Why did Jayne Mansfield's career go straight down the shitter?

She was a talentless tart.

THAT is one of the best damned side eye I've EVER seen!

Because of grief over her daughter not being accepted into crime-plagued Hudson University.

That's a classic photo of Miss Sophia Loren.

At some point she lost her head.

Because there were too many blond bombshells walking around and she was just one more. After a few years her luck ran out.

Sophia Loren looks so annoyed, lol.

She was only 34 when she died.

A caption for what Miss Loren must have been thinking?

Pissed off.

She arrived on the scene after Marilyn was already a big star.

Jayne ruined her reputation by appearing at grocery store openings and falling out of her dress. The public grew tired of her shenanigans and stopped paying attention. When "Cleopatra" nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox, Jayne was one of the contract players dismissed.

Late in her career, Jayne made an appearance at a county fair in Macon, Georgia. My uncles were in the crowd, they said she was lovely...from a distance. Up close, she looked unhealthy & her face was plastered in makeup.

I've read that Marilyn Monroe loathed two female stars: Elizabeth Taylor & Jayne Mansfield. Marilyn thought Jayne was just a poor imitation of herself.

She was into satanism

[quote] Marilyn thought Jayne was just a poor imitation of herself.

At least I didn't eat fried chicken in bed like a sow.

[quote] At least I didn't eat fried chicken in bed like a sow.

That would be Elizabeth Taylor.

Her death was rather grisly.

[quote] I've read that Marilyn Monroe loathed two female stars: Elizabeth Taylor & Jayne Mansfield. Marilyn thought Jayne was just a poor imitation of herself.

Why did she hate Liz?

She was never able to make the transition from being a 50s sex symbol to any other kind of marketable actress.

It doesn't sound like she was able to hit the big time with her nightclub act and branch out into Las Vegas either.

R18

MM hated Liz because Fox dumped all their money into Cleopatra and punished her for stealing paper clips from the studio. One of the reasons for her nude swim for the press was to knock Liz and DIck off the magazine covers.

Seems like Jayne would be a selfie taking Kardashian these days.

Who took care of her daughter when she died?

Jayne...your ride's here.

huh, r3? I think you meant to post in another thread? Maybe the Lori Loughlin thread?

This clip of her with Mickey Rooney is fun.

I love Jayne. She could have been a great comedienne in the '60s if she had cut the sex-bomb publicity stuff. But she lived for all that, far more than making smart career choices (or smart marriages).

Madonna seems to emulating Jayne, though without Jayne's sense of humor.

I don't know much about her career but Jayne seemed like fun and like she didn't take herself too seriously.

Apparently she was very smart and quite well educated. Was she a Phi Beta Kappa? Maybe she was too smart for her own good.

Because the 50's ended. And Jayne could not sustain that 50's sex symbol image into the Kennedy era. She aged out of it and the times changed. As others have noted, she just continued the same "schtick" she always had, only older and it was the law of diminishing returns. She would do just about anything for publicity. She would "attend the opening of an envelope." And posed nude (Marilyn did it only once early in her career and then, again, just before she died but NEVER when she was an A list star) and starred in REALLY had movies. She cheapened herself, literally. For someone who was so, apparently, "smart," she was not smart about her career.

Because she was a lousy actress whose blonde bombshell image wore out.

Her acting was too shrill and desperate. I like her pink house, though.

R24 = DL newbie.

[quote]She aged out of it and the times changed. As others have noted, she just continued the same "schtick" she always had, only older

How dreadful.

I'd love to know what colors both those dresses were in OP and R7. Jayne's dress is scandalous in black & white, it must have been even more obscene in living color. Well, she got what she wanted; people are still talking about it.

R34, I'm surprised women of that era could get away with dressing like she did in public.

Not a big market for headless actresses....

She wanted a career in show business. Since she she knew she would never be taken seriously as an actress (not with that figure) she decided she would be a sex goddess and play mostly comedic types of roles. She cultivated the image of an airheaded sex bomb; she had chihuahuas as pets and a pink mansion and a heart-shaped swimming pool. She played up the fact that she and her muscle bound husband Mickey Hargitay had a fabulous sex life. She'd do anything for publicity. She wanted to be THE sex symbol but never quite made it, never being more than "a second class Marilyn Monroe." For a while she was kind of a popular novelty act, but audiences lost interest in her due to her endless attempts at publicity. Towards the end of her life she started looking like hell, bloated and dissipated, her overbleached hair a wreck. She died in a horrible car accident but was not decapitated, as it has been widely reported. Hers was just another one of those sad Hollywood stories.

She will always be remembered by truckers.

When Marilyn Monroe died of an apparent suicide, big busty blondes fell out of fashion. It was just too painful to watch.

Mamie is still with us. She posts on social media all the time.

Jayne Mansfield refused to reinvent herself and furthermore turned down offers to appear on television. She was offered the role of Ginger Grant, in “Gilligan’s Island”, but rejected it. That would’ve been a whole new career for her. She should’ve taken acting classes to improve herself as a performer, gotten rid of that ridiculous dumb blonde sex pot image, and changed herself into a character actress.

She ruined her beauty with booze and bleach. She was gorgeous as a young brunette.

Broadway doesn't go for booze and bleach.

Her early movies {"Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter," which she first did on Broadway, and "The Girl Can't Help It") were her best. When Marilyn proved she could act in "Bus Stop," Jayne took a more serious role in "The Wayward Bus," based on a John Steinbeck story. But she was never seen as anything more than the poor man's Marilyn. Poor Mamie Van Doren was the poor man's Jayne Mansfield.

I wonder why she was so fixated on MM. I hadn’t made the connection before between the two bus movies!

Joan Collins was also in "The Wayward Bus."

R44 Have any of you ever seen the movie that Jayne and Mamie did together, The Las Vegas Hillbillies? It was cheap and horrible. The only reason to ever watch it is if you are a fan of classic country music, as it features rare performances by stars such as Bill Anderson, Sonny James and Connie Smith, in color.

R22, her daughter's father, Mickey Hargitay.

Her daughter is just as untalented.

I like Mariska.

She's a terrible actress, R50.

She was ageing like milk. I wonder if she lied about her age.

Kiss them for Me which she made for 20th Century Fox in 1958 was the writing on the wall for her career. Cary Grant starred but she was in the jokey role while Grant had the romance with Suzy Parker. No actress, but in a way she could be taken seriously while Mansfield could never be with that image she had. By the early 60s she appeared in a Hercules movie with Mickey; career was over by then. She was a novelty act.

R26, I am an originator, not an emulator!

In the 80s , I worked with a graphic designer who made an "I brake for Jane Mansfield's head" bumper sticker. And he was 6'6" and HOT (and, sadly, straight/married).

I still remember when she died: I was almost 7 and we were on our annual summer camping trip. We were having a campfire and listening to AM radio when her death was announced. I had no idea who she was and my mom just said she was blonde and had big boobs. I also learned a new word: decapitated. So strange that it is still such a vivid memory.

As someone has already pointed out, she was not decapitated in the accident.

Her career was decapitated before her death though.

But the media reported the accident as "decapitated" or at the very least, "nearly decapitated."

Jayne was on the road to New Orleans when she died, having stood in for Mamie Van Doren at a nightclub revue in Biloxi, Mississippi earlier that evening. I wonder if Mamie ever felt pangs of guilt for missing the show.

Mamie Van Doren. 88 and still going strong.

I don't think Mamie's outfit is very age-appropriate.

R61 How about this one?

With her son...

Mamie Van Doren is one of the last mid-20th Century blond bombshells. Although I don't know her personally, she's a "one degree of separation" person to me and a real original. It was always a delight to see her in and around Newport Beach. A real "character," of which there are far too few these days.

Plus, she fucking HATES Trump, which earns automatic bonus points for me. Nudie pics at 80+ are not so much my thing, but God bless her for being so open and positive. A stylist (and a "deflation") could do wonders for her look.

Did you know Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Kiss Them For Me"was about Jayne?

Jayne didn't need a life jacket!

That was the oddest trailer I've ever seen, R66.

Jayne Mansfield is today's Erika Jayne.

I remember reading what Loren thought of their meeting and explaining the look on her face (I am paraphrasing best I can): "It is not envy, it is not anger - it is fear. I am looking at her breasts - because they are coming on to my plate. I was terrified that her gown would explode and the entire ballroom would be full of boobs." She also said that although she was initially annoyed by Jayne crashing an event that was in her honor, she did speak to her as the evening went on and thought she was genuinely charming.

She really whored herself to any man that paid attention to her. Those videos are creepy as fuck

Jayne and Mamie looked great in the 50s. They both looked sad and tacky in the 60s with garish makeup and horrible, piled on hair pieces. 60s fashions were not a good look on blond bombshells.

R20

That story was just another reason for Monroe to resent Taylor who was being paid 1 million dollars to star in CLEOPATRA versus 1/10 of that being paid to Marilyn. Truth be told the poor relationship between the two was Taylor's fault At a Hollywood party in the 50s, Monroe went over to Taylor to introduce herself and Taylor just walked away. A while later Monroe tried again and Taylor loudly said to her date, "keep that dyke away from me will ya ?" Marilyn kept her distance for the rest of the party. Marilyn was not known to air negative comments to the press but privately she would tell friends about her thoughts on various stars.

Thank you, R20 and R75.

Liz reacted to Marilyn as if she were a graduate of the Copacabana School of Dramatic Art.

Jayne's image famously adorned the cover of "Hollywood Babylon." It suited the dark subject matter (Hollywood sleaze at its sleaziest) perfectly; a grainy black and white photo of Jayne in the infamous gown she wore to overshadow Sophia Loren, showing her leaning over, her breasts hanging out, nipple showing.

"A while later Monroe tried again and Taylor loudly said to her date, "keep that dyke away from me will ya ?"

Why would she say that? Marilyn wasn't a dyke, although a lot of people seem to wish she was.

Oh, and those pictures of Jayne and Sophia? They were taken at a party welcoming Sophia to Hollywood given by the Studio. No wonder she was pissed.

Harvey Schmidt, the composer of the Fantasticks, played the piano for Jayne's ballet class at the University of Texas at Austin in the 1950s. I adored Jayne and looked forward to her appearances on Match Game and the Jack Paar Friday night show. Comics loved working with her; she had great timing.

R80, Jayne was shameless. She crashed the party intent on upstaging the honoree and showing the world what America's got.

She was aging, so she had to go.

R79 , She was in my book.

She’s a truck driver with huge knockers!

[R75] I'm actually surprised by this. Liz didn't seem the type to say such things, and Marilyn was (as far as I know) never thought to be lesbian.

It sounds more like a Bette vs. Joan spat.

You can't see it in this copy of the photo but in some it is obvious you can see Jayne's nipples.

Marilyn totally ignored Jayne at "The Rose Tattoo" afterparty.

I don’t blame Sophia, I wouldn’t want her udders in my face either.

She sounded hilarious! Like the Anna Nicole Smith of her time.

Her 'talent' was her pair of boobs.

Jayne had big boobs before anyone who wanted them could buy them.

This was her life.....

Oh, FABULOUS.

Now the Aspie Mysoginist Actress Stalker is cataloguing every DEAD actress, too!

Please help Flame and Freak this gratuitous noise thread that isn't true, isn't relevant, pollutes the site and prolongs the OP's mental illness.

I don't understand the appeal. She and Loni Anderson remind me of each other. Perfect casting of Loni Anderson in "The Jayne Mansfield Story."

What a tragic ending.

Well the movie star, well she crashed her car. But everyone said she was beautiful even without her head. Everyone said she was dangerous.

She should have sold her Pink Palace mansion, dyed her hair to its original color, moved to New York and entered an acting school. If she dropped that silly blonde bombshell image, she could’ve reinvented herself as a serious actress. I read somewhere that she showed some dramatic talent in “The Wayward Bus”, though I didn’t see the movie.

No matter how many acting classes she could have taken she would NEVER have been taken seriously as an actress. She'd already created that ding dong sex goddess image for herself and it was cast in stone. And those big knockers of her totally took her out of the running for anything else. She should have left show business entirely when her career dried up. I think she would have lived a lot longer if she had.

[quote]She should have sold her Pink Palace mansion, dyed her hair to its original color, moved to New York and entered an acting school.

That seems clear.

Woof!

She's quite plain looking.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of work for headless actresses. Such discrimination was sadly commonplace at the time. At least today, Jayne might've been able to find work on The Walking Dead.

She was in on the joke, but she didn't work it to her advantage. Diana Dors, her UK doppelganger, could at least sing a little and wasn't too good to do TV.

Pretty in pink.

she was not decapited in the accident. The rumor started because a hair piece jane was wearing at the time of the accident fell off and was laying on the pavement after the accident and a photo was snapped. Jane had 4 or 5 kids at the time of the accident. Most were with her in the backseat of the sedan asleep lying flat. Jane was in front with her boyfriend and driver. The front seat passengers were all killed and the kids unhurt. It was the middle of the night and they were driving between gigs, she just finished performing at gus s supper club in biloxi. The car rear ended a misquito spraying truck/rig of some type if I recall. A dreadful life at the end and a dreadful death. Her estate sued the truck company and collected a hefty settlement.

Some side notes. Jane was good with money and was hustling to make as much as she could before her looks gave out. She left a sizeable estate. She was boy crazy and as soon as she fell out of love with a husband she divorced and then fell hard again for somebody no good ......and repeatred the cycle. She was overheard talking to JFK one time on the phone and they were apparently in a heated dispute and ending their fling and she said to him........what you dont understand is you wont be president more than 4 more years and Ill be a movie star forever/or words to that effect. JFK had remarked earlier that Jane had the best body of any of the movie stars he had slept with but she could only make love when she was drunk. Jane loved publiciity and woulld wear a bikini and high heels to shop at the grocery story. SHe blew up her career by overexposure in the media (no pun intented). Jane had a very high IQ and was a member of mensa. Marilyn didnt like Mansfield because she thought Mansfield had had a boob job. Probably what added fuel to the fire was the fact that Mansfield was under contract at fox and fox used Mansfield as leverage against Monroe when Monroe wasnt being cooperative, which was most of the time. None of the female stars got along that well as their was intense competition between them. Taylor was pissed that Monroe was a superstar and viewed as a myth.......while Taylor had to settle for being a legend.

Not sure if it's been expressed here, but Jayne was a one note bomnshell with no acting chops and she didn't seem too want to improve. That's my take anyway.

[quote]She was in on the joke, but she didn't work it to her advantage. Diana Dors, her UK doppelganger, could at least sing a little and wasn't too good to do TV.

Jayne did some television. Aside from game shows, she appeared in a dramatic role in a 1962 episode of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" that starred Tony Randall as an alcoholic. Jayne and Tony, of course, had appeared together earlier in "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" Jayne is pretty good in a relatively small role, and instead of her usual mane of platinum hair, she has a short hairdo that was rather attractive, Randall is beyond tedious as the alcoholic; it's not one of the series' better episodes.

Alas, r106, poor Jayne didn't have a cinema classic like this on her resume. A-Listers galore!

What about Sophia Loren? She won an Oscar for the crappy Two Women and hasn't done any good movies since

cunt

Sophia is highly overrated so is Catherine Deneuve - they have such thick accents you can't understand what they're saying - hire a linguist and learn to deliver a line

Mariska and Merv.....

Sabrina?

Quando.....

That's the cover art for "Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky & Me"?

[R107] Holy moly. Those things must have been full of helium.

Heres the TV movie starring Loni Anderson as Jayne Mansfield and Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mickey Hargitay.

r120: That's the awful reissue cover. The original is wry, but Jayne looks like a whale.

I was surprised how good she was in that Alfred Hitchcock, plus with the short hairdo she was much more natural than that puffy bouffant.

The those DL bitches who put down Mariska Hargitay: shut the hell up. You don't know what you're talking about.

There is no way this dame was ever going to be taken seriously.

She was so annoying with that squeal she did. So obviously fake and calculated to just get mens attention. Her sex kitten act was even more tedious than marilyns

I never found her talented or pretty. She had a curvy body and big tits but her face wasn’t pretty.

The opposite of Marilyn, who I thought could be quite good at times and very charming with a natural presence and also very pretty face.

[quote] I never found her talented or pretty. She had a curvy body and big tits but her face wasn’t pretty.

R131 = the ghost of Marilyn Monroe

There wasn't a lot of work for "Blonde Bomshell" types in sixties films. Realism became increasingly fashionable as the decade wore on, "Twiggy" or "Earth Mother" types became fashionable, and pop culture became all about YOUTH at a time when she was no longer young.

As I said on earlier Marilyn Monroe threads, the obvious career path in the sixties was playing "sexy wife" roles in the sort of sexy comedies that starred Dean Martin or Tony Curtis. But even those roles would have been hard to get, if she kept it up with the publicity stunts and nude photos. For those roles, the studio wanted an actress the average man would want to be married to, not someone who was known as a publicity-hungry whore.

[quote] Jayne did some television. Aside from game shows, she appeared in a dramatic role in a 1962 episode of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" that starred Tony Randall as an alcoholic. Jayne and Tony, of course, had appeared together earlier in "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" Jayne is pretty good in a relatively small role, and instead of her usual mane of platinum hair, she has a short hairdo that was rather attractive, Randall is beyond tedious as the alcoholic; it's not one of the series' better episodes.

I'm trying to picture Tony Randall playing an alcoholic.

r134, see r111.

John Lennon peed in her drink, after requesting to meet her out of everyone in LA.

Mickey Hargitay was Mariska's dad, but Nelson Sardelli was her biological father.

In one of her last films, Mr. Mansfield visited a drag bar in gay Paree.

They don’t look white....

R140 who doesn't look white? Nelson Sardelli was Brazilian of Italian Descent; Mickey Hargitay was Hungarian.

R138 I've never heard that. Or is that just your own suspicions?

Mickey wasn’t white then.

Hungarians are not white? What are they? White-adjacent?

In what world is Hungary white?

Trailer for 2014 low-rent biopic (includes male nudity)!

Sorry to interrupt the white-adjacent argument about Hungarians, but is The Wayward Bus worth seeking out? This thread has piqued my interest and I've been watching a lot of non-"classic" old Hollywood films lately.

r143....its their fraufic delusion.

I haven't seen it, r148, but here it is......

Hungarians are not White. They are mixtures of several ethnicities, with plenty of Slavic and Gypsy.

Not one comment mentioned the terrible wigs she would wear. The phote below is the only time her hair looked decent, all her other wigs look like some crap you would bye at your local store. The studio didn't know what to do with her. In the 60s her wigs got worse and worse.

The guy in the center of the pic is very fuckable/

R152, it doesn't appear like any of the guys in that pic are staring at her wig, lol.

She really wasn’t pretty in the face.

r153 I mean this

this

and this...

R157, oh no. I see what you mean. I also see Jayne wearing a pentagram necklace -- she was a satanista?

In her way she was, r154. But competing with Monroe, she comes up short. She should have found her own look. She kind of resembled Ellen Burstyn.

those were some long droopy tiddies

Oy dear, r158.

“all her other wigs look like some crap you would bye at your local store.”

^What did I get wrong?

[quote]There wasn't a lot of work for "Blonde Bombshell" types in sixties films. Realism became increasingly fashionable as the decade wore on, "Twiggy" or "Earth Mother" types became fashionable, and pop culture became all about YOUTH at a time when she was no longer young.

Paul McCartney told [italic] Playboy,[/italic] "She really is an old bag."

Bye and buy are two different words.

R158 more of an attention whore! She befriended Anton LaVey and dabbled in his Church of Satan but only for publicity's sake. A couple years ago, there was a documentary chronicling her final two years and her association with LaVey.

In some of these photos she looks very beautiful. In others harsh and even ugly. Sometimes that can be intriguing, whether in a man or a woman. But her persona wasn't the type to support it. Her personality left no room for allure or mystery and she wasn't interesting as a challenge. She had no elegance and although she was seemingly witty and charming in real life she never brought that aspect to the public. Had Monroe lived, I think she could have made the transition and played her faded beauty for tragedy. But once Mansfield lost her strident Mid-century glamour there was nothing left to play.

She was the human version of tail fins on cars. First sexy and shiny and exciting - and then, somehow, an out-of-date aesthetic encumbrance that no one knew what to do with.

R164 she was only 9 years older than McCartney.

[R168] It was an unnecessary thing to say. I have never understood the need for people of Paul's stature to shit on their perceived inferiors.

R158, that's the Star of David, hon.

Kiss Them for Me...

She was a grotesque parody of MM. That squeal isn’t sexy, it’s disturbing.

She really should have went the TV show route, playing up her bombshell image while also satirizing it, playing Ginger on Gilligan's Island, would have been perfect.

Diana Dors' sitcom Queenie's Castle for ITV, in which she played the tarty mother to a low-class family of ne'er-do-wells was actually quite good, and played on her bombshell image, while also knocking it down. The show helped to revive her career and put her in demand later in the 1970s for roles in various sex comedy films.

Just saw this today on one of my other groups

" I also see Jayne wearing a pentagram necklace -- she was a satanista? "

That's a six-pointed Star Of David, not a pentagram! Was she Jewish?

And she was a lovely young woman, but she looked SO artificial! But then, straight men seem to like that, they always go nuts for platinum hair, corseted waists, bound feet, breast implants, whatever the artificial fashions of the time and place may be.

It's tragic that she never lived to see her fucking hot son-in-law

R170, ooops, you're right. Boy, do I feel dumb!

Jayne giving it her all in a scene with Terry Thomas.

Just shortly before she was killed Jayne appeared in a movie, A Guide For The Married Man.

She seems to have quite an effect on Terry Thomas.

R174 who is the man?

McCartney is on camera during at least one of the 1964 tour press conferences saying that they wanted to meet Mansfield more than any other female star (and Paul Newman more than any male — hmm). When she showed up, though, he was supposedly off fucking Peggy Lipton instead.

I don’t particularly believe that Lennon actually peed in her drink; the source on that is a journalist who was supposedly there, but his accounts of his time with the Beatles are contradicted on a lot of other points.

McCartney likely made the ‘old bag’ comment to Playboy (which is in a pretty wild interview overall) because the Beatles resented the fuck out of anyone they thought took advantage of them. Mansfield set them up to go to that club and get photographed in what turned out to be an embarrassing story for them, since George throwing the drink on the photographer who harassed them got plenty of bad press. Mansfield proved herself to be uncool by being too desperate and selling them out (compare that to Joan Baez, who they were always happy to have around).

R180 you're obviously a Beatles fan.

Well, yes, R181. But I hope I wasn’t coming off as defending them, really? I do think McCartney’s comment was out of line — but it was also at least a little uncharacteristic of him, and I was trying to explain why I think he was willing to bash her in print.

(And if the pee story had been that Lennon had dumped a drink on her...or turned over a Monopoly game that she was winning...or insulted her career or her looks...I would definitely believe any of those!)

This thread is noxious with n00bs.

With her eldest daughter, shot by Diane Arbus.

She aged past 30 but did not get to bed a US President, making her no longer media-worthy.

"The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield"

The lack of a head put a damper on her career.