Valley of the Dolls

Anne arrives in New York and goes to an employment agency. There the remark is made that she is so beautiful she should have no trouble getting a job, since so many good secretaries are still working war-related jobs. The agency sends her to Bellamy and Bellows, a law firm that represents well-known entertainers.

Anne reflects on how eager she is to get away from Lawrenceville, Massachusetts, where she grew up. She wants to experience the broader, more exciting world and see if what she was taught as a girl is true. When she once told her mother she didn’t like kissing boys, her mother replied, “You’re a lady, Anne. That’s why you don’t like kissing. No lady does” (5). Now, she is dating an insurance salesman named Allen Cooper, who is a perfect gentleman but a terrible salesman.

Henry Bellamy immediately takes a shine to Anne and hires her to be his assistant. She agrees to start the next day. Within a few weeks, another attorney who has been away fighting the war returns. He is a half-Englishman named Lyon Burke and has a reputation as a debonair ladies’ man. When he returns, Henry tells Anne to find him an apartment. This is extremely difficult to accomplish, and Lyon tells her he is not worried about what she comes up with because of the places he had to sleep during the war.

Anne goes to the brownstone where she lives to talk to her friend, Neely. Neely is a dancer who has been performing since she was a child. Now she dances in a trio called the Gaucheros. The trio tries out for a part in the new musical Hit the Sky, featuring the legendary Helen Lawson. Neely teases Anne about her old-fashioned attitude and says that men typically fool around, and she should not take it personally.

Allen takes Anne to a French restaurant. She tells him she is looking for an apartment for Lyon Burke, and he takes her to an apartment that is exactly what Henry asked for. He explains that it is his apartment, and he is moving out. He goes on to tell her, “I’m rich, Anne—very, very rich” (25). His family is in the real estate business, and he has been looking for someone like her for years. He had a detective check her out to see if she is all she appears to be. Allen confesses his love and tells her he wants to marry her. For the first time, he kisses her goodnight. Anne is dismayed because she feels no passion for him.

The next morning, Anne approaches George Bellamy, Henry’s partner. She asks about Allen, and George tells her that he is a louse and she should stay away from him. She tells Henry and Lyon that she has found an apartment formerly rented by Allen, and Henry is alarmed by what intentions Allen may have for Anne. Anne takes Lyon to the apartment, and he falls in love with it immediately. They go to lunch, and he tells her that since in the war, his heart is not in being an attorney. He would like to be a novelist and write about his war experiences. When she asks why he does not follow his heart, he responds, “Does anyone actually have the luxury of doing exactly what he wants to do” (33).

That evening, Anne decides to tell Allen she will not marry him. Every time she tries to bring up the subject, he cuts her off. He takes her to the El Morocco club and introduces her to his father, Gino. Once again, whenever she tries to say she will not marry Allen, either the father or the son cuts her off. Ronnie Wolfe, a gossip columnist, shows up, and Gino tells him that Anne and Allen are engaged. This is big news, and Anne realizes she will not be able to correct what they are saying. In the limo ride back to her brownstone, Anne unsuccessfully tries again to reject Allen’s proposal. She goes to Neely’s room and tells her what happened. Neely is confused as to why Anne is not ecstatic about marrying a rich man.

When Anne arrives at the office the next morning, she finds photographers and reporters waiting to ask her questions about her relationship with Allen. Office workers congratulate her on her engagement. She cannot convince anyone that she does not want to get married. Henry is ready to accept her resignation, but she explains she does not love Allen. Henry accuses her of falling in love with Lyon, which she denies. He warns her that Lyon will just break her heart. Henry tells Anne that her best course of action is not to break the engagement but to delay the marriage until she sees how things are going to work out.

Allen picks Anne up that night and presents her with a 10-carat diamond engagement ring. Ironically, this depresses her. They join Gino and go to La Ronda, where they listen to Tony Polar. Anne sees Henry escorting Helen and Lyon escorting Jennifer, whom she has never seen before. As Tony sings, he is struck by Jennifer’s beauty and cannot help singing directly to her.

Anne reads in a gossip column that Tony and Jennifer ended up being an item after they met, meaning that Lyon was not dating Jennifer but introducing her to Tony. Neely shows up crying at Anne’s office, explaining that she has been excluded from Helen’s musical, Hit the Sky. Her brother-in-law did not tell her that she had been cut from the act. As she cries, Lyon overhears what is happening, gets on the telephone, and calls the producer, Gil Case. Lyon casually threatens a lawsuit, explaining that Neely has a contract and that she is only 17 years old, which raises some legal questions. He says that Neely is willing to forgive if Gil can find a place for her in the play. Neely finds herself as the understudy to another singer in the play, Terry King.

Henry sends Anne to the theater with documents for Helen. She watches Helen onstage practicing a song and is surprised by how she seems to have aged. Anne follows Helen to her dressing room, and Helen thinks she is an autograph seeker and tries to send her way before Anne explains that Henry sent her. Helen realizes Anne is Allen’s fiancée, the girl she has seen in the papers. Helen invites Anne to her home, where Anne sees many mementos, valuable art, and an impressive library that Helen says is just for show.

They end up making it a foursome that evening with Alan and Gino. They go to El Morocco, where Helen and Gino seem to have a wonderful time together. Riding in the limo afterward, Helen gives Anne her unlisted phone number. Anne finds Neely waiting for her at home. They discuss Helen, and Neely insists she is a horrible person whom no one likes for good reason. Anne expresses that no one gets to know Helen and that under a tough veneer, she is a likable, warm person. As they talk, the rooming-house telephone rings. It is Helen, pressing Anne to see if she can get her another date with Gino.

Allen calls Anne at work the next morning. He is upset about the previous night because of Helen’s behavior. He confides that he must tolerate his father but doesn’t want to accept Helen. As Anne meets with Henry, Helen calls to say she has a present for her and wants to know Anne’s address. Anne tells her to ask Neely, her close friend who is in Helen’s play. When Anne gets home, she finds Helen has given her a personal telephone.

The following evening, the four go out to the Copa, and it is a virtual repeat of the previous evening. Riding home in the limo, Anne hops out first, telling Allen to stay in the car. After she goes to bed, Helen calls Anne on her new phone. She confesses that she wants Gino to pay attention to her, but he doesn’t give her much encouragement. She wants to call him immediately, but Anne convinces her to wait until Gino calls first.

Helen repeatedly calls Anne to complain that Gino is not calling her, and Anne keeps talking her out of calling him. When Allen takes her to El Morocco, Gino asks Anne to dance and begs her to get Helen to leave him alone. Anne promises she will get Helen to leave him alone if he agrees to go to the Philadelphia opening of her play.

Allen takes Anne out to the Stork Club and presses her about when they will get married. She is noncommittal and insists she does not want to get married, reminding him that she has said she does not love him. He tells her that he feels passion deep within her, and once they are together, that passion will emerge. He says he does not want her to end up “a New England old maid” (111). Thanksgiving has come and gone, and he wants to set a date by Christmas.

Henry surprises Anne by telling her that he booked her a room in New Haven, and she is going to the opening of Helen’s play. Anne meets Henry and Lyon at Grand Central Station to ride the train to New Haven. Anne checks into her room and receives a call from Neely, who tells her that she and Mel made love for the first time. Anne meets Lyon at the bar, and he confesses that he wants her. Henry joins them at that moment and talks about all the changes Helen wants in the play. They discuss another client, Jennifer, who does not want to accept a picture deal with Hollywood because she is in love with Tony. When the musical begins, Helen seizes the audience, and it becomes clear the show will be a hit.

Afterward, Lyon and Anne go to the after-party. Helen arrives and, instead of relishing the success of her show, follows the producer around the room, telling him he must get rid of Terry, the second lead. When Lyon and Anne decide to get food at a diner, Henry stops them and says there will be a meeting with Gil and Helen to discuss how Terry can be replaced. Anne mentions Neely, and Gil decides he will give her the opportunity.

Lyon and Anne leave together and go to Lyon’s room. Lyon discovers that Anne has never had sex before, and he stops, making Anne think he does not want her. When she insists, they make love for the first time.

At the rehearsal the next day, Henry and Gil enact their plan to make Terry quit. Anne sits with Lyon and Jennifer and watches as Terry argues about the director’s intention to cut her songs out of the show. Henry convinces Terry that her smartest course of action is to walk away from the show, after which she will receive many offers to perform. Neely gets plugged into Terry’s place going forward.

Lyon and Anne ride the train back to New York and go to Lyon’s apartment. They spend the night together, and the next morning, Anne realizes she must tell Allen the engagement is off. He insists on seeing her, but she tells him that she is in love with Lyon and will not meet him. She asks if she can return the ring, and he angrily tells her to keep it and hangs up on her. Anne calls him back to ask if they are going to the opening of Helen’s play in Philadelphia. Allen scoffs, saying that he had convinced his father to go as a favor, but now that the engagement is over, there is no way that Gino wants to see Helen.

The Philadelphia opening is another triumph. Neely does a magnificent job. When the play is over, Anne goes back to speak to Helen, who is stunned to see that Allen and Gino are not with her. Helen demands that Anne come to the party with her and begins to cry when Anne says she has to go back with Lyon to New York. Anne tells Lyon that she needs to be with Helen, at which Lyon abruptly leaves her and rides away. When Anne explains to Helen that she is in love with Lyon and has broken it off with Allen, Helen accuses her of destroying her relationship with Gino. She tells Anne that she and Lyon once had an affair. Anne runs from the room and realizes that she has no money to get back to New York. Jennifer sees her and takes Anne back to her room, where Anne tells her the whole story. Jennifer gives her $10 to get back to New York. Once home, Anne finds a telegram from her mother saying that her aunt Amy has died.

Anne sends a telegram to Henry saying that she has to take care of personal business and will return on Friday. When she returns, she discovers that everyone thought she left the law firm for good. Allen is particularly repentant. Anne and Lyon spend the weekend at his apartment, and he asks her to move in with him. Anne assumes this means he is asking her to marry him, but this is not the case. Again, they discuss his desire to become a writer, and Anne agrees to give him a typewriter as a pre-engagement present and spend every weekend with him in his apartment.

Anne goes to court with Jennifer to be her witness to get an annulment from the prince to whom she had been briefly married. Anne and Jennifer decide to move in together, inviting Neely to join them.

Jennifer stays in a hotel in Philadelphia during the run of Helen’s play. She has managed to persuade an admirer, Robby, to buy her a new fur coat, and she thinks that she will ask him to get her a new evening gown. Susann writes, “She stroked the beaver coat—one night with Robby. That’s what a great body was for. To get things you wanted” (173).

Going up to her hotel room, she discovers many telephone messages, several from her mother. Even though it is 3:00 a.m., her mother calls her collect from Cleveland. She is concerned that she is not making enough money and that at age 25, she is past her prime for being a showgirl or making movies. Jennifer tells her she is interested in Tony. Jennifer remembers her boarding-school days in Europe and how she ended up in Switzerland with Maria, the Spanish schoolgirl with whom she had a three-year affair during World War II.