David Weisbart seventeen episodes in 1967. On July 21, 1967, Weisbart died of what was apparently heart failure; he collapsed while playing golf with film director Mark Robson on a Los Angeles golf course. He was 52, and was survived by his wife and two daughters. At the time of his death, Weisbart was producing the high-profile "Valley of the Dolls", based on the novel by Jacqueline Susann. The film was released in December 1967. Although it received scathing reviews, it was 20th Century Fox's biggest box office hit of the year. David Weisbart David M. Weisbart (January 21, 1915 – July
Jacqueline Susann that it was one of "mental and spiritual incest." After her death, film critic Andrew Sarris pointed out that "If there is any single key to the oeuvre of Jacqueline Susann it is to be found in an extended Electra complex." As with her previous novels, reviews were negative (a writer for "The New York Times" complained of the book's "nearly 500 steadily monotonous pages"), but sales were spectacular: the book spent 36 weeks on the "New York Times" Best Seller List, eight of which were at #1, and became the second highest-selling novel of 1973. Susann, with this book,