Once Is Not Enough offered a multiple-choice "audience participation" review, in which the reader was given four choices (ludicrous, bad, terrible, horrendous) by which to evaluate the movie. Despite the reviews, the film was a commercial success, earning $15.7 million at the box office (equivalent to $65.2 million in 2017). Brenda Vaccaro, as Linda Riggs, received an Oscar nomination for her performance. Once Is Not Enough Once Is Not Enough is the third novel by Jacqueline Susann, following her huge best sellers "Valley of the Dolls" (1966) and "The Love Machine" (1969). With "Once Is Not Enough," Susann became the first writer in publishing
Jacqueline Susann friend, actress Beatrice Cole (c. 1910–1998), 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. Retitled "Lovely Me", the play, directed by actress Jessie Royce Landis, and starring Luba Malina (1909–1982) and Mischa Auer, opened on Broadway at the Adelphi Theatre on December 25, 1946. Said to be an "audience-pleaser," the play nonetheless closed after just 37 performances. Four years later, Susann and Cole wrote another play, "Cock of the Walk", which was to open on Broadway with Oscar-winning actor