What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (novel)

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
AuthorHenry Farrell
LanguageEnglish
SubjectGothic fiction
GenreHorror, thriller
PublisherRinehart & Company
Publication date
March 3, 1960
Publication placeUnited States
Media typeHardcover, paperback
Pages304
ISBN978-1444780420

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is an American psychological horror novel by Henry Farrell published in 1960 by Rinehart & Company. The novel has earned a cult following, and has been adapted for the screen twice, in 1962 and 1991.

Some say the novel was based on the Janes sisters who were born in Aurora, IL. The family moved from Aurora to Hollywood about 1902 and opened a school in a house they built in 1903. It was one of a parcel of model Victorian homes developed by H. J. Whitley on what was then Prospect Avenue (renamed Hollywood Boulevard in 1910).The school was for the children of silent film stars such as Charlie Chaplin, Jesse Lasky, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Thomas Ince and Wallace Beery. It was called The Misses Janes School of Hollywood.