#Why ‘Valley of the Dolls’ is still the very best worst book of all time

The 1966 Jacqueline Susann novel “Valley of the Dolls” was the top selling novel of that year, a dishy mix of drugs, sex and general escapades. Since then, it has sold more than 30 million copies and spent 28 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, staying there for 65 weeks overall. At one point, the Guinness Book of World Records even declared it “the most popular novel in the world.” The 1967 film starring Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, Sharon Tate and Susan Hayward also achieved a sort of hallowed “so bad it’s good” status, delighting viewers with its glitzy schlock status. (Judy Garland was originally cast in the film, but then proceeded to either quit the production or was fired; for her part, Jacqueline Susann reportedly hated the movie, declaring it a “piece of s–t.”)

“Dolls! Dolls! Dolls!: Deep Inside Valley of the Dolls, the Most Beloved Bad Book and Movie of All Time” (Penguin Books) by Stephen Rebello celebrates the bad, the good, and the fantastic kitsch behind the phenomenon.

“Valley of the Dolls” is about three young women trying to make their way in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles and New York, navigating love and affairs, and eventually becoming addicted to barbiturates (“dolls”).

“It didn’t disappoint,” writes Rebello in his Author’s Note of discovering “Valley” as a child. “I mean, it had everything. It WAS everything. Boozers! Pill-heads! Lesbians! Sex! Heartbreak! More sex! Homosexuals! Catfights! Incurable disease! … And, for kicks, hey, aren’t those characters pretty transparently based on Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly?” The book, he says, is “terrible, irresistible, hokey, hot, and in its way, transgressive.”

For her part, Susann felt the book was a cautionary tale. “Valley of the Dolls showed that a woman in a ranch house with three kids had a better life than what happened up there at the top,” Susann said.