In the name of getting better as a writer, I’ve been grappling with the aspects of the craft that I’m pretty terrible at. High up the list is final paragraphs—I just struggle so much with concocting a hefty parting thought that naturally connects to all that has come before. On the rare occasions I manage to create one that’s halfway satisfying, it’s usually an idea that popped up in the course of my reporting and instantly struck me as worthy of those last lines; the quote that wraps up this extremely long piece is a good example. But more often than not, I just stick a placeholder at the bottom and brute force my way to something meh in the run-up to publication.
So in my quest to improve, I’ve been studying some classic stories that end with tremendous oomph. The one I want to recommend today is something I should have read years ago, given its massive reputation among fans of the genre: Teresa Carpenter’s “Death of a Playmate,” which infamously became the basis for Bob Fosse’s much-loathed Star 80. In addition to being spectacularly reported, Carpenter’s story is notable for how sharply it eviscerates the narcissists who hovered around her main character. The ending drives home the point in such a clear and chilling way—I envy both its economy of language and its moral disgust.
Hype, of course, often passes for prophecy. Whether or not Dorothy Stratten would have fulfilled her extravagant promise can’t be known. Her legacy will not be examined critically because it is really of no consequence. In the end Dorothy Stratten was less memorable for herself than for the yearnings she evoked: in Snider a lust for the score; in Hefner a longing for a star; in Bogdanovich a desire for the eternal ingenue. She was a catalyst for a cycle of ambitions which revealed its players less wicked, perhaps, than pathetic.
As for Paul Snider, his body was returned to Vancouver in permanent exile from Hollywood. It was all too big for him. In that Elysium of dreams and deals, he had reached the limits of his class. His sin, his unforgivable sin, was being small-time.
Related: If you want to know more about why Star 80 is so execrable, I beseech you to check out this recent episode from one of my favorite podcasts, Blank Check. Fosse entirely missed the main theme that Carpenter was trying to convey in the source material.
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