| Jacqueline Susann |
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EARLY YEARS Susann lived in an unusual household. Her philandering painter father would send her to the movies while he met with his mistress; after the movie, he would ask her to summarize the movie for him, so he could then tell his wife about it when they returned home. At school, Susann was a lazy student, but she scored a 140 on a fifth-grade IQ test. Writing was always something she was praised for, but Susann was determined to become an actress. After she graduated from high school, her mother wanted her to become a teacher, but she moved to New York to become an actress. Arriving in New York City she got bit parts in movies and commercials. A year later, Susann landed a decent theatrical job playing a lingerie model, earning $25.00 a week. After marrying Irving Mansfield, a press agent on in 1943 , which she read aloud to the cast of play she was then in. Their only child, Guy, was Autistic . In 1955, she acquired her poodle Josephine and a contract to be the fashion commentator for Schiffli Lace on ''Night Time, New York'' which ran 1-7 a.m. weeknights. She wrote, starred in, and produced two live commercials every night. She continued as the "Schiffli Girl" until 1961. MIDDLE YEARS She tried writing a show business/drug exposé that she was going to call ''The Pink Dolls,'' but instead she wrote her first successful book, ''Every Night, Josephine!'' which was based on her experiences with her poodle, whom she sometimes dressed up in outfits to match her own. Although the book was widely viewed as a novelty, it sold well enough for her to publish her second book, '' Valley Of The Dolls ''. The book was an instant smash, and broke many sales records (at around 19 million copies, it has been cited as the best-selling novel ever.) The book also served as a cultural touchstone; though some people considered Susann's writing style to be loud, bombastic and brash (an assesment Susann herself would have agreed with) and the subject matter inapproporiate, the mixture of soap-opera style storytelling with bold, non-traditional characters - a model, a singer and a bombshell actress - reaped huge sales. It may have also been successful because some of the story was a Roman á Clef - the character Neely O'Hara was said to be loosely based on Judy Garland , while the character of Broadway legend Helen Lawson appeared to be a take on Ethel Merman , and starlet Jennifer North on tragic 1940s actress Carole Landis . Once she was famous, Mansfield devoted himself to supporting and helping her, acting as her agent. Susann went on to publish several more novels, all in a similar vein to "Dolls". She also became a fixture on television, particularly as a guest on talk shows. Her pointed Repartee added spice to the programs she was featured on. However, not everyone was a fan; Truman Capote - himself a talk show fixture and controversial figure - created a media malestrom when he appeared on " The Tonight Show " with Johnny Carson and opined that Susann looked like "a truck driver in drag" and then went on to apologize to truck drivers. (Susann was not amused.) THE END Susann experienced several health battles throughout her life, including recurring bouts with Breast Cancer . She was shocked when she learned in January 1973 that her cancer had returned. She was determined to finish her last novel, ''Once Is Not Enough''. Like her other books, it was a roaring success, but she was too sick and drained by Chemotherapy to tour to support the book. Susann's health failed rapidly. When she was admitted to the hospital for the last time, she stayed in a Coma for seven weeks before her death at the age of 56. Her last words to Mansfield, in true "Jackie style", were "Let's get the hell outta here, doll." In the late 1970s , her romance/science fiction novel '' Yargo '' was published posthumously. Written in the late 1950s , the novel is not similar to her other works and was a radical and somewhat bizarre departure, likely published only due to the sustained interest in Susann. In 1996, a biography of Susann (the source for the citations of this article) was published: "Lovely Me" by Barbara Seaman. The book was, in part, the basis for the 1999 feature Film ''Isn't She Great?'', starring Bette Midler as Jackie and Nathan Lane as Irving. Marlo Thomas played Susann in a Play ''Paper Doll'' with F. Murray Abraham as Mansfield. Michele Lee and Peter Riegert played the couple in the TV movie ''Scandalous Me: The Jacqueline Susann Story''. Her last novel ''Dolores'', a thinly-veiled take on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis , was published in 1976. FACTS
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