​​​​​​​Behold The Valley of the Dolls

by David James Mansour 

     "Hundreds of dolls are here to behold. As you gaze upon each you might question, who’s beholding who?" 

~ David Mansour's Behold the Valley of the Dolls

"Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, In a quarter of the sky
You are reaching for a cloud, And another way to fly"

​~ Stu Phillips' "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls"

"I’m not nutty, I am just hooked on dolls!'
~ Patty Duke as Neely O’Hara in Valley of the Dolls     

“You’ve got to climb to the top of Mt. Everest to reach the Valley of the Dolls' began Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls, the top-selling book of 1966.

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     Unlike Susann’s wildly popular book, you won’t find the rise and fall of Hollywood starlets, amidst pill-popping and booze-swigging, catfights and scandal. You will find dolls however.

Hundreds of Barbie and Ken dolls—fabulously posed for the camera by an adoring collector who himself has gone totally beyond the Valley of the Dolls.  

Before you make the climb to behold the Valley of the Dolls let’s start at the beginning…"

~ The opening to David Mansour's Behold the Valley of the Dolls

​​All the dolls you can handle—and more!
From 1959’s Ponytail Barbie to 2000’s Y2K Barbies  (and four decades of dolls in-between), David Mansour's Behold the Valley of the Dolls covers 40 years of Barbie. Showcasing hundreds of dolls, it’s the history of Barbie done portrait style!​

Writer and photographer David Mansour’s obsession with Barbie has been for a lifetime, which is a longtime since he fittingly shares the same birth year as her boyfriend, Ken. In 1987, a birthday gift of Barbie led to an extensive collection of dolls, toys, and pop culture memorabilia, inspiring him to write the book, From ABBA to Zoom: A Pop Culture Encyclopedia of the Late 20th Century.  It was an appearance on the Discovery Channel’s Pop Nation TV show, in which David expertly talked about Barbie that made him a nationally renowned “Barbie Expert.” In March 2018, he began a project of photographing his entire Barbie collection, over 1,700 dolls captured in one-of-a-kind portraits. This seven-year project is the genesis for Behold the Valley of the Dolls. 
     David resides in sunny San Diego, California with husband John Bode, a family of adorable pets, and his Barbie collection.​​

"Sparkle, Barbie, Sparkle!"