JAYNE MANSFIED ORIG Vintage 1955 MILTON GREENE 2 1/4 Camera Negative W/COPYRIGHT
PROVENANCE: From the personal collection of photographer MILTON H. GREENE . COPYRIGHT : This listing includes the U.S. Copyright for this original camera negative image and no representation for copyright outside of the U.S. is represented. The buyer is responsible for ascertaining that this image is cleared for publication or publicity right of the person appearing in this image.
DESCRIPTION: EXTREMELY RARE! Vintage August 17, 1955 infamous sexy actress JAYNE MANSFIELD 2 1/4" 120 MM camera negative taken by photographer MILTON H. GREENE coming directly from his personal archive. This photo shoot was done under contract of her agent Jules Stein. The image number in the series from that photo shoot is handwritten with india ink on the negative. (we are displaying a positive view of this negative so you can see what it looks like) . - SIZE: approx. 2 1/4" X 2 1/4" (120 MM)
- TONE: B&W ____________________________________________________________ SHIPPING TERMS - I ship all items using, what I call, triple protection packing. The photos are inserted into a display bag with a white board, then packed in between two thick packaging boards and lastly wrapped with plastic film for weather protection before being placed into the shipping envelope. - Includes USPS "Delivery Confirmation" tracking. - Combined Shipping Discounts: If you purchase more than one item within a two week period that will be shipped together just add $2.00 to the base shipping cost. This will cover any additional quantity of a similar item purchased. Please wait for us to issue the final invoice with the reduced shipping cost before making payment. PAYMENT TERMS - Please pay within three (3) days of purchase. - California residents - please wait for me to adjust the invoice to include California Sales Tax of 7.25% and 8.75% for Los Angeles residents. CUSTOMER SERVICE I will respond to all inquiries within 24 hours. Please feel free to contact me anytime at [phone removed by eBay] (Pacific Standard Time)
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JAYNE MANSFIELD BIO
(born Vera Jayne Palmer ;
April 19, 1933 ? June 29, 1967) was an American actress who worked in Hollywood and on Broadway. One of the leading blonde sex symbols of the
late-1950s, Mansfield
starred in several popular Hollywood films that
emphasized her platinum-blonde hair,
hourglass figure, and
cleavage-revealing costumes. 20th
Century Fox signed a six-year contact with Mansfield to replace Marilyn Monroe as their
resident blonde sex symbol.
Throughout her career, she was
compared by the media to Monroe
and the other top sex symbol Mamie Van Doren.
Mansfield was a
Playboy Playmate of the Month and appeared in the magazine on several
occasions.
While Mansfield's film career was short-lived, she had several box office successes and won the
Theatre World Award, a Golden Globe, and a Golden Laurel.
In 1955, she enjoyed a successful
Broadway run acting in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and later the
film of the same name in 1957. She
is remembered for both this film and a starring role in the comedy film The
Girl Can't Help It (1956), which
was also produced by 20th Century Fox.
Of her rare on-screen dramatic roles,
her performance in The Wayward Bus (1957) is regarded as the best. She also sang for studio recordings including the
album Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky
& Me and the singles Suey and As The Clouds Drift By done
together with rock legend Jimi Hendrix.
Mansfield's
notable television work included The Red Skelton Show (1959?1963) and The
Ed Sullivan Show (1957).
As the demand for blonde bombshells
declined in the 1960s, Mansfield remained a popular celebrity, continuing to attract large crowds outside the U.S. and in
lucrative and successful nightclub tours.
Her film career continued with lower budget melodramas and comedies, many filmed in the United
Kingdom and Europe, including Heimweh nach St.
Pauli and L'Amore Primitivo .
In the independent film Promises! Promises! (1963),
she became the first major American actress to have a nude starring role in a Hollywood motion-picture.
In her personal life she was
successively married to her childhood lover Paul Mansfield (1950?1958), actor-bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay (1958?1963) and
film director Matt Cimber (1964?1966).
She was the mother of playmate Jayne Marie Mansfield (born 1950), Miklós Jeffrey Palmer Hargitay (born 1958), Zoltán Anthony Hargitay (born 1960), actress Mariska Magdolna Hargitay (born 1964) and
Antonio "Tony" Cimber (born 1965).
Mansfield died
in an automobile accident at age 34.
Jayne
Mansfield
|
Playboy centerfold appearance
|
February
1955
|
Preceded by
|
Bettie Page
|
Succeeded by
|
Marilyn Waltz
|
Personal
details
|
Measurements
|
Bust: 40 in (100 cm)
Waist: 21 in (53 cm)
Hips: 35 in (89 cm)
|
Height
|
5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) (5 ft 8 in according to her autopsy)
|
Jayne Mansfield was the only child
of Herbert William and Vera (née Jeffrey) Palmer (1903?2003). Her birth name was Vera Jayne Palmer. A natural brunette,
she was born in Bryn Mawr,
Pennsylvania,
but spent her early childhood in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. She was of German and English ancestry. When she was three years old,
her father, a lawyer who was in
practice with future New Jersey
governor Robert B. Meyner, died of a heart attack while driving a car with
his wife and daughter. After his
death, her mother worked as a school
teacher. In 1939, when Vera Palmer married Sale Engineer Harry Peers, the family moved to Dallas, Texas.
She attended the University of Texas
at Austin and studied dramatics at the University of Dallas, having only attended Highland Park High School
until her junior year. In Dallas, she became a student of actor Baruch Lumet, father of director Sidney Lumet and founder of the
Dallas Institute of the Performing Arts.
On October 22, 1953, she first appeared on stage in a production of
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman .
Frequent references have been made to Mansfield's
very high IQ, which she advertised
as 163. She spoke five languages and
was a classically trained pianist and violinist.
She would later complain that the public did not care about her brains. "They're more interested in 40-21-35", she said.
In 1950, she married Paul Mansfield, and the couple moved to Austin, Texas.
They stayed there until Paul was called to United States Army Reserve for the
Korean War. After spending a year at
Camp Gordon,
Georgia, they moved to Los Angeles in 1954.
There she studied dramatics at UCLA.
Between a variety of odd jobs,
including a stint as a candy vendor at a movie theatre,
she attended UCLA during the summer,
and then went back to Texas
for fall quarter at Southern Methodist University.
While attending the University of Texas,
she won several beauty contests,
with titles that included "Miss Photoflash",
"Miss Magnesium Lamp", and
"Miss Fire Prevention Week".
The only title she ever turned down was "Miss Roquefort Cheese", because she believed it "just didn't sound
right". While studying at Dallas, she acted in small theater productions of Anything
Goes , Death of a Salesman , The Slaves of Demon Rum , and Ten Nights in a Barroom in 1951. While at UCLA,
she entered the Miss California contest,
hiding her marital status, and won
in the local round before withdrawing.
Early in her career, the prominence
of her breasts was considered problematic,
leading her to be cut from her first professional assignment, an advertising campaign for General Electric, which depicted several young women in bathing
suits relaxing around a pool. In
1954, she auditioned at both
Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros.
for a part in The Seven Year Itch ,
failing to impress. That year, she landed her first acting assignment in Lux
Video Theatre, a series on CBS. She posed nude for the February 1955 issue of Playboy , an event that helped to launch Mansfield's career and to push circulation of
the magazine that started publishing from publisher-editor Hugh Hefner's
kitchen the year before. In 1964, Playboy reran that pictorial.
Mansfield 's first movie role was as the
supporting role of Candy Price in Female Jungle (1955), a low-budget drama filmed in just ten days. Mansfield's
part was filmed in a few days and she received $150 for her performance ($1,301 in 2012 dollars).
Female Jungle was released in January 1955 by producer Burt Kaiser. That year Paul Wendkos offered her the dramatic
role of Gladden in The Burglar (1957),
his film adaptation of David Goodis' novel.
The film was done in film noir style,
and Mansfield
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 would be either comedic in
nature or capitalize on her sex appeal.
On February 8, 1955, Mansfield was signed by
Warner Bros. to a six month contract
after one of its talent scouts discovered her in a production at the Pasadena
Playhouse. She filed for divorce
from her first husband, Paul
Mansfield, the same day.[19] Warner wanted Mansfield as their version of the widely
popular and lucrative Marilyn Monroe of 20th Century Fox.
Mansfield was
given a bit part in Pete Kelly's Blues (1955),
which starred and was directed by Jack Webb.
She made one more movie with Warner Bros., which gave her another small,
but important role as Angel O'Hara,
opposite Edward G. Robinson, in Illegal (1955).
The film offered another rare serious performance by Mansfield.
After leaving Warner Bros., Mansfield
made an uncredited cameo appearance in Hell on Frisco Bay (1955), starring Alan Ladd.
In 1955,
she enjoyed a successful Broadway run acting in Will Success Spoil Rock
Hunter? . This wild comedy starred
Mansfield as
Rita Marlowe, a wild blonde
Hollywood actress. The play also
starred Orson Bean and Walter Matthau.
Returning to Hollywood on May 3, 1956, Mansfield signed a
six-year contract with 20th Century Fox.
Fox wanted Mansfield
to replace Marilyn Monroe, their
resident blonde sex symbol, and
promoted her as "Marilyn Monroe King Sized".
She was then given her first starring role as Jerri Jordan in the film
production of Frank Tashlin's The Girl Can't Help It (1956). The film,
originally titled Do-Re-Mi ,
featured a high-profile cast of contemporary Rock n Roll and R&B artists
including Gene Vincent, Eddie
Cochran, Fats Domino, The Platters and Little Richard.
Mansfield then played a dramatic role in The
Wayward Bus in 1957. In this
film, she attempted to move away
from her "dumb blonde" image and establish herself as a serious
actress. This film was adapted from
John Steinbeck's novel, and the cast
included Dan Dailey and Joan Collins.
The film enjoyed reasonable success at the box office.
She won a Golden Globe in 1957 for New Star Of The Year ? Actress, beating Carroll Baker and Natalie Wood, for her performance as a "wistful
derelict" in The Wayward Bus .
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. Mansfield reprised her role of Rita Marlowe
in the 1957 movie version of Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? , co-starring Tony Randall and Joan Blondell. The Girl Can't Help It and Will Success
Spoil Rock Hunter? were popular successes in their day and are considered
classics. Will Success Spoil Rock
Hunter? is known as Mansfield's
"signature film", because
she starred in both the play and film version.
Mansfield 's fourth starring role in a Hollywood film was in Kiss Them for Me (1957) in
which she received prominent billing alongside Cary Grant.
However, in the film itself, she is little more than comedy relief while
Grant's character shows a preference for a sleek,
demure redhead portrayed by fashion model Suzy Parker.
Kiss Them for Me , one of Mansfield's last starring
roles, was a box office
disappointment. The movie was
described as "vapid" and "ill-advised". It also marked one of the last attempts by 20th
Century Fox to publicize her. The
continuing publicity around her physical presence failed to sustain her career. Mansfield was then
offered a part opposite James Stewart and Jack Lemmon in Bell ,
Book and Candle (1958), but had
to turn it down because of her pregnancy.
Afterward, Mansfield got word that her rival Kim Novak
would replace her in the film.
In 1958,
Fox gave Mansfield
the lead role as Kate opposite Kenneth More in the western spoof The Sheriff
of Fractured Jaw . Despite being
filmed in 1958, The Sheriff of
Fractured Jaw was not released in the United States until 1959. The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw required Mansfield to sing three songs; she was not a trained
singer, so the studio dubbed Mansfield's voice with
singer/actress Connie Francis. When
released in the United
States,
The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw became her last mainstream film success.
Despite the publicity and her
public popularity, good film roles
dried up for Mansfield
after 1959. She kept busy in a
series of low-budget films, mostly
made in Europe.
Fox tried to cast Mansfield
opposite Paul Newman in his ill-fated first attempt at comedy, Rally 'Round the Flag,
Boys! (1958), but Mansfield's Wayward
Bus co-star Joan Collins was selected instead.
In 1959,
Fox lent her to appear in two independent gangster thrillers in England: The
Challenge , co-starring Anthony
Quayle, and Too Hot to Handle , co-starring Christopher Lee.
Both films were low-budgeted, and
their American releases were delayed; Too Hot to Handle was released in
the U.S. in 1961 as Playgirl
After Dark , while The
Challenge would not be seen by American audiences until 1963, under the title It Takes a Thief .
When she returned to Hollywood in mid-1960, 20th Century-Fox cast her in It Happened in
Athens (1962). She received
first billing above the title, but
only appears in a supporting role. It
Happened in Athens starred a handsome newcomer,
Trax Colton, a "unknown"
whom Fox was trying to mold into a big star.
This Olympic Games-based film was shot in Greece,
in the fall of 1960, but was not
released until June 1962. It was a
box-office flop, and Mansfield's 20th
Century-Fox contract was dropped.
In 1961,
Mansfield
signed on to play Lisa Lang in The George Raft Story , starring Ray Danton as the actor. She accepted the part mainly for the money and
because the film was going to be filmed in Hollywood, rather in Europe. Soon after the release of The George Raft Story , Mansfield
returned to European films to find work.
Over the next few years, Mansfield
mainly appeared in low-budgeted foreign films,
such as Panic Button , Heimweh
nach St. Pauli , Einer Frisst den anderen , and, L'Amore
Primitivo .
In 1963,
Tommy Noonan persuaded Mansfield
to become the first mainstream American actress to appear nude with a starring
role, in the film Promises!
Promises! . Photographs of a
naked Mansfield on the set were published in the
June 1963 issue of Playboy ,
which resulted in obscenity charges being filed against Hugh Hefner in Chicago municipal court. Promises! Promises! was banned in Cleveland, but enjoyed box office success elsewhere. As a result of the film's success, Mansfield
landed on the Top 10 list of Box Office Attractions for that year. The autobiographical book,
Jayne Mansfield's Wild, Wild World , which she co-authored with her husband at the time, Mickey Hargitay,
was published right after Promises! Promises! ,
containing 32 pages of black-and-white photographs from the film printed on
glossy paper.
In 1966,
Mansfield was
cast in Single Room Furnished ,
directed by her then husband Matt Cimber.
The film required Mansfield to portray three
different characters and was Mansfield's
first starring dramatic role in several years.
It was briefly released in 1966, but
was not officially released until 1968,
almost a year after her death.
After the filming of Single
Room Furnished was wrapped, Mansfield was cast
opposite Mamie Van Doren and Ferlin Husky in The Las Vegas Hillbillys , a low-budget comedy released by Woolner Brothers. Despite her career setbacks,
Mansfield
remained a highly visible personality through the early 1960s through her
publicity antics and stage performances.
In early 1967, Mansfield filmed her last film role: playing
a cameo role in A Guide for the Married Man ,
a comedy starring Walter Matthau,
Robert Morse, and Inger Stevens. Mansfield
received seventh billing as "Girl with Harold".
Mansfield acted on stage as well as in film. In 1955,
she went to New York
and appeared in a prominent role in the Broadway production of George Axelrod's
comedy Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? 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".
In October 1957, Mansfield
went on a 16-country tour of Europe for 20th
Century Fox. She also appeared in
stage productions of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Bus Stop , which were well reviewed and co-starred Hargitay.
Dissatisfied with her film
roles, Mansfield and Hargitay
headlined at the Dunes in Las Vegas
in an act called The House of Love ,
for which the actress earned $35,000
a week ($303,652 in 2012 dollars). It proved to be such a hit that she extended her
stay, and 20th Century Fox Records
subsequently recorded the show for an album called Jayne Mansfield Busts Up
Las Vegas , in 1962. With her film career floundering, she still commanded a salary of $8,000?25,000
per week for her nightclub act ($61,000?192,000 in 2012 dollars).
She traveled all over the world with it.
In 1967, the year she died, Mansfield's
time was split between nightclub performances and the production of her last
film, A Guide for the Married Man , a high-budget production directed by Gene Kelly.
Jayne Mansfield sang in
English and German for a number of her films including The Las Vegas
Hillbillys , Too Hot to Handle , Homesick for St.
Pauli and Promises! Promises! ,
though in the film The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw her character lip synced
to Connie Francis singing In The valley Of Love ,
Strolling Down The Lane With Billy ,
and If The San Francisco Hills Could Only Talk .
She also had classical training in piano and violin.
She played violin with a six person back-up at The Ed Sullivan Show.
In 1964,
Mansfield
released a novelty album called Jayne Mansfield: Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky & Me ,
in which she 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 a reading of "30-odd poems
in a husky, urban, baby voice".
The paper's reviewer went on to remark that "Miss Mansfield is a lady with
apparent charms, but reading poetry
is not one of them." Jimi
Hendrix played bass and lead guitar for Mansfield
in 1965 in two songs, "As The
Clouds Drift By" and "Suey",
released together on two sides of the 45 rpm singles.
According to Hendrix historian Steven Roby (Black Gold: The Lost Archives Of
Jimi Hendrix , Billboard Books), this collaboration happened because they shared
the same manager.
Mansfield appeared in
numerous television programs,
including The Ed Sullivan Show and The Jack Benny Program (for
which she played the violin), The
Steve Allen Show , Down You Go , The Match Game (one rare episode exists
with her as a team captain) and The Jackie Gleason Show (in the
mid-1960s when the show was the second highest rated in the U.S.). Mansfield's
television roles included those in Burke's Law and Alfred Hitchcock
Presents . On returning from New York to Hollywood
in 1957, she made several television
appearances, including several spots
as a featured guest star on game shows such as Down You Go , The Match Game ,
and What's My Line? .
Though her acting roles were
becoming marginalized, in 1964 Mansfield turned down the
role of Ginger Grant on the up-and-coming television sitcom Gilligan's
Island , claiming that the role, which eventually was given to Tina Louise, epitomized the stereotype of which she wished to
rid herself. In 1962, Mansfield
appeared with Brian Keith on ABC's Follow the Sun dramatic series in an
acclaimed episode entitled "The Dumbest Blonde" in which her
character "Scottie" is a beautiful blonde who feels insecure in the
high society of her older boyfriend,
played by Keith. The plot was based
on the film of Born Yesterday .
She also toured with Bob Hope for the USO in 1957.
- In February 1955,
Mansfield
was the Playmate of the Month in Playboy ,
in which she subsequently appeared over 30 times.
- Although Mansfield
was reluctant to appear in the play,
she received the Theatre World Award of 1956 for her performance in the
Broadway production of George Axelrod's comedy Will Success Spoil Rock
Hunter? .
- Mansfield won a Golden Globe in 1957 for New
Star Of The Year ? Actress .
- Mansfield won a Golden Laurel in 1959 for Top
Female Musical Performance for her role in The Sheriff of Fractured
Jaw , a western spoof
directed by Raoul Walsh.
although the songs were performed by Connie Francis.
- 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 areas around the U.S.
- Mansfield has a star on the Hollywood Walk
of Fame at 6328 Hollywood
Boulevard.
Mansfield was married three times, divorced twice,
and had five children. Reportedly
she also had affairs and sexual encounters with numerous individuals, including Claude Terrail (the owner of the Paris
restaurant La Tour d'Argent), Robert
F. Kennedy,
John F Kennedy, the Brazilian
billionaire Jorge Guinle, and Anton
LaVey. She had a brief affair with
Jan Cremer, a young Dutch writer who
dedicated his 1965 autobiographical novel,
I, Jan Cremer , to her.
She also had a well-publicized relationship in 1963 with the singer Nelson
Sardelli, whom she said she planned
to marry once her divorce from Hargitay was finalized.
At the time of her death, Mansfield was accompanied
by Sam Brody, her married divorce
lawyer and lover at the time.
On May 6, 1950,
Vera Jayne Palmer married Paul Mansfield.
At the time of marriage Jayne was 17 and Paul 21.
The couple had a public wedding on May 10,
1950 when Jayne was three months pregnant.
Her early acting aspirations were temporarily put on hold with the birth of her
first child, Jayne Marie Mansfield, on November 8 that year.
Her husband, Paul Mansfield, hoped the birth of their child would discourage
her interest in acting. When it did
not, he agreed to move to Los Angeles in late 1954
to help further her career. She
juggled motherhood and classes at the University
of Texas,
then spent a year at Camp Gordon, Georgia, while Paul Mansfield served in the United States
Armed Forces. They were divorced on
January 8, 1958. Two weeks before her mother's death in 1967, Jayne Marie,
then 16, accused her mother's
boyfriend at that time, Sam Brody, of beating her.
The girl's statement to officers of the Los Angeles Police Department the
following morning implicated her mother in encouraging the abuse, and days later,
a juvenile court judge awarded temporary custody of Jayne Marie to a
great-uncle, W.W. Pigue.
Mansfield met her second husband Mickey
Hargitay, an actor and bodybuilder
who had won the Mr. Universe competition
in 1955, for the first time at The
Mae West Show at New York City's Latin Quarter nightclub,
telling the waiter asking for her order,
"I'll have a steak and that tall man on the left."
In November 1957, shortly before her
marriage to Hargitay, Mansfield bought a 40-room Mediterranean-style mansion
formerly owned by Rudy Vallee at 10100 Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills.
Mansfield had the house painted pink,
with cupids surrounded by pink fluorescent lights,
pink furs in the bathrooms, a pink
heart-shaped bathtub, and a fountain
spurting pink champagne, and then
dubbed it the Pink Palace .
Hargitay, a plumber and carpenter
before getting into bodybuilding,
built a pink heart-shaped swimming pool.
Mansfield decorated the Pink Palace
by writing to furniture and building suppliers requesting free samples. She received over $150,000
($1,241,232
in 2012 dollars) worth of free merchandise while paying only $76,000 ($628,891
in 2012 dollars) for the mansion itself,
a large sum nonetheless when the average house cost was under $7,500 ($620,616
in 2012 dollars) at the time.
Mansfield and Hargitay
married on January 13, 1958 at the
Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos
Verdes, California.
The unique glass chapel made public and press viewing of the wedding much easier. Mansfield
wore a transparent wedding gown,
adding to the occasion's publicity aspect.
Mansfield and her husband toured widely for stage shows,
where her leopard-spot bikini became a topic of discussion and newspaper
coverage. During this marriage she
had two children, Miklós Jeffrey
Palmer Hargitay (born December 21,
1958) and Zoltán Anthony Hargitay (born August 1,
1960). The couple divorced in Juarez,
Mexico in May
1963. After the divorce, Mansfield
discovered she was pregnant. Since
being an unwed mother would have killed her career,
Mansfield and Hargitay announced they were still married.
Mariska Magdolna Hargitay was born January 23,
1964, after the actual divorce but
before California
ruled it valid. Mansfield's third child also became an actress, best known for her role as Olivia Benson in Law
& Order: Special Victims Unit .
After her birth, Mansfield
sued for the Juarez divorce to be declared
legal and won. The divorce was
recognized in the United
States on August 26,
1964. She had previously filed for
divorce on May 4, 1962, but told reporters,
"I'm sure we will make it up."
Their acrimonious divorce had the actress accusing Hargitay of kidnapping one
of her children to force a more favorable financial settlement.
Mansfield married Matt Cimber (a.k.a. Matteo Ottaviano,
né Thomas Vitale Ottaviano) an Italian-born film director on September 24, 1964.
The couple separated on July 11,
1965, and filed for divorce on July
20, 1966.
Cimber was a director with whom the actress had become involved when he
directed her in a widely praised stage production of Bus Stop in Yonkers,
New York,
which costarred Hargitay. Cimber
took over managing her career during their marriage.
With him she had one son, Antonio
Raphael Ottaviano (a.k.a.
Tony Cimber, born October 18, 1965).
Work on Mansfield's film, Single
Room Furnished (in 1966), was
suspended as her marriage to Cimber began to collapse in the wake of
Mansfield's alcohol abuse, open
infidelities, and her claim to
Cimber that she had only ever been happy with her former lover, Nelson Sardelli.
Mansfield appeared in about 2,500 newspaper photographs between September 1956
and May 1957, and had about 122,000 lines of newspaper copy written about her
during this time. Because of the
successful media blitz, Mansfield was a household
name. Throughout her career, Mansfield
was compared by the media to the reigning sex symbol of the period, Marilyn Monroe.
Of this comparison, she said, "I don't know why you people [the press] like
to compare me to Marilyn or that girl,
what's her name, Kim Novak. Cleavage,
of course, helped me a lot to get
where I am. I don't know how they
got there." Even with her film
roles drying up she was widely considered to be Monroe's primary rival in a
crowded field of contenders that included Mamie Van Doren (whom Mansfield
considered her professional nemesis),
Diana Dors, Cleo Moore, Barbara Nichols,
Beverly Michaels, Greta Thyssen, Joi Lansing,
and Sheree North.
In April 1957, her bosom was the feature of a notorious publicity
stunt intended to deflect attention from Sophia Loren during a dinner party in
the Italian star's honor.
Photographs of the encounter were published around the world. The most famous image showed Loren's gaze falling
upon the cleavage of the American actress who,
sitting between Loren and her dinner companion,
Clifton Webb, had leaned over the
table, allowing her breasts to spill
over her low neckline and exposing one nipple.
The image was one of several taken in the same minutes as the image visible
right. A similar incident, resulting in the full exposure of both breasts, occurred during a film festival in West Berlin, when Mansfield was wearing a low-cut dress and her
second husband, Mickey Hargitay, picked her up so she could bite a bunch of grapes
hanging overhead at a party; the movement caused her breasts to erupt out of
the dress. The photograph of that
episode was a UPI sensation,
appearing in newspapers and magazines with the word "censored" hiding
the actress's exposed bosom.
The world's media were quick
to condemn Mansfield's
stunts, and 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."
By the late 1950s, Mansfield began to generate a great deal of
negative publicity because of her repeated successful attempts to expose her
breasts in carefully staged public "accidents".
Mansfield 's most celebrated physical attributes
would fluctuate in size as a result of her pregnancies and breast feeding five
children. Her smallest measurement
was 40D (102 cm) (which she was throughout the 1950s), and largest at 46DD (117 cm), when measured by the press in 1967. According to Playboy ,
her measurement was 40D-21-36 (102-53-91 cm) and her height was 5'6"
(1.68 m).
According to her autopsy report, she
was 5'8" (1.73 m). Her bosom was so much a part of her public persona
that talk-show host Jack Paar once welcomed the actress to The Tonight Show
by saying, "Here they are, Jayne Mansfield",
a line that was written for Paar by Dick Cavett,
later becoming the title of her biography by Raymond Strait. Almost half a century after her death, a biographer of Nikolaus Pevsner (a German-born
writer on British architecture),
noted the improbable coincidence that Pevsner and Mansfield had once stayed at
the same hotel in Bolton, Lancashire.
There, she had "electrified the
dining room with her imposing bosom".
While in Biloxi, Mississippi, for an engagement at the Gus Stevens Supper Club, Mansfield
stayed at the Cabana Courtyard Apartments near the supper club. After an evening engagement on June 28, 1967,
Mansfield, her lover Sam Brody, and their driver,
Ronnie Harrison, along with the
actress's children Miklós, Zoltán, and Mariska,
set out in Stevens' 1966 Buick Electra 225 for New Orleans, where Mansfield was to appear in an early morning
television interview. Before leaving
Biloxi, the party made a stop at the home of Rupert and
Edna O'Neal, a family that lived
nearby. After a late dinner with the
O'Neals, during which the last
photographs of Mansfield were taken, the party set out for New Orleans.
On June 29, at approximately
2:25 a.m., on U.S. Highway 90 east of the Rigolets Bridge, the car crashed into the rear of a tractor-trailer
that had slowed because of a truck spraying mosquito fogger. The automobile struck the rear of the trailer and
went under it. Riding in the front
seat, the three adults were killed
instantly. The children in the rear
survived with minor injuries.
Rumors that Mansfield was decapitated are untrue, though she did suffer severe head trauma. This urban legend was spawned by the appearance in
police photographs of a crashed automobile with its top virtually sheared off, and what resembles a blonde-haired head tangled in
the car's smashed windshield. This
was likely either a wig Mansfield
was wearing or was her actual hair and scalp.
The death certificate stated the immediate cause of Mansfield's death was a "crushed skull
with avulsion of cranium and brain".
Following her death, the NHTSA began
requiring an underride guard, a
strong bar made of steel tubing, to
be installed on all tractor-trailers.
This bar is also known as a Mansfield
bar, and on occasions as a DOT bar.
Mansfield 's funeral was held on July 3, in Pen Argyl,
Pennsylvania. The ceremony was conducted by a Methodist minister, though Mansfield,
who long tried to convert to Catholicism,
had become interested in Judaism at the end of her life through her
relationship with Sam Brody. She is
interred in Fairview
Cemetery, southeast of Pen Argyl.
Her gravestone was shaped as a heart and reads "We Live to Love You More
Each Day". A memorial cenotaph, showing an incorrect birth year, was erected in the Hollywood
Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, California. The cenotaph was placed by The Jayne Mansfield Fan
Club and has the incorrect birth year because Mansfield herself tended to
provide incorrect information about her age.
Shortly after Mansfield's funeral, Mickey Hargitay sued his former wife's estate for
more than $275,000 ($1.92 million in 2012 dollars) to support the
children, whom he and his third and
last wife, Ellen Siano, would raise.
Mansfield's
youngest child, Tony, was raised by his father,
Matt Cimber, whose divorce from the
actress was pending when she was killed.
In 1968, wrongful-death lawsuits
were filed on behalf of Jayne Marie Mansfield and Matt Cimber, the former for $4.8
million ($39.7 million in 2012
dollars) and the latter for $2.7
million ($22.3 million in 2012
dollars). The Pink Palace
was sold and its subsequent owners have included Ringo Starr, Cass Elliot,
and Engelbert Humperdinck. In 2002, Humperdinck sold it to developers, and the house was demolished in November of that year. Much of her estate is managed by CMG Worldwide, an intellectual property management company.
In 1980,
The Jayne Mansfield Story aired on CBS starring Loni Anderson in the
title role and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mickey Hargitay.
It was nominated for three Emmy Awards.
In 1991, British band Siouxsie and
the Banshees scored a U.S. top 20 hit-single with
"Kiss Them For Me", a song
which is an ode to Mansfield. Lyrics include the actress' catchword
"divoon", referring to her
heart-shaped swimming pool and her love of champagne and parties, and to the grisly automobile accident.
Film
appearances
Release year
|
US Release year
|
Movie Title
|
Alternative title
|
Production country
|
Role
|
Selected Co-actors
|
Director
|
Producer
|
Notes
|
1955
|
1955
|
Female
Jungle
|
The
Hangover
|
United States
|
Candy
Price
|
Burt
Kaiser, Kathleen Crowley
|
Bruno
VeSota
|
Burt
Kaiser, Kathleen Crowley
|
|
1955
|
1955
|
Pete
Kelly's Blues
|
?
|
United States
|
Cigarette
Girl
|
Jack
Webb, Janet Leigh, Edmond
O'Brien, Peggy Lee
|
Jack
Webb
|
Warner
Bros.
|
Uncredited
|
1955
|
1955
|
Underwater!
|
?
|
United States
|
Girl
in Bikini by Pool
|
Jane
Russell, Richard Egan, Lori Nelson
|
John
Sturges
|
RKO
Radio Pictures
|
Uncredited
|
1955
|
1955
|
Illegal
|
?
|
United States
|
Angel
O'Hara
|
Edward
G. Robinson,
Nina Foch, Hugh Marlowe
|
Lewis
Allen
|
Warner
Bros.
|
|
1955
|
1955
|
Hell
on Frisco Bay
|
?
|
United States
|
Mario's
dance partner in nightclub
|
Alan
Ladd, Fay Wray
|
Frank
Tuttle
|
Jaguar
Productions
|
Uncredited
|
1956
|
1956
|
The
Girl Can't Help It
|
?
|
United States
|
Jerri
Jordan
|
Tom
Ewell, Edmond O'Brien,
Julie London, Ray Anthony
|
Frank
Tashlin
|
20th
Century Fox
|
|
1957
|
1957
|
The
Burglar
|
?
|
United States
|
Gladden
|
Dan
Duryea, Martha Vickers, Peter Capell,
Mickey Shaughnessy
|
Paul
Wendkos
|
Columbia Pictures
|
Filmed
in 1955
|
1957
|
1957
|
The
Wayward Bus
|
?
|
United States
|
Camille
Oakes
|
Joan
Collins, Dan Dailey
|
Victor
Vicas
|
20th
Century Fox
|
|
1957
|
1957
|
Will
Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
|
Oh!
For a Man!
(UK)
|
United States
|
Rita
Marlowe
|
Tony
Randall, Betsy Drake, Joan Blondell,
John Williams, Henry Jones
|
Frank
Tashlin
|
20th
Century Fox
|
|
1957
|
1957
|
Kiss
Them for Me
|
?
|
United States
|
Alice
Kratzner
|
Cary Grant, Leif Erickson,
Suzy Parker
|
Stanley Donen
|
Sol
C. Siegel
|
|
1958
|
1959
|
The
Sheriff of Fractured Jaw
|
?
|
United States
|
Kate
|
Kenneth
More, Henry Hull, Bruce Cabot
|
Raoul
Walsh
|
20th
Century Fox
|
|
1960
|
1963
|
The
Challenge
|
It
Takes a Thief
(U.S.)
|
United Kingdom
|
Billy
|
Anthony
Quayle, Carl Möhner, Peter Reynolds
|
John
Gilling
|
Alexandra
|
|
1960
|
1961
|
Too
Hot to Handle
|
Playgirl
After Dark
(U.S.)
|
United Kingdom
|
Midnight
Franklin
|
Leo
Genn, Karlheinz Böhm, Christopher Lee
|
Terence
Young
|
Wigmore
Productions
|
|
1960
|
Never
released
|
The
Loves of Hercules
|
Gli
Amori di Ercole
(Italy),
Les Amours d'Hercule (France),
Hercules vs. the Hydra (TV
title)
|
Italy
|
Queen
Dianira/ Hippolyta
|
Mickey
Hargitay, Massimo Serato
|
Carlo
Ludovico Bragaglia
|
Contact
Organisation
|
|
1961
|
1961
|
The
George Raft Story
|
Spin
of a Coin
(UK)
|
United States
|
Lisa
Lang
|
Ray
Danton, Julie London, Barrie Chase
|
Joseph
M. Newman
|
Allied
Artists Pictures
|
|
1962
|
1962
|
It
Happened in Athens
|
?
|
United States (filmed in Greece)
|
Eleni
Costa
|
Trax
Colton, Nico Minardos, Bob Mathias
|
Andrew
Marton
|
20th
Century Fox
|
Filmed
in the fall of 1960
|
1963
|
Never
released
|
Heimweh
nach St. Pauli
|
Homesick
for St. Pauli (U.S.)
|
Germany
|
Evelyne
|
Freddy
Quinn, Josef Albrecht, Ullrich Haupt
|
Werner
Jacobs
|
Rapid
Film
|
|
1963
|
1963
|
Promises!
Promises!
|
Promise
Her Anything
(some releases)
|
United States
|
Sandy
Brooks
|
Marie
McDonald, Tommy Noonan, Mickey Hargitay
|
King
Donovan
|
Tommy
Noonan-Donald F. Taylor
|
|
1964
|
1966
|
L'Amore
Primitivo
|
Primitive
Love
(U.S.)
|
Italy
|
Dr. Jane
|
Franco
Franchi, Ciccio Ingrassia, Mickey Hargitay
|
Luigi
Scattini
|
G.L.M.
|
|
1964
|
1964
|
Panic
Button
|
Let's
Go Bust
(U.S.)
|
United States (filmed in Italy)
|
Angela
|
Maurice
Chevalier, Eleanor Parker, Mike Connors
|
George
Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo
|
Gordon
Films
|
Filmed
in 1962
|
1964
|
1966
|
Einer
Frisst den anderen
|
Dog
Eat Dog!
(U.S.)
|
Germany
|
Darlene/
Mrs. Smithopolis
|
Cameron
Mitchell, Dodie Heath, Ivor Salter
|
Richard
E. Cunha,
Gustav Gavrin
|
Dubrava
Film
|
|
1966
|
1966
|
The
Fat Spy
|
?
|
United States
|
Junior
Wellington
|
Phyllis
Diller, Jack E. Leonard
|
Joseph
Cates
|
Woolner
Brothers
|
|
1966
|
1966
|
The
Las Vegas
Hillbillys
|
Country
Music
|
United States
|
Tawny
|
Phyllis
Diller, Jack E. Leonard,
Brian Donlevy
|
Arthur
Pierson
|
Woolner
Brothers
|
|
1967
|
1967
|
A
Guide for the Married Man
|
?
|
United States
|
Technical
Adviser (Girl with Harold)
|
Walter
Matthau, Inger Stevens
|
Gene
Kelly
|
20th
Century Fox
|
Cameo
appearance.
|
1968
|
1968
|
Single
Room Furnished
|
?
|
United States
|
Johnnie/
Mae/ Eileen
|
Dorothy
Keller, Fabian Dean, Billy M.
Greene
|
Matt
Cimber
|
Empire
Film Studios
|
Posthumous
release. Filmed in mid-1966.
|
Documentary
appearances
TV
- Reflets de Cannes (1956)
- Cinépanorama (1964)
Cinema
- Lykke og krone (1962) Directors: Colbjörn Helander, Stein Sælen; Stars: François Chalais, Henri-Georges Clouzot and Eddie Constantine
- Spree (1967) Directors: Walon Green, Mitchell Leisen; Writer: Sydney Field; Stars:
Constance Moore, Mickey
Hargitay and Vic Damone
- Mondo Hollywood (1967) Director: Robert Carl Cohen; Writer: Robert
Carl Cohen; Stars: Margaretta Ramsey,
Dale Davisand Theodore Charach
- The Wild,
Wild World of Jayne Mansfield
(1968) Directors: Charles W.
Broun Jr.,
Joel Holt, Arthur Knight;
Writer: Charles Ross; Stars: Jayne Mansfield,
Robert Jason and Fernand Aubrey
Television
work
As
an actress
- Sunday Spectacular: The Bachelor , NBC (July 1956)
- Shower of Stars , Desilu Productions, Season 3,
Episode 4 ("Star Time",
January 1957)
- Val Parnell's Sunday Night at the London Palladium , Associated Television, Season 3,
Episode 1 (September 1957)
- The Red Skelton Hour , CBS,
Season 9, Episode 2
("Clem's General Store",
October 1959)
- After Hours , ABC Weekend Television, Season 2,
Episode 13 (December 1959)
- Kraft Mystery Theater , Season 1,
Episode 12 ("The House of Rue Riviera", August 1961)
- Follow the Sun , 20th Century Fox Television, Season 1,
Episode 21 ("The Dumbest Blonde",
February 1962)
- Monte Carlo , 20th Century Fox Television
(August 1961)
- The Alfred Hitchcock Hour , Season 1,
Episode 12 ("Hangover",
December 1962)
- The Red Skelton Hour , CBS,
Season 11, Episode 1
("Will Success Spoil Clem Kadiddlehopper"?,
September 1961)
- The Red Skelton Hour , CBS,
Season 12, Episode 21
("Advice to the Loveworn",
February 1963)
- Amos Burke,
Secret Agent , Four Star Television,
Season 1, Episode 26 ("Who
Killed Molly"?, March
1964)
As
herself
- The Bob Hope Show , Hope Enterprise, Season 17,
Episode 4 (A Bob Hope Comedy Special ,
December 1966)
- What's My Line? , CBS,
4 Episodes; dated: 1956, 1957, 1964,
1966
- The Ed Sullivan Show (also named Toast of the Town ), CBS,
Season 10, Episode 35 (May 1957)
- The Ed Sullivan Show , CBS,
Season 10, Episode 46 (August
1957)
- The Jack Benny Program , J&M Productions, Season 7,
Episode 8 ("Talent Show",
December 1956)
- The Jack Benny Program , J&M Productions, Season 14,
Episode 9 ("Jack Takes Boat to Hawaii", November 1963)
- The Tonight Show , NBC,
("The Jack Paar Tonight Show",
January 1962)
- The Tonight Show , NBC,
(April 1962)
Discography
Albums
- Jayne Mansfield Busts up Las Vegas (20th Century Fox, 1962)
- Shakespeare,
Tchaikovsky & Me
(MGM, 1964)
- I Wanna Be Loved By You (Golden Options, 2000)
- Dyed Blondes (Recall Records,
2002)
- Too Hot to Handle (Blue Moon, France, 2003)
Singles
- That Makes It (The Las
Vegas Hillbillys )
- Too Hot to Handle (Too Hot to Handle )
- Little Things Mean a Lot
- As The Clouds Drift By (with Jimi Hendrix, A-side)
- Suey
(with Jimi Hendrix, B-side)
- You Were Made for Me
- Wo Ist Der Mann (Homesick for St.
Pauli )
- Snicksnack-Snucklchen (Homesick for St. Pauli )
- I'm in love
(also known as the Lullaby of Love ; Promises! Promises! )
- Promise her anything (Promises! Promises! )
- It's a Living
Theater
performances
- Death of a Salesman (1953)
- Bus Stop
(1965)
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1966)
- Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1955?1956)
- Rabbit Habit (1965)
(courtesy of
wikipedia)
|