From Bombshell Bigger Than Marilyn To A Tragic End At 34, The Rise And Fall Of Jayne Mansfield
- Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
A 1955 'Wardrobe Malfunction' In A Swimming Pool Was Mansfield’s Ticket To Stardom
Vera Jayne Palmer married Paul Mansfield in 1950 when she was 16, and went on to study drama in college. After appearing in several local plays, Mansfield decided she wanted to become a star, and convinced her husband to move to Los Angeles in 1954.
After arriving in LA, Mansfield accepted a job at a movie theater concession stand and did modeling work on the side. Even then, her look was controversial. A photographer for General Electric once cropped her out of a picture because "she looked too sexy for 1954 viewers."
By 1955, Mansfield's marriage had ended, and she was more determined than ever to break into the Hollywood scene. She received her chance that year when she was invited to a press party celebrating the premiere of Underwater. In his Hollywood Reporter profile, Erik Mansfield frolicked in the pool wearing a red lamé bikini swimsuit while photographers looked on. In what could be called history's first "wardrobe malfunction," Mansfield and her top suddenly parted ways. As one reporter recalled, the model "had the genius to permit her bathing suit to split open."
Not only did the sudden reveal earn Mansfield attention, but it also allowed her to begin building her brand as a woman who was not shy about her figure. Years later, she played the event off, telling a reporter, "I don't remember the incident."
- Photo: 20th Century Fox / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
By 1957, The 'Working Man’s Marilyn Monroe' Was Beating Monroe Herself In Popularity Polls
Mansfield signed a contract with Warner Bros. in 1955, not long after her topless pool mishap. But the studio didn't hire Mansfield based on her acting ability, leading her to appear in only a handful of films. Bette Davis was frank in her description of the actress: "Dramatic art in her opinion is knowing how to fill a sweater."
Warner Bros. dyed Mansfield's hair blonde and marketed her as a "working man's Marilyn Monroe." The studio believed she could pose a serious threat to the popularity of one of the most famous women in the world. By 1957, that proved to be true, as Mansfield overtook Monroe in popularity polls.
According to a 1956 issue of Life magazine:
[Mansfield] has the same come-hither-you-brute sort of voice and look as Marilyn Monroe. But the comparison, which a more seasoned actress would at least pretend to love, does not seem to please Miss Mansfield at all. "Marilyn is very attractive and all that," she has said, "but she and I are entirely different. I can dye my hair and play a serious part."
- Photo: Ben van Meerendonk / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0
Mansfield Engineered Publicity Stunts For Attention, And Earned A Famous Side-Eye From Sophia Loren
Despite the fact Mansfield allegedly had an IQ of 163, she knew people preferred her looks to her brain. "They're more interested in 40-21-35," she said. Mansfield used this knowledge to grow her publicity, doing everything she could to stay in the spotlight.
According to biographer Ray Strait, Mansfield "would open a cracker box if she thought it would get the press there." For Mansfield, staying in the spotlight meant physically revealing herself in a variety of ways, whether it meant appearing in Playboy, showing off a mink bikini at the 1955 Venice Film Festival, or "accidentally" exposing herself.
"Wardrobe malfunctions" happened to Mansfield so often that one journalist claimed her endless "on-stage strap and zipper mishaps" constituted "for her, a professional hazard."
One of Mansfield's most famous "accidents" occurred at a 1957 studio party for Sophia Loren, to which Mansfield showed up wearing an extremely low-cut dress. While she claimed to have not intended for one of her nipples to slip out of her dress, many believed the incident was planned. Robert Wagner said he saw Mansfield stopped at a red light on her way to the party applying rouge to the very body parts that were later exposed.
Although Mansfield certainly gained more attention because of the incident, the party also provided a series of pictures of Mansfield and Loren together, and one which famously shows Loren giving Mansfield's cleavage some side-eye.
As Loren recalled:
She came right for my table. She knew everyone was watching. She sat down... Look at the picture. Where are my eyes? I'm staring at her nipples because I am afraid they are about to come onto my plate. In my face you can see the fear. I'm so frightened that everything in her dress is going to blow - BOOM! - and spill all over the table.
- Photo: IISG / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0
Mansfield Became Such A Tabloid Fixture That One Mag Announced It Was Taking A Break From Images Of Her
Mansfield's self-engineered publicity stunts and a 1955 photoshoot for Playboy reportedly disturbed Warner Bros. so greatly that they ended her contract. Other stories claim the actress was unhappy with the work the studio offered, and she quit on her own.
After leaving Warner Bros., Mansfield returned to the stage and appeared on Broadway in the comedy, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? The production ran for almost 450 shows, causing Mansfield's co-star Orson Bean to remember, "It became a hit because of Mansfield and all the publicity. She is the only performer who was on the cover of Life magazine twice in one year!"
A 1956 issue of the magazine described Mansfield as an actress who "currently seems to be getting her name and photograph into more Broadway columns and movie magazines than any other actress alive."
It wasn't only Life that gave Mansfield attention. Many other publications printed headlines like "Marilyn Monroe Is Due for Surprise?" which contributed to even more publicity for the actress. During a nine-month period, Mansfield allegedly appeared in newspaper photographs 2,500 times.
- Photo: Robert S.Sweeney / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.5
At The Height Of Her Popularity, Mansfield Toured With Bob Hope's USO Show To Entertain Troops
As Mansfield's popularity eclipsed that of Marilyn Monroe in 1957, Fox estimated she was worth about $40 million, or around $350 million today. With some major films under her belt, Mansfield was a rising star and a popular addition to Bob Hope's Far East USO show.
"I reminded the boys that Jayne was wearing a special dress for the occasion, made of 200 yards of barbed wire," Hope recalled.
The troops were reportedly so happy to see her that 100,000 men gave her a standing ovation. Perhaps they were applauding what she was wearing, since Neile Adams, one of Mansfield's co-stars, remembered the actress appearing on stage in a bikini despite the fact that she was performing in Alaska and it was minus 20 degrees outside.
- Photo: J.D. Noske/Anefo / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
20th Century Fox Signed Mansfield In Order To Spite Marilyn Monroe
After leaving Warner Bros. and starring on Broadway, Mansfield caught the attention of 20th Century Fox, home studio to Marilyn Monroe. At the time, Monroe was in conflict with the studio since she wanted more financial and creative control over her work, and Fox signed Mansfield to spite her.
Mansfield's films for the studio became the most significant of her career, and she won a 1956 Golden Globe for The Girl Can't Help It.
Fox ended up being unhappy with Mansfield's antics, especially her 1957 appearance and her infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at the party for Sophia Loren. The studio was also reportedly unhappy about her marriage to Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay in 1958, and her pregnancy with her fifth child.
Fox preferred that audiences see Mansfield only on screen - without knowing all about her personal life. Although the studio didn't end her contract, they loaned Mansfield to foreign studios and diminished her roles.
- Photo: Unknown (Keystone New York) / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Mansfield Created A Specific Brand For Herself That Included A Pink Mansion
Mansfield allegedly told reporters, "If you're going to be a movie star, you should live like one," and she certainly did.
Setting a precedent for modern reality stars, Mansfield adopted a number of tiny dogs, drove fancy cars, and married Mickey Hargitay, a muscular former Mr. Universe. When she and Hargitay married in 1958, they threw a lavish wedding and invited many newspaper reporters. Mansfield also publicly revealed the location of their ceremony, causing around 8,000 spectators to show up.
She purchased a mansion on Sunset Boulevard and, with Hargitay's help, turned it into yet another part of her brand. Complete with sparkling pink quartz embedded in the walls, champagne-filled bathtubs, and a heart-shaped swimming pool reportedly built by Hargitay, Mansfield called her home "the Pink Palace" and adopted the color as hers.
From cars to furs, Mansfield collected everything pink in order to make her instantly recognizable to the public. "Now I had a gimmick," she said.
- Photo: SDASM Archives / Flickr / No known copyright restrictions
She Continued To Capitalize On Her Fame By Appearing In Las Vegas And Accepting A Series Of Commercial Titles
As Fox grew tired of her antics, Mansfield decided to take her career into her own hands and accepted a headlining act in Las Vegas, becoming one of the first women to do so. She appeared nightly at the Tropicana for several weeks, earning $25,000 a week to entertain the audience with dances, jokes, and songs.
Mansfield also leveraged her popularity by making public appearances in exchange for home furnishings, food, money, and even pets. She attended ribbon-cutting ceremonies for a fee of $10,000 and accepted a variety of titles, including Miss Geiger Counter, Miss Nylon Sweater, and Miss Fire Prevention.
This kind of self-promotion was unheard of at the time, and a 1961 newspaper claimed, "[Mansfield] has found a way to capitalize on fame which may create an entirely new kind of star. There's not much to the part, but the pay is spectacular."
- Photo: Employee(s) of NTD, Inc. / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
In 1963, She Made History As The First Mainstream Movie Star Of The Sound Era To Appear Unclothed On Film
Mansfield began to find work in Hollywood harder and harder to come by, and Fox dropped her contract for good after Marilyn Monroe passed in 1962. Realizing her star was fading, Mansfield decided that causing even more controversy was her only way back into the spotlight.
In 1963, the actress starred in Promises! Promises! and gave mainstream movie audiences something new: her fully unclothed figure. Although Mansfield had appeared in nothing but a towel in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and experienced numerous public "wardrobe malfunctions," her performance in the film became the first time an American actress appeared fully unclothed in a major sound-era motion picture.
While the decision did bring Mansfield more attention, it did nothing to revive her career.
- Photo: ABC Television / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Near The End Of Her Life, Mansfield Was Acting In Local-Level Dinner Theater
By the mid-1960s, audiences stopped buying tickets to Mansfield's films, and her offers slowly faded away. However, the actress remained in the headlines of gossip magazines, as people retained their interest in her for different reasons.
According to a Canadian journalist:
[Mansfield] can sell newspapers and magazines, attract millions of television viewers and draw crowds everywhere she goes, but at the movies, she's a big bust... It could be that the public got so much of Jayne Mansfield for free that paying for the same privilege was too much.
Mansfield turned to television and local dinner theater to continue working, and reportedly began drinking more and more. Although she was still financially successful, Mansfield could no longer escape the shadow of her own self-created image.
Not even her attempt to create a television pilot in 1965 worked out. Although she wanted to tell the story of an actress who ends up playing a sexy celebrity instead of working with more intellectual material like Shakespeare, no one was interested.
- Photo: Metro News Service, Chicago / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
In 1967, Mansfield Perished In A Tragic Car Collision At Age 34
Mansfield and second husband Mickey Hargitay divorced in 1964 after having three children together (including Mariska Hargitay, who became an actress herself). She married one of her previous directors, Matt Cimber, that same year, although she had reportedly not yet officially divorced Hargitay.
That marriage also failed to last, and Mansfield became involved with her divorce attorney, Sam Brody. Allegedly, Brody was physically harmful to Mansfield, and she began drinking more while her career declined.
As the two traveled together with three of Mansfield's children and their driver on June 29, 1967, tragedy struck. On her way from a stage performance in Biloxi, Mississippi, to New Orleans for a television appearance, the car carrying Mansfield reportedly drove into a cloud of pesticide spray that affected the driver's vision. Unable to see clearly, the driver steered the car into the back of a trailer truck. The driver, Mansfield, and Brody, all lost their lives. The children, asleep in the backseat at the time, were hurt but survived.
Numerous rumors persist about Mansfield's demise, including the gruesome yet untrue legend that her head was separated from her body. Rumors also spread that Mansfield's passing was the result of a curse placed by Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey, who had a short relationship with Mansfield and was allegedly jealous of Brody.
Although these stories are fictional, it is true that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration created a law after the collision that required all truck trailers to feature a rear under guard. This safety feature is often referred to as "the Mansfield bar."
- Photo: IISG / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
Some Argue That Changing Ideas Around Female Beauty Precipitated Mansfield’s Fall From The Public Eye
Despite the fact Mansfield was at one time more popular than Marilyn Monroe, Monroe was the one who became enshrined in the public's memory. Some believe this is partly due to the fact that Monroe presented herself as appealing yet unattainable, while Mansfield gave audiences too much, too fast, and left them with nothing more to want.
Others feel Mansfield's failure to maintain her career was due to the changes happening in the world at the time, specifically those involving the image of women and ideas of beauty. When Mansfield became popular in the late 1950s, her flirtatious nature, curvy figure, and large chest were considered ideal traits for women. Her ability to exploit this was what helped make her a star. During the 1960s, however, female ideals changed from voluptuous pinups to women with less extravagant measurements.
Feminism was on the rise, as well as anger and unrest over the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and the slaying of John F. Kennedy. With so much real-world drama going on, real women became more popular than unattainable fantasy figures like Mansfield. Perhaps because she decided not to change her brand to fit the rapidly changing times, Mansfield was left behind.
