Valley of the Dolls

""When you're climbing Mount Everest, nothing is easy. You just take one step at a time, never look back and always keep your eyes glued to the top.""

Valley of the Dolls is a 1966 novel by Jacqueline Susann. It follows the lives of three women (Anne Welles, Neely O'Hara, and Jennifer North) from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s. They start out as roommates in New York, and each of them achieves fame and fortune, with plenty of ups and downs along the way.

"Dolls" is a slang term for pills (particularly sleeping pills and weight loss pills). Almost everyone in the book pops them like candy.

This novel provides examples of:

 * Acceptable Targets: Fat women.
 * All Love Is Unrequited
 * Casting Couch
 * Golden Age of Hollywood
 * May December Romance: Anne and Kevin Gillmore.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Quite a few. Susann spent the 1940s as a struggling actress, and drew on that experience while writing the book.
 * Neely O'Hara is Judy Garland. Her.
 * Helen Lawson is Ethel Merman.
 * Jennifer North is Carole Landis with a dash of Marilyn Monroe.
 * Tony Polar was inspired by Dean Martin, but isn't supposed to actually be him.
 * Stepford Smiler: Anne.
 * Jennifer North is Carole Landis with a dash of Marilyn Monroe.
 * Tony Polar was inspired by Dean Martin, but isn't supposed to actually be him.
 * Stepford Smiler: Anne.