Plainfield woman helping ‘Valley of the Dolls’ star give cult film respectable due

Plainfield resident Bianca Melrose has teamed up with actress Barbara Parks to persuade the newly formed The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures to include “Valley of the Dolls” in the museum.

“Valley of the Dolls” was based on Jacqueline Susann’s best-selling novel of the same name. The story shows the successes and defeats of three young women in show business. The museum is “the largest museum in the United States devoted to the arts, sciences, and artists of moviemaking,” according to its website at academymuseum.org.

Parkins, best-known for her role of Betty Anderson in the primetime soap opera “Peyton Place,” also starred in “Valley of the Dolls,” along with Patty Duke and Sharon Tate. Parkins said she first approached museum officials about 10 years ago, when the museum was still a concept.

But Parkins said she doesn’t understand why the film can’t be included.

“So when I had my interview with Bianca, I told her of my passion to get this film represented in the museum,” Parkins said. “And she got on board.”

But Melrose of Plainfield wasn’t thinking about starting a petition when she reached out to Andy Zambella, manager of Parkins’ fan club, in March of 2021. Melrose simply wanted to interview Parkins for her YouTube channel – On The Hot Seat - which Melrose started in 2019.

“I talk about pop culture and wanted to start interviewing people I found fascinating, individuals that had a unique story to tell,” Melrose said.

Melrose, who is now 31, read “The Valley of the Dolls” two years ago because people she knew were stunned she had never read it.

“I was hooked,” Melrose said. “It stayed with me a long time. I couldn’t stop thinking about these characters, where they started, where they ended.”

After Melrose watched the movie, she thought “how cool it would be” if she could interview someone connected with the film on her YouTube channel. Parkins’ passion for the film led Melrose to start the petition, which Zambella said he’s helped promote on social media. Zambella said he’s been a fan of Parkins for 57 years, and saw “Valley of the Dolls” when he was just 12.

“I love her with all my heart,” Zambella said of Parkins. “I’ll do anything to help get this film into the museum.”

“Valley of the Dolls” isn’t without controversy. Roger Ebert, in his 1967 review, called “Valley of the Dolls” a “dirty soap opera.” Others have called it campy and cliched.

But Parkins feels “Valley of the Dolls” addressed two “vitally important” issues at the time, which should be represented in the museum.

“Jacqueline Susann was a very controversial and quite a remarkable and outspoken woman,” Parkins said. “And she’d written this book about three young women who wanted to go into acting – they wanted to get into the industry – which got them hooked on drugs, which was never really dealt with in film in this way, and mental illness, which was never really dealt with in film in this way.”

Parkins said she was “intrigued” with the story even before she had a role in the film.

“I quietly read the book, which my mom did not want me to read but I did, about three young women going to Hollywood,” Parkins said. “Also, the news in Hollywood was, ‘Who were going to be the three actresses to play the lead roles in the “Valley of the Dolls?” ’ Now that’s big. And if it’s that big, I wanted it.”

Parkins played a recent Radcliffe graduate named Anne Welles. But Parkins said she really wanted to play Patty Duke’s character Neely O’Hara, because “it was the most dramatic, most independent role.”

More than 50 years later, Parkins is still glad she did the film, even thought she said it was shot with “pink-tinted” glasses. Parkins said she also wished for some instructions on how drugs affect the body and mind because “I had to pretend how to be out of it on dolls, you know?”

“Dolls” is a street term for benzodiazepines.

A favorite memory was watching Judy Garland test for the role of Helen Lawson.

“I was just crying, and I thought, ‘This film is going to be amazing,” Parkins said. “She would have made this film even bigger, even more talked about.”

Parkins said “Valley of the Dolls” also represents the end of an era in Hollywood, when actors were contracted with studios for up to seven years and were told which movies they would make. She said most people don’t understand the hard work and the “extraordinary” amount of people need to make a film.

“The industry was extraordinary,” Parkins said. “Now, not so much …never again will there be studio heads who are passionate about the films they make and who they choose to have on the contract.”

Melrose needs 500 signatures so the petition is eligible for a featured recommendation on the change.org site. As of Friday, the petition had 328 signatures. But Melrose isn’t giving up. Melrose hopes someone influential signs the petition and then gives it the push it needs.

“I really believe this can happen,” Melrose said.

Melrose said Parkins is willing to host a film screening, followed by a Q&A and tribute to co-star Sharon Tate, if the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures were to embrace “Valley of the Dolls.”

Parkins said she participated in a similar event at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, California in 1997, and that she would love to host a screening, even though she retired from acting at age 35 and concentrates on her photography now.

“People were just so full of love and excitement,” Parkins said of the 1997 event. “It was wonderful.”

To sign the petition, visit change.org.