Valley of the Dolls The screenplay was written by Helen Deutsch ("National Velvet") and Dorothy Kingsley ("Seven Brides for Seven Brothers"), and produced by Robson and David Weisbart. Reviews were scathing, but the film was an enormous box-office hit, becoming the sixth most popular of the year with $44 million at the domestic box office. Susann, who had a cameo as a news reporter, hated the film, reportedly telling director Robson that it was "a piece of shit." The novel was adapted for television in 1981 as "Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls", a mini-series executive-produced by Susann's widower Irving Mansfield and directed by
Dolores (Susann novel) attorney who likes rich women, but doesn't consider Dolores--with just $30,000 a year--quite rich enough. Finally, Dolores agrees to marry a fabulously wealthy shipping tycoon, who leaves her on their wedding night to go to his mistress. The book, in actuality a novella, is by far the shortest fiction of Susann's career, at just 201 pages. Susann wrote the story for the "Ladies' Home Journal", and it was first published in that magazine's February 1974 issue. "Journal" editor Lenore Hershey had asked Susann to write a piece about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis ("Jackie S on Jackie O"), but Susann was unwilling