "Truman? I think history will prove he's one of the best Presidents we've had."[2]
Later years and death
On January 11, 1973, Susann was stunned to learn that her cancer had returned, but was determined to finish her last novel, Once Is Not Enough. Like her other books, it was a success, in this case being the second best-selling novel of 1973 in the United States.
Susann's health failed rapidly. She was too sick and drained by chemotherapy to tour in support of Once Is Not Enough.[2] When she was admitted to the hospital for the last time, she remained in a coma for seven weeks before dying at the age of 56. Her last words to Mansfield were, "Hiya, doll. Let's get the hell outta here."[2]
Posthumous works
In the late 1970s, her romance/science fiction novel Yargo was published. Written in the late 1950s, the novel is not similar to her other works and was a radical and somewhat bizarre departure, likely published only due to the sustained interest in Susann. Those who knew Susann noticed a strong physical resemblance between Yargo and actor-director Yul Brynner, on whom Jackie had a roaring crush.
Her last novel Dolores, a thinly-veiled take on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, was published in 1976. A condensed version of it was published in the Ladies' Home Journal, under the banner "Jackie by Jackie." When illness prevented Susann from completing her last book, close friend and fellow writer Rex Reed quietly took over.
In 1987, Lovely Me, a biography of Susann by Barbara Seaman, was published. The book was, in part, the basis for the 2000 feature film Isn't She Great? starring Bette Midler as Jackie and Nathan Lane as Irving. Marlo Thomas played Susann in a play, Paper Doll with F. Murray Abraham as Mansfield. Michele Lee and Peter Riegert played the couple in the TV movie Scandalous Me: The Jacqueline Susann Story.
Before her death, Susann planned a sequel to Valley of the Dolls. In 2001, author Rae Lawrence created Shadow of the Dolls, based on notes Susann left for the intended sequel.
Books
- Every Night, Josephine! (1963) ISBN 0-14-303434-0
- Valley of the Dolls (1966) ISBN 0-8021-3519-6
- The Love Machine (1969) ISBN 0-8021-3544-7
- Once Is Not Enough (1973) ISBN 0-8021-3545-5
- Dolores (1976) ISBN 0-553-20958-2
- Yargo (1979) sci-fi romance ISBN 0-553-12855-8 and ISBN 0-552-11019-1
See also
- List of bestselling novels in the United States
- Barbara Zitwer: Co-writer of the play Paper Doll, about Susann. The play was produced in regional theatres across the US and on Broadway. She was also the executive co-executive producer of the 1998 TV movie Lovely Me: The life of Jacqueline Susann, for the USA Network.
References
External links