Jayne Mansfield

Jayne Mansfield was born Vera Jayne Palmer on April 19, 1933, at Bryn Mawr Hospital in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, the only child of Herbert William Palmer and Vera Jeffrey (Palmer) Palmer. Until age six, Palmer lived in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, where her father, Herbert, was an attorney practicing with future New Jersey governor Robert B. Meyner. In 1936, her father died of a heart attack while driving; three-year-old Palmer was in the car at the time. In 1939, Palmer's widowed mother married sales engineer Harry Lawrence Peers. The family moved to Dallas, Texas. As a girl, Jayne was known as Vera Jayne Peers. As a child, Palmer wanted to be a Hollywood star like Shirley Temple. At age 12, she took ballroom dance lessons. She graduated from Highland Park High School in 1950. While in high school, she took violin, piano, and viola lessons. She also studied Spanish and German. == Career ==

Early modeling and performing While attending the University of Texas at Austin, Palmer won several beauty contests, including Miss Photoflash, Miss Magnesium Lamp, and Miss Fire Prevention Week. By her own account, the only title she refused was Miss Roquefort Cheese, because she believed it "just didn't sound right". Mansfield rejected "Miss Prime Rib" in 1957 as well. Palmer married Paul Mansfield in 1950. In 1952, while in Dallas, Jayne and Paul Mansfield participated in small local-theater productions of The Slaves of Demon Rum and Ten Nights in a Barroom. They also appeared in Anything Goes in Camp Gordon, Georgia. After Paul left for military service, Jayne Mansfield made her first significant stage appearance in a production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman on October 22, 1953, with the players of the Knox Street Theater, headed by Sidney Lumet. The Mansfields moved with their daughter, Jayne Marie, to Los Angeles in 1954. Jayne Mansfield sold popcorn at the Stanley Warner Theatre, taught dance, modeling part-time at the Blue Book Model Agency, and worked as a photographer at Esther Williams's Trails Restaurant. having been cropped out of the final photographs. Photographer Gene Lester, who worked on the photoshoot, stated that Mansfield was "too sexy" for the advertisement. Mansfield landed her first acting assignment in the CBS series Lux Video Theatre, in the episode "An Angel Went AWOL", aired on October 21, 1954. In 1955, the Mansfields separated, although Jayne kept Paul's last name. Playboy appearances In December 1953, Hugh Hefner began publishing Playboy. The magazine became a success in part because of early appearances by Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, Bettie Page, and Anita Ekberg. In February 1955, Mansfield was the Playboy Playmate of the Month, and appeared in the magazine several times. Publication of photos of Mansfield boosted the magazine's circulation and her own career. Shortly afterward, she posed for the Playboy calendar, covering her bare breasts with her hands. Playboy featured Mansfield each February from 1955 to 1958, and again in 1960. Film Mansfield's first film part was a supporting role in Female Jungle, a low-budget drama completed in ten days. She was paid $150. In February 1955, James Byron, Mansfield's manager and publicist, negotiated a seven-year contract with Warner Brothers, whose decisionmakers were intrigued by her publicity antics. The contract initially paid her $250 a week and landed her two films, one with an insignificant role and one that was unreleased for two years. Mansfield's agent, William Shiffrin, signed her to play fictional film star Rita Marlowe in the Broadway play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? with Orson Bean and Walter Matthau. The part was offered to Mansfield after Mamie Van Doren turned it down. Mansfield accepted the part while working on producer Louis W. Kellman's The Burglar (1957), an adaption of the novel of the same name by David Goodis, directed by Paul Wendkos, made in film noir style. She appeared alongside Dan Duryea and Martha Vickers. The Burglar was released two years later, when Mansfield's fame was at its peak. She was successful in this straight dramatic role, though most of her subsequent film appearances were comedic or capitalized on her sex appeal. It was Kellman's first major venture, and he claimed to have "discovered" Mansfield. On May 3, 1956, Twentieth Century Fox signed Mansfield to a six-year contract to mold her as a successor to the increasingly difficult Marilyn Monroe, their resident blonde sex symbol. Monroe had just completed Bus Stop. Mansfield was still under contract to Broadway and continued playing Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? on stage until September 15. Mansfield undertook her first starring film role as Jerri Jordan in Frank Tashlin's ''The Girl Can't Help It (1956). Originally titled Do-Re-Mi, it featured a high-profile cast of contemporary rock and roll and R&B artists, including Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Fats Domino, The Platters, and Little Richard. Released in December 1956, The Girl Can't Help It'' became one of the year's biggest successes, both critically and financially, earning more than Gentlemen Prefer Blondes had three years before., Netherlands (1957) Soon afterward, Fox started promoting Mansfield as "Marilyn Monroe king-sized", attempting to coerce Monroe to return to the studio and complete her contract. Mansfield next played a dramatic role in The Wayward Bus (1957), an adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel of the same name. With this film, she attempted to move away from her "blonde bombshell" image and establish herself as a serious actress. The film enjoyed moderate box-office success, and Mansfield won a Golden Globe in 1957 for New Star of the Year, beating Carroll Baker and Natalie Wood with her performance as a "wistful derelict". It was "generally conceded to have been her best acting", according to The New York Times, in a fitful career hampered by her flamboyant image, distinctive voice ("a soft-voiced coo punctuated with squeals"), voluptuous figure, and limited acting range. Tashlin cast Mansfield in the film version of the Broadway show Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, released in 1957, reprising her role of Rita Marlowe alongside costars Tony Randall and Joan Blondell. Fox launched its new blonde bombshell with a North American tour and a 40-day, 16-country tour of Europe. She attended the premiere of the film (released as Oh! For a Man in the UK) in London, and met Queen Elizabeth II. '' (1957) Mansfield's fourth starring role in a Hollywood film was in Kiss Them for Me (also 1957), for which she received prominent billing alongside Cary Grant. In the film, she is little more than comic relief; Grant's character relates to a redhead played by fashion model Suzy Parker. The film, described as "vapid" and "ill-advised", was a critical and box-office flop, and was one of 20th Century Fox's last attempts to promote Mansfield. The continuing publicity related to her physical appeal failed to sustain her career. Fox gave her a leading role opposite Kenneth More in The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958), a western comedy filmed on location in Spain. In the film, Mansfield's three songs were dubbed by singer Connie Francis. Fox released the film in the United States in 1959, and it was Mansfield's last mainstream film success. Columbia Pictures offered her a part opposite James Stewart and Jack Lemmon in the romantic comedy Bell, Book and Candle (1958), but she turned it down because she was pregnant. Fox attempted to cast Mansfield opposite Paul Newman in ''Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!'' (1958), his ill-fated first attempt at comedy. '' (1960) In 1959, Fox cast Mansfield in two independent gangster films shot in the United Kingdom: The Challenge and Too Hot to Handle, both released in 1960. Both films were low-budget, and their American releases were delayed. Too Hot to Handle was released in the U.S. as Playgirl After Dark in 1961. The Challenge was released in 1963 as It Takes a Thief. In the U.S., censors objected to a scene in Too Hot to Handle in which Mansfield, wearing silver netting with sequins painted over her nipples, appears nearly nude. When Mansfield returned to Hollywood in mid-1960, 20th Century Fox cast her in It Happened in Athens (1962) with Trax Colton, a handsome newcomer Fox was trying to mold into a heartthrob. She received first billing above the title but appeared in a supporting role. The Olympic Games-based film was shot in Greece in 1960 but not released until 1962. It was a box-office failure. In 1961, Mansfield took a minor role but above-the-title billing in The George Raft Story, released in 1962. Starring Ray Danton as Raft, the film showcased Mansfield in a small part as a glamorous film star. With a decreased demand for big-breasted, blonde bombshells and an increasing backlash against her excessive publicity, Mansfield became a box-office has-been by the early 1960s. '' (1963) Tommy Noonan persuaded Mansfield to become the first mainstream American actress to appear nude in a starring role, in the film Promises! Promises! (1963). Playboy published nude photographs of Mansfield on set in its June 1963 issue, resulting in obscenity charges being filed against Hugh Hefner in a Chicago court. Promises! Promises! was banned in Cleveland, Ohio, but enjoyed box-office success elsewhere. As a result of its success, Mansfield landed on the Top 10 list of box-office attractions for that year. Soon thereafter, Mansfield was chosen to replace the recently deceased Marilyn Monroe in Kiss Me, Stupid (released in 1964), a romantic comedy starring Dean Martin. She turned down the role because of her pregnancy (with daughter Mariska). She was replaced by Kim Novak. But in that same year, 1963, Mansfield appeared in a pinup book, Jayne Mansfield for President: the White House or Bust, which was promoted on billboards. David Attie, a commercial and fine art photographer, took the photographs. In the mid-1960s, Mansfield appeared in foreign films such as ''L'Amore Primitivo (1964, Italy) and Panic Button (1964, Italy). It did not enjoy a full release until 1968, almost a year after her death. After Single Room Furnished wrapped, Mansfield was cast opposite Mamie Van Doren and Ferlin Husky in The Las Vegas Hillbillys'' (1966), a low-budget comedy from Woolner Brothers. This was her first country and western film, and she promoted it on a 29-day tour of major U.S. cities, accompanied by Husky, Don Bowman, and other country musicians. Before filming, Mansfield said she would not "share any screen time with the drive-in's answer to Marilyn Monroe", meaning Van Doren. Their characters did share one scene, but Mansfield and Van Doren filmed their parts at different times; these were edited together later. In early 1967, Mansfield filmed her last role, a cameo in A Guide for the Married Man, a comedy starring Walter Matthau, Robert Morse, and Inger Stevens. The opening credits listed Mansfield as one of the technical advisers, along with other star names. Television in Follow the Sun (1961) Mansfield played her first leading role on television in 1956 on NBC's The Bachelor. In her first appearance on British television in 1957, she recited from Shakespeare (including a line from Hamlet) and played piano and violin. Her performances in television dramas included episodes of ''Burke's Law, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Red Skelton Hour (three episodes), Kraft Mystery Theater, and Follow the Sun''. Mansfield's performance in Follow the Sun ("The Dumbest Blonde"; Season 1, Episode 21; February 4, 1962; produced by 20th Century Fox Television) was hailed as the advent of "a new and dramatic Jayne Mansfield". She appeared on a number of game shows, including Down You Go, The Match Game, and ''What's My Line?'' She performed in a number of variety shows, including The Jack Benny Program (on which she played violin), The Steve Allen Show, and The Jackie Gleason Show (in the mid-1960s, when the show was the second-highest-rated program in the U.S.). In November 1957, on a special episode of NBC's The Perry Como Show ("Holiday in Las Vegas"), one of her nightclub acts was featured, something quite scandalous for the audience according to the broadcaster. She was a headlining guest for three Bob Hope television specials. In 1957, she toured United States Pacific Command areas in Hawaii, Okinawa, Guam, Tokyo, and Korea with Bob Hope for the United Service Organizations for 13 days, appearing as a comedian; in 1961, she toured Newfoundland, Labrador, and Baffin Island for a Christmas special. She made many appearances on talk shows, which she appreciated for the publicity. After the show she exclaimed, "Now I am really national. Momma and Dallas see the Ed Sullivan show!" According to Nielsen, the episode was watched in 13,400,000 homes, reaching 34% of the total audience, almost 30 million viewers. By 1958, she earned $20,000 per episode for television performances. In 1964, Mansfield turned down the role of Ginger Grant on the sitcom ''Gilligan's Island''. Although her acting roles were becoming marginalized, Mansfield rejected the part as it epitomized the stereotype she wished to leave behind. The part went to Tina Louise. A widespread rumor that Mansfield had a breast-flashing wardrobe malfunction at the 1957 Academy Awards was later found to be baseless by Academy researchers. In June 1967, ten days before her death in a car accident, she read To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time, a poem by Robert Herrick about early death, on The Joey Bishop Show—her last television appearance." As late as the mid-1980s, Mansfield as a figure drew audiences on television in fictional dramas portraying her and documentary productions with historic footage. In 1980, The Jayne Mansfield Story aired on CBS, starring Loni Anderson as Mansfield and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mickey Hargitay. It was nominated for three Emmy Awards. The A+E Networks TV series Biography featured her in the episode Jayne Mansfield: Blonde Ambition. It won an Emmy Award in the outstanding nonfiction TV series category in 2001. A&E also dramatized her life in the TV serial, Dangerous Curves, in 1999. In 1988, her story and archival footage were part of the TV documentary Hollywood Sex Symbols. == Other ventures ==

Stage appearances Between 1951 and 1953, Mansfield acted in The Slaves of Demon Rum, Ten Nights in a Barroom, Macbeth, and Anything Goes. Her performance in an October 1953 production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman attracted Paramount Pictures to audition her. Lumet trained her for the audition. She starred as Rita Marlowe (a wild, blonde Hollywood starlet à la Monroe) in the musical spoofing Hollywood in general and Marilyn Monroe in particular. Her wardrobe, a bath towel, caused a sensation. She received a Theatre World Award (Promising Personality) for her performance in 1956, as well as a Golden Globe Award (New Star of the year, Actress) in 1957. Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times described the "commendable abandon" of her scantily clad rendition of Rita Marlowe in the play as "a platinum-pated movie siren with the wavy contours of Marilyn Monroe". She performed in about 450 shows between 1955 and 1956. In May 1964, Mansfield starred in the stage production of Bus Stop at Yonkers Playhouse, co-starring Mickey Hargitay and Ann B. Davis. The play had a three week engagement that ended on June 14. Mansfield toured U.S. towns alternating between Bus Stop and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. In 1965, she performed in another pair of plays: Rabbit Habit at the Latin Quarter nightclub and Champagne Complex, directed by Matt Cimber, at the Pabst Theater. Both plays received poor reviews. Nightclubs In February 1958, the Tropicana Las Vegas launched Mansfield's striptease revue The Tropicana Holiday (produced by Monte Proser and co-starring Mansfield's then-husband, Mickey Hargitay) under a four-week contract that was extended to eight. The opening night raised $20,000 for March of Dimes She received $25,000 per week for her performance as Trixie Divoon in the show, while her contract with 20th Century Fox was paying her $2,500 per week. She had a million-dollar policy with Lloyd's of London in case Hargitay dropped her as he whirled her around for the show. In 1959, Jayne returned to the Tropicana with her show being extended from a four-week run to eight when Betty Hutton's engagement there failed to materialize. In December 1960, the Dunes hotel and casino launched Mansfield's revue The House of Love (produced by Jack Cole, co-starring Hargitay). She received a salary of $35,000 a week, the highest of her career. Her wardrobe for the shows at Tropicana and Dunes featured a gold mesh dress with sequins to cover her nipples and pubic region. The controversial dress was called "Jayne Mansfield and a few sequins". She returned to Las Vegas in 1966, but her show was staged on Fremont Street, away from the Strip where the Tropicana and Dunes were. Her nightclub career inspired films, documentaries, and a musical album. 20th Century Fox Records recorded "The House of Love" for the album Jayne Mansfield Busts Up Las Vegas in 1962. She played the roles of burlesque entertainer Midnight Franklin in Too Hot to Handle (1960) and Las Vegas showgirl Tawni Downs in The Las Vegas Hillbillys (1966). In 1967, the independent documentary Spree (alternative title Las Vegas by Night), about the antics of Las Vegas entertainers, was released. The film, narrated as a part of a travelogue of Vic Damone and Juliet Prowse, featured Mansfield, Hargitay, Constance Moore, and Clara Ward as guest stars. Mansfield strips and sings "Promise Her Anything" from the film Promises! Promises! A court order prohibited using any of the guest stars to promote the film. Later in her career, Mansfield was busier on stage, performing and making appearances with her nightclub acts, club engagements, and performance tours. By 1960, she had made personal appearances for everything from supermarket promotions to drugstore openings, at $10,000 per appearance. Soundtracks Mansfield sang or her singing was dubbed in some of her films including The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw and Promises! Promises!. Her screen performance of songs in The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw was actually dubbed by Connie Francis. Live performances In 1958, an orchestra was recorded for the 31st Academy Awards ceremony with Jack Benny on first violin, Mansfield on violin, Dick Powell on trumpet, Robert Mitchum on woodwind, Fred Astaire on drums, and Jerry Lewis as conductor, but the performance was canceled. She sang "Too Marvelous for Words" for The Jack Benny Program ("Jack Takes Boat to Hawaii"; Episode 9, Season 14; November 26, 1963). Her club performances regularly featured songs like Call Me, A Little Brains, A Little Talent ("This Queen has her aces in all the right places"), Plain Jane, Quando-Quando, Bésame Mucho, and the song Marilyn Monroe made famous, ''Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend''. Albums and singles In 1962, 20th Century Fox Records released the album Jayne Mansfield Busts Up Las Vegas, a recording of her Las Vegas revue The House of Love. In 1964 MGM Records released the novelty album Jayne Mansfield: Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky & Me, in which Mansfield recited Shakespeare's sonnets and poems by Marlowe, Browning, Wordsworth, and others against a background of Tchaikovsky's music. The album cover depicted a bouffant-coiffed Mansfield with lips pursed and breasts barely covered by a fur stole, posing between busts of Tchaikovsky and Shakespeare. The New York Times described the album as a reading of "30-odd poems in a husky, urban, baby voice". The reviewer wrote, "Miss Mansfield is a lady with apparent charms, but reading poetry is not one of them." In 1965, Jimi Hendrix played bass and added lead in his session musician days for Mansfield on two songs, "As The Clouds Drift By" and "Suey", released as a 45-rpm single by London Records in 1966. Ed Chalpin, the record producer, claimed that Mansfield played all the instruments on the singles. According to Hendrix historian Steven Roby (Black Gold: The Lost Archives Of Jimi Hendrix, Billboard Books), this collaboration occurred because they shared a manager. "Wo ist der Mann", sung in German and released by Polydor Records in Austria, was much in demand immediately after its release in August 1963. The A-side featured Hans Last's "Snicksnack-Snuckelchen". In 1964, the Original Sound label released two original songs from the soundtrack of The Las Vegas Hillbillys, "That Makes It" (an answer to The Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace") on the A-side and "Little Things Mean a Lot" on the B-side. ==Personal life==

Marriages, children, and affairs Mansfield was allegedly intimately involved with many men, including Claude Terrail (owner of the Paris restaurant Tour d'Argent), John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Brazilian billionaire Jorge Guinle. She met John F. Kennedy through his brother-in-law Peter Lawford in Palm Springs, California, in 1960. In 1967, film critic Whitney Williams wrote of Mansfield in Variety: "Her personal life out-rivaled any of the roles she played". Mansfield (then Jayne Palmer) met Paul Mansfield at a party on Christmas Eve in 1949. She was a popular student at Highland Park High School, and he was a student at Sunset High School in Dallas. On May 6, 1950, the couple married in Fort Worth, Texas. At the time of their marriage, Jayne Mansfield was 17 years of age and was three months pregnant, while Paul Mansfield was 20 years of age. (Some sources state that the couple married on May 10, 1950. According to biographer Raymond Strait, the couple had secretly married on January 28, after which time Jayne Mansfield conceived their child.) On November 8, 1950, Jayne Mansfield gave birth to her daughter, Jayne Marie Mansfield. In 1952, Jayne Mansfield juggled motherhood and classes at the University of Texas. Early in 1952, Paul Mansfield was called to the United States Army Reserve for the Korean War. While he served in the army, she spent a year at Camp Gordon, Georgia. Paul Mansfield hoped their child's birth would discourage Jayne's interest in acting. When it did not, he agreed to move to Los Angeles in 1954 to further her career. Once in California, the couple lived in a small apartment in Van Nuys, Los Angeles with Jayne's pets: a great dane; three cats; two chihuahuas; a poodle dyed pink; and a rabbit. Jayne Marie was left in the care of her maternal grandparents. After a series of arguments about Jayne's ambitions, infidelity, and animals, the Mansfields decided to dissolve their marriage. and filed for divorce in California in 1956. Paul filed for divorce in 1957 in Texas, citing mental cruelty. In August 1956, Paul sought custody of Jayne Marie, alleging that Jayne was an unfit mother because she had appeared nude in Playboy; however, his attempt failed. The Mansfields received their divorce papers on January 8, 1958. After turning 18, Jayne Marie stated that she had not received her inheritance from the Mansfield estate or heard from her father since her mother's death. Jayne Mansfield met her second husband, Mickey Hargitay, at the Latin Quarter nightclub in New York City on May 13, 1956, where he was performing as a member of the chorus line in Mae West's show. Mansfield fell for him immediately, which resulted in a squabble with West. After Mansfield returned from her 40-day European tour, Hargitay proposed to her on November 6, 1957 with a 10-carat diamond ring. On January 13, 1958 (days after her divorce from Paul Mansfield was finalized), Mansfield married Hargitay at the Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. The unique glass chapel made public and press viewing of the wedding easy. Mansfield wore a pink, skin-tight wedding gown made of sequins with a flounce of pink tulle (designed by a 20th Century-Fox costume designer). At the reception, Mansfield had Hargitay drink pink champagne. Mansfield and Hargitay appeared together on screen and stage. Mansfield and Hargitay also appeared on television shows such as the Bob Hope Specials. She co-wrote the autobiographical book ''Jayne Mansfield's Wild, Wild World'' with Hargitay. It contained 32 pages of black-and-white photographs printed on glossy paper. The couple had two sons, Miklós Jeffrey Palmer Hargitay (born December 21, 1958) and Zoltán Anthony Hargitay (born August 1, 1960). In 1962, Mansfield had a well-publicized affair with Enrico Bomba, the Italian producer and production manager of her film Panic Button. Hargitay accused Bomba of sabotaging their marriage. , Switzerland, in 1960 In 1963, Mansfield had an affair with Brazilian-born comedian-singer Nelson Sardelli. Mansfield indicated that she planned to marry Sardelli when her divorce from Hargitay was finalized. On April 30, 1963, Mansfield obtained a divorce from Hargitay in Juarez, Mexico; Sardelli accompanied Mansfield to Juarez. She had previously filed for divorce on May 4, 1962, but told reporters, "I'm sure we will make it up." Her relationship with Sardelli ended in June 1963. Mansfield reconciled with Mickey Hargitay in October 1963 As an adult, Mariska Hargitay revealed that Sardelli is her biological father. After Mariska was born, Mansfield sued to get the Juarez divorce declared legal; the divorce was recognized on August 26, 1964. Mansfield once told Hargitay on a television talk show that she was sorry for all the trouble she had caused him. Mansfield became involved with Matt Cimber (a.k.a. Matteo Ottaviano, né Thomas Vitale Ottaviano), an Italian-born film director, when he directed her in a stage production of Bus Stop in Yonkers, New York, costarring Hargitay. Mansfield married Cimber on September 24, 1964, in Mulegé, Baja California Sur, Mexico. They separated on July 11, 1965 and filed for divorce on July 20, 1966. The couple had a son, Antonio Raphael Ottaviano (a.k.a. Tony Cimber, born October 18, 1965). Cimber and his second wife, dress designer Christy Hilliard Hanak, raised Tony Cimber. Mansfield's son Zoltán made news when a lion attacked him and bit his neck while he and his mother visited the theme park Jungleland USA in Thousand Oaks, California, on November 23, 1966. He suffered severe head trauma, underwent three surgeries at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, California, including a six-hour brain surgery, and contracted meningitis. He recovered, and Brody sued the theme park on the family's behalf for $1.6 million. The publicity led to the theme park's closure. In June 1967, two weeks before her mother's death, 16-year-old Jayne Marie accused Brody of beating her. A June 1967 court decree made Mickey Hargitay the guardian of Mickey Jr., Zoltán, and Mariska Hargitay, though they continued to live with Mansfield. Shortly after Mansfield's funeral, Hargitay sued her estate, but lost. Hargitay married airline stewardess Ellen Siano in 1968. He and Ellen went on to raise Mickey Jr., Zoltán, and Mariska. Although she never actually converted, she attended Catholic services when in Europe and followed Catholic practices when involved with Catholic partners (including Hargitay, Sardelli, and Cimber). In May 1967, her performance at the Mount Brandon Hotel in Tralee, Ireland, was canceled because Catholic clergy condemned it. She wanted to marry Matt Cimber in a Catholic ceremony, but was unable to find a priest to officiate. While involved with Sam Brody, she also showed interest in Judaism. ==Public image==

Influence at the 11th Berlin International Film Festival, 1961 Mansfield was a major Hollywood sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s and 20th Century Fox's alternative to Marilyn Monroe. She came to be known as the "Working Man's Monroe". and remains one of the most recognizable icons of 1950s celebrity culture. Reputed to be Hollywood's "smartest dumb blonde", she later complained that the public did not care about her brain, saying: "They're more interested in 40–21–35", a reference to her body measurements. Trademarks Blonde A natural brunette, Mansfield had her hair bleached and colored platinum blonde when she moved to Los Angeles, and became one of the early "blonde bombshells", along with Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, and Mamie Van Doren. In 1958, she also had her eyebrows dyed platinum. Following Jean Harlow (who started the trend with her film Bombshell), Monroe, Mansfield, and Van Doren helped establish the stereotype typified by a combination of curvaceous physique, very light-colored hair, and a perceived lack of intelligence. A review of English-language tabloids shows it to be one of the most persistent blonde stereotypes along with busty blonde, and blonde babe. Mansfield and Monroe have been described as representations of a historical juncture of sexuality in comedy and popular culture. Academics have also named Anita Ekberg and Bettie Page as catalysts of the trend of exaggerated female sexuality. M. Thomas Inge describes Mansfield, Monroe, and Jane Russell as personifications of the bad girl in popular culture. Judy Holliday and Goldie Hawn have also been said to have established the "dumb blonde" stereotype, typified by overt sexuality and apparent inability to understand everyday life. Instead of the asexualized and virginal "nice girls" of earlier films, the pneumatic blonde bombshells took over the screen in the 1950s and have been consistently emulated since. Social historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg called the 1950s as "an era distinguished by its worship of full-breasted women" and attributes the paradigm shift to Mansfield and Monroe. Patricia Vettel-Becker specifically attributed the phenomenon to Playboy magazine and Mansfield's and Monroe's appearances in it. Figure Newspapers in the 1950s routinely published Mansfield's body measurements, which once led evangelist Billy Graham to exclaim, "This country knows more about Jayne Mansfield's statistics than the Second Commandment." Mansfield proclaimed a 41-inch bust line and a 22-inch waist when she made her Broadway debut in 1955, though those measurements are in dispute. She was known as "the Cleavage Queen" and "the Queen of Sex and Bosom". Mansfield's largest bust measurement was 46-DD (117 cm), measured by the press in 1967. According to Playboy, in 1955, her measurements were 40D-21-36 (102–53–91 cm) on her frame. Drawing on the Freudian concept of fetishism, British science-fiction writer and socio-cultural commentator J. G. Ballard said that Mae West's, Mansfield's, and Monroe's breasts "loomed across the horizon of popular consciousness". According to Dave Kehr, as the 1960s approached, the anatomy that had made her a star turned her into a joke. Publicity Mansfield's drive for publicity was one of the strongest in Hollywood. She gave up all privacy, her doors always open to photographers. On Christmas Eve 1954, she walked into publicist James Byron's office with a gift and asked him to oversee her publicity,—and constantly planted publicity material in the media. Because of this media blitz, she achieved international renown. On October 10, 1959, she visited White Hart Lane, England, and watched the Tottenham Hotspur versus Wolverhampton Wanderers FC football match. By 1960, Mansfield had topped press polls for most words in print, made more personal appearances than any political candidate, James Bacon wrote in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner in 1973: "Here was a girl with real comedy talent, spectacular figure and looks and yet ridiculed herself out of business by outlandish publicity." Mansfield received her first truly negative publicity after she and Hargitay pleaded poverty when his first wife, Mary Hargitay, whom he divorced on September 6, 1956, requested additional child support for their first child, Tina, in September 1958. Mansfield said she slept on the floor of her mansion, was unable to buy furniture, and spent only $71 on her daughter Jayne Marie. Publicity stunts In January 1955, Mansfield appeared at a Silver Springs, Florida, press junket promoting the film Underwater!, starring Jane Russell. She purposely wore a too-small red bikini lent to her by photographer friend Peter Gowland. When she dived into the pool for photographers, her top came off, creating a burst of media attention. The ensuing publicity led Warner Bros. and Playboy to approach her with offers. On June 8 of that year, her dress fell down to her waist twice in a single evening, once at a movie party and later at a nightclub. In February 1958, she was topless at a Carnival party in Rio de Janeiro. She shimmied out of her polka-dot dress in a Rome nightclub in June 1962. In the three years since making her Broadway debut in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, Mansfield had become the most controversial star of the decade. In April 1957, her breasts were the focus of a publicity stunt intended to deflect media attention from Sophia Loren during a dinner party in Loren's honor. Photographs of them were published around the world. The best-known showed Loren gazing at Mansfield's cleavage (she was seated between Loren and her dinner companion, Clifton Webb) when Mansfield leaned over the table, allowing her breasts to spill over her low neckline, exposing one of her nipples. The photo was a UPI sensation, appearing in newspapers and magazines with the word "censored" hiding Mansfield's nipple. At the same time, the media were quick to condemn Mansfield's stunts. One editorial columnist wrote: "We are amused when Miss Mansfield strains to pull in her stomach to fill out her bikini better; but we get angry when career-seeking women, shady ladies, and certain starlets and actresses ... use every opportunity to display their anatomy unasked." Richard Blackwell, her wardrobe designer (who also designed for Jane Russell, Dorothy Lamour, Peggy Lee and Nancy Reagan), dropped her from his client list because of this. In April 1967, the Los Angeles Times wrote: "She confuses publicity and notoriety with stardom and celebrity and the result is very distasteful to the public." Signature color Mansfield adopted pink as her color in 1954, and was associated with it for the rest of her career. Her original choice was purple, but she thought it too close to lavender, Kim Novak's signature color. Rivalry Throughout her career, Mansfield was compared by the media to the reigning sex symbol of the period, Marilyn Monroe. 20th Century Fox groomed her and Sheree North to substitute for Monroe, their resident blonde bombshell, while Universal Pictures launched Van Doren as its substitute. The studio launched Mansfield with a grand 40-day tour of England and Europe from September 25 to November 6, 1957. She adopted Monroe's vocal mannerisms instead of her original husky voice and Texas accent, and her role in The Wayward Bus was strongly influenced by Monroe's character in Bus Stop. while Diana Dors was dubbed England's answer to Mansfield. Jacqueline Susann wrote, "When one studio has a Marilyn Monroe, every other studio is hiring Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren." The contenders also included Sheree North, Kim Novak, Joi Lansing, Beverly Michaels, Barbara Nichols and Greta Thyssen, and even two brunettes— Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Russell. Van Doren, Dors, and Novak also acted in productions of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Even when Mansfield's film roles were drying up, she was still considered Monroe's primary rival. Mansfield considered Van Doren her professional nemesis. At one point, Monroe, Mansfield, and Mamie were known as ''The Three M's''. ==Death==

On June 28, 1967, Mansfield was in Biloxi, Mississippi, for an engagement at the Gus Stevens Supper Club. After midnight, Mansfield; her attorney and partner Sam Brody; Ronald B. Harrison, a 19-year-old driver for the Gus Stevens Supper Club, who was driving; three of her children; and her four Chihuahuas left Biloxi for New Orleans, where Mansfield was to appear on WDSU's Midday Show. At about 2:25 a.m. on June 29, on U.S. Highway 90, west of the Rigolets Bridge, their car crashed while traveling between into the rear of a tractor-trailer that had slowed down from due to an approaching insecticide fog-spraying truck that was flashing a red light. Mansfield, the two other adults in the front seat, and two of the dogs died instantly. The children, asleep in the rear seat, survived with minor injuries. They were rushed to Ochsner Foundation Hospital, where Mickey Hargitay arrived that same day after learning what had happened. Reports that Mansfield was decapitated are untrue, although she suffered severe head trauma. This urban legend started with the appearance in police photographs of the crashed car with its top virtually sheared off and what resembled a blonde-haired head tangled in the car's smashed windshield. Mansfield's death certificate gives her immediate cause of death as "crushed skull with avulsion of cranium and brain". The cause of the head-like shape has not been definitively determined. After her death, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommended requiring an underride guard (a strong bar made of steel tubing) on all tractor-trailers; the trucking industry was slow to adopt this change. In America, the underride guard is sometimes known as a "Mansfield bar". Mansfield's body was flown from New Orleans to New York and a private funeral took place on July 3 at the chapel of the Pullis Funeral Home in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, officiated by the pastor of the Zion Methodist Church, Rev. Charles Montgomery. Mansfield was buried in Fairview Cemetery next to her father. Mickey Hargitay was the only ex-husband of Mansfield present at the funeral. In 1968, two wrongful-death lawsuits were filed on behalf of Mansfield and ex-husband Matt Cimber. After a 16-day trial in 1971, the jury found that Harrison, the driver of the car, was negligent, that Richard Rambo, the driver of the truck into which Mansfield crashed, was not negligent, and that James McLelland, the driver of the fog-spraying truck, was negligent but his negligence was not a proximate cause of the accident; a rehearing was denied. ==Achievements and legacy==

Awards and nominations at 6328 Hollywood Boulevard.|alt=Jayne Mansfield's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame • Mansfield received a Theatre World Award (Promising Personality) for Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? in 1956. • She received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960, for her contribution to motion pictures. • On Mother's Day of 1960, the Mildred Strauss Child Care Chapter of Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City declared her family as the "Family of the Year". • Italian film, radio and television journalists awarded her the Silver Mask award in 1962. • Mansfield received the Oscar of the Two World award in Italy. • In 1963, Mansfield was voted one of the top-10 box-office attractions by an organization of American theater owners for her performance in Promises! Promises! (a film banned in parts of the U.S.). Legacy Mansfield left behind five children and a crumbling estate, including the Pink Palace. Mansfield is known for helping shape the "dumb blonde" stereotype. Contrary to her public persona, Mansfield was quite intelligent, and at one point could speak up to five different languages. Her daughter Mariska became an actress and star of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She has won several awards for her work on the show, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 2005 and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2006. Hargitay released My Mom Jayne, a documentary about Mansfield, in June 2025. Estate After Mansfield's death, Hargitay, Cimber, Vera Peers (Mansfield's mother), William Pigue (Jayne Marie's legal guardian), and Charles Goldring (Mansfield's business manager), as well as Bernard B. Cohen and Jerome Webber (both administrators of the estate) filed unsuccessful suits to gain control of her estate. Mansfield's estate was appraised initially at $600,000, including the Pink Palace, estimated at $100,000, a sports car sold for $7,000, her jewelry, and Sam Brody's $185,000 estate left to her in his last will. In 1971, Beverly Brody sued the Mansfield estate for $325,000 worth of presents and jewelry given to Mansfield by Sam Brody; the suit was settled out of court. However, her four eldest children (Jayne Marie, Mickey, Zoltan, and Mariska) went to court in 1977 to find that approximately $500,000 in debt that Mansfield had incurred, including $11,000 for lingerie, $11,600 for plumbing of the heart-shaped swimming pool, and litigation had left the estate insolvent. The Pink Palace was sold. Its subsequent owners included Ringo Starr and Engelbert Humperdinck. Cass Elliot is often falsely claimed to have owned the home. In 2002, Humperdinck sold it to developers, and the house was demolished in November of that year. What remained of her estate was subsequently managed by CMG Worldwide, an intellectual property-management company. ==See also==

Internet • • • • Books • Michael Feeney Callan (1986) Pink Goddess: The Jayne Mansfield Story. W H Allen. • • • • • • • • ==External links==