Trivia / Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

• Accidentally-Correct Writing: Russ Meyer and Roger Ebert based Z-Man on Phil Spector, even though neither one had ever met him. They were told later that they captured him very well. Considering what happens in the climax, and what later happened with Spector and Lana Clarkson, they captured him far more accurately than they could have imagined.
• Banned in China: Probably owing to its extensive depictions of drug use, sexual content and sudden extreme violence in the ending, it got banned in Australia, Chile and Sweden. These bans would be lifted years later though.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Has been released in French-speaking territories under such titles as Orgissimo, Hollywood Vixens au lait or just Hollywood Vixens.
  • The Japanese title is Wild Party.
  • In West Germany, it was Blumen ohne Duft (Flowers With No Smell).
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: A UK release of the film by Magnetic Video proclaimed on the sleeve synopsis that "the female members of the group are played by voluptuous EDY WILLIAMS, DOLLY READ and CYNTHIA MYERS, with MARCIA McBROOM." Edy Williams in the film is Ashley, who's not part of the band at all and is merely acquainted with them.
• Development Hell: The Criterion Collection special edition took over 25 years to get released (going back to the LaserDisc era). Criterion even filmed a panel discussion with the cast and crew after a film festival screening in 1990 to include as a special feature, but 20th Century Fox withdrew the release. 20-some-odd-years-later, Criterion approached Fox about Beyond the Valley of the Dolls again; this time the studio was willing to sanction such release. Under one condition: they had to buy 1967's Valleyofthe Dolls as well. Criterion put out special editions of both films on Blu-Ray in 2016.
• Divorced Installment: This was meant to be a true sequel to the original Valley of the Dolls, but Jacqueline Susann wasn't happy about not being involved in its production and thus sued the studio.
• DVD Commentary: Two commentary tracks accompanied the 2006 DVD release by Fox. One features Roger Ebert, and the other features cast members John LaZar (Z-Man), Erica Gavin (Roxanne), Dolly Read (Kelly), Cynthia Myers (Casey) and Harrison Page (Emerson).
• Executive Meddling: Russ Meyer was tasked with delivering an R-rated movie and cut more sex scenes from the film than he would have liked to in order to comply. The film got rated X anyway and Fox was okay with it. That being the case, Meyer wanted to add the sex scenes back in, but there was no time to before release.
• Fake American: Dolly Read, who played Kelly, was English. Her American accent has a tendency to be somewhat inconsistent throughout the film
• He Also Did: Roger Ebert, of all people, concocted the story with Meyer and wrote the screenplay. This would later get invoked quite often as a negative example of Let's See YOU Do Better! by people who took issue with Ebert's film reviews, but Ebert didn't consider the film an Old Shame at all and often talked about it.
• Life Imitates Art: Erica Gavin worked as a stylist for Fred Siegel and, later, spoke out about having a crush on Cynthia Myers, her onscreen love interest.
• Non-Singing Voice: The vocals for the Kelly Affair/Carrie Nations' songs were provided by Lynn Carey and Barbara Robinson.
• One-Book Author: The only film credit for David Gurian (Harris). The actresses who played the Carrie Nations would almost count, were it not for bit appearances in a handful of other movies.
• Prop Recycling: The dress that Kelly wears to Z-Man's first party was also worn by Sharon Tate in Valley of the Dolls. Dolly Read was reportedly emotional at wearing it.
• Romance on the Set: Edy Williams (Ashley) married Russ Meyer shortly after the film's release. The marriage lasted from 1970 to 1975.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Susan Lake and Baxter Wolfe are the biggest remnants from when the movie was supposed to be a straight sequel to Valley of the Dolls, as they were originally Anne Welles and Lyon Burke. This is rather obvious from how their shared history matches up with Anne and Lyon's fates in the ending of that movie. This means that Kelly was almost a Spin-Offspring (sort of, since she's Susan/Anne's niece instead of daughter).
  • A scrapped subplot had Casey attempting to get into acting, only to be faced with the Casting Couch. Scenes of this were actually filmed, but they were cut and are now presumed lost.
  • Ashley St. Ives' name was Ashley Famous in earlier drafts (Ebert took the name from a talent agency and when the suits weren't amused, he went with St. Ives instead). She also would have been an erotic novelist instead of a porn star.

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