September 24, 1956: "Peyton Place" Is Published

Grace Metalious

September 24, 1956: Peyton Place is published by Julian Messner, Inc. Grace Metalious wrote a tale of women challenging views of femininity and sex in a small New England town during and after World War II.

Marie Grace DeRepentigny was born on September 8, 1924 in Manchester, the largest city in New Hampshire, but not a particularly large city. (In the 2020 Census, its population was a little over 115,000.) She acted in local plays, then married George Metalious, had a child, and began writing.

She titled her 1st novel The Tree and the Blossom, but she and George agreed that the book would work better if the title were the name of the town. Near their residence of Durham, New Hampshire, was a town named Potter Place, but she wasn't daring enough to name the book after a real nearby town. She looked through an atlas, and found a town named Payton in Texas. She changed the spelling, and told her husband, "Wonderful. That's it, George: Peyton Place. Peyton Place, New Hampshire. Peyton Place, New England. Peyton Place, USA. Truly a composite of all small towns where ugliness rears its head, and where the people try to hide all the skeletons in their closets."

Her agent knew it was too racy -- by 1950s standards, anyway -- for a major publisher to touch it. So she showed it to Kitty Messner, wife of publisher Julian Messner, whose company would eventually be bought out by Simon & Schuster.

The story starts in 1937. Constance leaves Peyton Place for New York City at a young age, and meets a man in the fabrics business named Allison MacKenzie, who already is married with children. Constance becomes pregnant with MacKenzie's child. MacKenzie dies a few years after his daughter, also named Allison, is born.

Constance and her daughter adopt Allison's last name before returning to Peyton Place as a "widow" and child, and Constance alters her daughter's birth date to make her appear legitimate. In the years after World War II, with the money she's saved as well as what she received from her late lover's will, she opens up an apparel store called the Thrifty Corner. Allison grows up lonely and isolated, idealizing the father she never had and dreaming of a future as a published author.

The poorer side of Peyton Place is represented by the Cross family, Nellie and Lucas Cross and their daughter Selena, who is Nellie's biological daughter, but not Lucas'. Paul, Lucas's son and Selena's stepbrother, left Peyton Place after accusing Lucas of stealing his money. Nellie and Lucas later have a child together: Joey, who lives with the couple and Selena in "the shacks", a poor section of town being targeted for redevelopment. Selena and Allison become friends, but the drastic difference in their socioeconomic situations ensures the friendship does not last long.

When Selena turns 14 years old, Lucas begins to abuse her, impregnating her and leaving local doctor Matthew Swain in a troublesome situation in which he decides to perform an abortion. The doctor makes Lucas leave town, and after she discovers this, Nellie commits suicide by hanging.

Critics hated it, but Grace noted the book's runaway sales, and struck back, saying, "If I'm a lousy writer, then an awful lot of people have lousy taste." When people complained about how the book discussed sex, she said, "Even Tom Sawyer had a girlfriend, and to talk about adults without talking about their sex drives is like talking about a window without glass."

She wrote a sequel, Return to Peyton Place, in 1959, and 2 more novels, but heavy drinking led to her death at age 39 on February 25, 1964 -- the day Muhammad Ali first became Heavyweight Champion of the World. She once said, "If I had to do it over again, it would be easier to be poor. Before I was successful, I was as happy as anyone gets."

A movie was quickly made, and Peyton Place the film premiered on December 12, 1957, with Lana Turner as Constance and Diane Varsi as Allison. Return to Peyton Place was made in 1961, with Eleanor Parker and Carol Lynley.

ABC aired the prime-time soap opera Peyton Place from 1964 to 1969, with Dorothy Malone and Mia Farrow. In 1985, NBC aired Peyton Place: The Next Generation. Clearly not based on anything new that Grace Metalious had written, Malone reprises her role as Constance. By this point, Farrow had become too big a star to cast in a TV-movie, and so Allison is mentioned as having been raped, impregnated, and institutionalized snd later murdered in Boston.

Her daughter, Megan MacKenzie, goes to Peyton Place, meets her grandmother, and gets involved with Dana Harrington, played by Bruce Greenwood, but breaks up with him after finding out -- incorrectly, as it turns out -- that he is her half-brother. Megan's actual father tries to kill her to silence her, but she survives, and the man who started this round of intrigue gets what's coming to him. Megan recovers, and rejoins Dana, giving the saga something of a happy ending.

In 1968, country singer Tom T. Hall wrote "Harper Valley P.T.A.," and Jeannie C. Riley's recording of it hit Number 1. The local Parent-Teacher Association complains that Mrs. Johnson, a widow with a daughter in the town's junior high school, is dating again and wearing short skirts. Mrs. Johnson strikes back and, as we would say today, spills all the tea, closing with, "This is just a Peyton Place, and you're all a bunch of Harper Valley hypocrites!"

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September 24, 1956 was a Monday. Three baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 5-4 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Johnny Kucks pitched well until blowing a lead in the 8th inning. Mickey Mantle appeared only as a pinch-hitter, and drew a walk.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-5 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente went 2-for-4 with a walk. Gil Hodges hit a home run. Jackie Robinson went 1-for-4 with an RBI. But Clem Labine allowed 4 runs in an inning and change, and was relieved by Ed Roebuck and Roger Craig, the latter turning out to be the losing pitcher.

* And the Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 14-11 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. Yes, that's baseball, not football. (The ballpark would be renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Sherm Lollar of the South Siders and Ray Boone of the Bengals (father of Bob, grandfather of Bret and Aaron) each hit 2 home runs. Al Kaline went 1-for-4 with a walk.