Jayne Mansfield: The Lady in Waiting

[ClassyCo]

Well, to be clear, I didn't say she had an impressive career; I said it was more impressive than Mamie van Doren's.

Well, I can agree with you there. Joi did have better roles, or at least better movies, to her credit than Mamie does.

SUPERMAN (as his "wife")

OK, I'm not familiar with the original SUPERMAN series whatsoever. What's the deal here? Was she really his wife, or was it just one of those one-episode-wonders?​

I LOVE LUCY

Joi appeared as herself in the sixth season episode called "Desert Island", which was originally aired on November 26, 1956. The episode concerns Ricky's filming a documentary film on an island in Florida, where Joi is one of the young starlets hired as extras and to pose for cutesy cheesecake pictures in bathing suits. Claude Akins pops in, dresses in a wild native costume, and scares Lucy and Ethel. It's a funny episode.​

a recurring role on LOVE THAT BOB

I had to look-up what TV show you were talking about here. I hadn't any idea THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW and LOVE THAT BOB were one in the same. Goofy me.​

a semi-recurring role on THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES

Joi did probably half-a-dozen or so episodes of THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, the first two or three during the time that show was the most-watched show on American television. She played Gladys Flatt, the glamorous, but dissatisfied wife of singer Lester Flatt.
​

frequently appeared on other hit shows.

She appeared on OZZIE & HARRIET a few different times I think. At different times, she appeared on DECEMBER BRIDE, PERRY MASON, THE DANNY THOMAS SHOW, PETTICOAT JUNCTION, and THE MOTHERS-IN-LAW just to name a few. She was also a regular on KLONDIKE, the short-lived Western series that lasted a single season in the early-'60s.

I think Mamie would have committed murder to have that career.

Like many others in decades gone past, Mamie's fabricated her importance to the celebrity culture of the 1950s. She presents herself as the "second" to Marilyn, and that she practically opened the door for Mansfield's breakthrough in WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? because she declined the part of Rita Marlowe that had been written specifically for her. She's also wrestled her way into Mansfield's death in 1967, claiming that she and Jayne had traded engagements at Gus Stevens' Supper Club.


​

 

[ClassyCo]

THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT will be a getting a release through the Criterion Collection on April 19, 2022, which would've been Mansfield's 89th birthday. It is getting both a DVD and Blu-ray release.​

Amazon.com: The Girl Can't Help It (The Criterion Collection) [DVD] : Tom Ewell, Jayne Mansfield, Edmond O'Brien, Julie London, Ray Anthony, Barry Gordon, Henry Jones, John Emery, Juanita Moore, Fats Domino, The Platters, Little Richard, Gene Vincent

Amazon.com: The Girl Can't Help It (The Criterion Collection) [DVD] : Tom Ewell, Jayne Mansfield, Edmond O'Brien, Julie London, Ray Anthony, Barry Gordon, Henry Jones, John Emery, Juanita Moore, Fats Domino, The Platters, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, The Treniers, Eddie Fontaine, Eddie Cochran...

www.amazon.com

 

[ClassyCo]

Today marks the 55th anniversary of Jayne Mansfield's death. The attention-seeking blonde bombshell had spent a solid decade trying to find her way onto the front pages of every newspaper and magazine known to man during her time. And she did make a big splash on Broadway and in Hollywood in the mid-to-late 1950s.

But her untimely death in a automobile accident when she was only 34 years old was probably her biggest headline-grabbing story.

 

[Crimson]

She's be nearly 90 years old, if she was still alive. Hard to imagine Jayne as an old lady; or, perhaps not, if she would have aged like Mamie.

 

[ClassyCo]

She's be nearly 90 years old, if she was still alive. Hard to imagine Jayne as an old lady; or, perhaps not, if she would have aged like Mamie.

One biographer -- or was it her third husband Matt Cimber -- said Jayne would've "turned into Mae West" had she lived, because she would've always had her comedic timing. But, seeing Jayne aging like Mamie, isn't much of a stretch either.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Uh oh, here comes that truck -- only Alexis will survive...

 

[Crimson]

One biographer -- or was it her third husband Matt Cimber -- said Jayne would've "turned into Mae West" had she lived, because she would've always had her comedic timing. But, seeing Jayne aging like Mamie, isn't much of a stretch eithe

Not a bad comparison although, all things considered, Mamie has aged similarly to Mae -- they both held onto their sexy image into their 90s; I mean, as much as one can hold onto a sexy image in one's 90s. Overall though, Mamie is aging better than Mae at the same age. Mae -- bless her -- seemed blind, deaf and arthritic in SEXTETTE, but Mamie is remarkably robust for a nonagenarian. If nothing else, her back has held out well after lugging around those bazooms for decades.

 

[ClassyCo]

Mamie has certainly aged better than Mae, although Mamie lacks Mae's sense of humor.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

 

[ClassyCo]

One of the most admiral facts about Jayne Mansfield was her appreciation of her public. She had a genuine affection for her fans, and she never forgot that it was the people that had made her star. There are multiple stories that have been circulated in biographies and documentaries about her desire to please and be there for her public. Tony Randall, her one-time co-star, tells a story in the A&E biography done on Mansfield about how she routinely ran down to the front gate of Pink Palace to greet tourists as they traveled to see the stars' homes. While other stars closed their curtains and hid, Mansfield kept up with the tourist schedule and would be visible to them when the buses came by. Sometimes she'd be lounging in her yard, or sometimes she'd be ready at the gate to sign autographs.

Mansfield was rightfully known as one of the friendliest stars of the period. Where many stars oftentimes shun their public and "want to be alone", Mansfield craved attention and she liked being the center of the crowd. She enjoyed signing autographs and being recognized on the street. Even when her public shunned themselves away from her films, she was still generous in posing for photos and signing autograph books.

A lot of things can be debated about Jayne Mansfield, but her commitment to her public cannot be.

 

[ClassyCo]

Happy 90th Birthday Jayne Mansfield

 

[Jock Ewing Fan]

Well, I can agree with you there. Joi did have better roles, or at least better movies, to her credit than Mamie does.

OK, I'm not familiar with the original SUPERMAN series whatsoever. What's the deal here? Was she really his wife, or was it just one of those one-episode-wonders?

Joi appeared as herself in the sixth season episode called "Desert Island", which was originally aired on November 26, 1956. The episode concerns Ricky's filming a documentary film on an island in Florida, where Joi is one of the young starlets hired as extras and to pose for cutesy cheesecake pictures in bathing suits. Claude Akins pops in, dresses in a wild native costume, and scares Lucy and Ethel. It's a funny episode.

I had to look-up what TV show you were talking about here. I hadn't any idea THE BOB CUMMINGS SHOW and LOVE THAT BOB were one in the same. Goofy me.

Joi did probably half-a-dozen or so episodes of THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, the first two or three during the time that show was the most-watched show on American television. She played Gladys Flatt, the glamorous, but dissatisfied wife of singer Lester Flatt.
​

She appeared on OZZIE & HARRIET a few different times I think. At different times, she appeared on DECEMBER BRIDE, PERRY MASON, THE DANNY THOMAS SHOW, PETTICOAT JUNCTION, and THE MOTHERS-IN-LAW just to name a few. She was also a regular on KLONDIKE, the short-lived Western series that lasted a single season in the early-'60s.

Like many others in decades gone past, Mamie's fabricated her importance to the celebrity culture of the 1950s. She presents herself as the "second" to Marilyn, and that she practically opened the door for Mansfield's breakthrough in WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? because she declined the part of Rita Marlowe that had been written specifically for her. She's also wrestled her way into Mansfield's death in 1967, claiming that she and Jayne had traded engagements at Gus Stevens' Supper Club.

View attachment 33090
​

Thank You for the Joi Lansing mentions. I do remember her on the Beverly Hillbillies

 

[ClassyCo]

Jayne has been called "the ultimate dumb blonde" by the A&E "Blonde Ambition" biography that you can find as a bonus feature on THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT media releases. It's also available You-Know-Where.

Another biography stated that Jayne "worked hard to be dumbest and the blondest" blonde bombshell Hollywood had ever seen. This biography is also available You-Know-Where. I believe it's subtitled "Loves and Kisses".

Mansfield is always mentioned in the same breath with Monroe. Hugh Hefner spoke of the similarities between the two women, saying Mansfield made a career by doing "her own variation on Marilyn Monroe", while also commenting the two women were noticeably different. According to Hefner, Monroe was "clearly vulnerable" on-screen as she was in reality, while Mansfield's persona was "a little more calculated" and "more of a put on".

Jayne herself brushed off comparisons to Marilyn and other blonde-haired actresses of the time, saying, "I don't know why people like to compare me to Marilyn, or that other girl, what's her name, Kim Novak." Even so, by the early 1960s, as Jayne's career slid, she had earned a reputation in Hollywood as the "Working Man's Monroe" or the "Poor Man's Monroe".

Behind Mansfield's perpetual giggle and curves, hid a a PR mastermind who knew how and when the generate publicity. While such a skill was beneficial when she was trying to build traction in Hollywood, it eventually ruined her chances at credibility. Such antics as her infamous "candid" photo session with Sophia Loren caused 20th Century-Fox to loose interest in her, and once her films like KISS THEM FOR ME (1957) bombed, the studio just shoved her aside. They burned off the remainder of her contract by sending her overseas to make cheap European comedies and melodramas, some of which were never released in America.

I've been on a Jayne Mansfield "kick" recently. I've watched a few documentaries, two which I've seen dozens of times before. One specifically (the "Loves and Kisses" one) I used to own on VHS. There was other, assumingly fan-made documentary I saw You-Know-Where that was full of horrible "facts" and inaccuracies.

Jayne Mansfield wasn't an original, but she has stood the test of time. She might not be the foremost movie star, but she earned her place in pop culture.

 

[ClassyCo]

Seems like Jayne's lost opportunity was to be a sitcom star,

I recently stumbled across a tidbit of trivia (but I forget where) that stated Jayne petitioned THE JAYNE MANSFIELD SHOW in 1965. It was apparently supposed to be a meta-leaning half-hour comedy where she'd play a fictionalized version of herself, exploited by the media, and lacking credibility in Hollywood.

I don't know how legitimate these claims are, but it's certain no such show existed. I'm unsure if this was a show Jayne herself was interested in doing, or if it was something her PR people conjured up to get her steadier employment as her film career had evaporated.

 

[ClassyCo]

 

[ClassyCo]

If you skim online biographies and articles, you will occasionally find a rather lengthy list of blonde-haired actresses throughout the 1950s that are generically tossed into the "Marilyn Monroe" mold. When one dives deeper into these ladies, however, you find that the majority of these women had vastly different on-screen images in comparison to Marilyn, and that they were hardly contenders to knock Marilyn off her throne as the era's ultimate blonde bombshell.

But then there's Jayne Mansfield.

As much as Mamie Van Doren and Sheree North find themselves inserted as the "first" alternatives to Marilyn, it was really Jayne Mansfield that was the strongest contender to "taking over from Monroe" -- even if Fox had North on the cover of LIFE magazine with that very headline in 1955. Mamie has spent decades (probably) overstating her importance during the 1950s as the "second" to Marilyn, when her own studio, Universal Pictures, only gave her supporting roles in movies led by other people. Even when she broke away from Universal in the late-'50s, her films like HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL (1958) and GIRLS TOWN (1959) only stood to solidify her image as something of a "drive-in answer to Marilyn" -- something Jayne allegedly dismissed her as in 1966 when they did LAS VEGAS HILLBILLYS together. Fox plucked Sheree North from Broadway in 1954, and she was slated to replace Marilyn in PINK TIGHTS and THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS, but the former was eventually shelved and Marilyn ended up doing the latter. This pushed Fox to put North on ice for a little while, before HOW TO BE VERY, VERY POPULAR (1955) came onto the scene. Marilyn refused to do it, Fox suspended her, and Sheree was brought in as her replacement. It was a moderate success, but Sheree sort of slid into something of a softer, girl-next-door alternative to Marilyn. She appeared in a few solid films over the next few years, such as THE LIEUTENANT WORE SKIRTS (1956) and NO DOWN PAYMENT (1957), before Fox dropped her in 1958. She later emerged as a relatively sought after character actress in the 1960s and 1970s.

But back to Jayne Mansfield.

She arrived in Hollywood in 1954, but found little success. Her contract with Warner Brothers was brief, but her breakthrough came in the Broadway comedy WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? in 1955. In her role as Rita Marlowe, she spoofed Marilyn, and as one biography noted, "It wasn't the movies, but it was the role that made her famous." She took on the persona of "Rita Marlowe" professionally, and she rode it all the way to the bank. Fox recruited her in early 1956, cranked up the publicity machine, and pushed her full throttle as a "king size" version of Marilyn. THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT (1956), her star debut on-screen, was a smash, and featured a string of rock-n-roll singers in cameos. The following year, she proved her dramatics in THE WAYWARD BUS (1957), and found success again in the screen version of ROCK HUNTER (1957). When Fox sent her on a worldwide tour in 1957, she was mobbed by fans as she handed out "autographed glossies" and gave "breathy thanks to the crush of fans". It seemed that Mansfield was well on her way to overtaking Marilyn and making good on Fox's "insurance policy" plan.

But Jayne's appetite for publicity and hunger for attention crippled her and ultimately sabotaged her career. Fox soon tired of her antics (such as the infamous candid photo session with Sophia Loren and routinely appearing in PLAYBOY) and they stopped viewing her as star material by 1958. Even as her career went into decline, however, the press continued to view Jayne as Marilyn's primary rival for the foremost blonde bombshell of the period. Of course, Jayne never succeeded in overtaking Monroe's status, not even after the latter passed suddenly in 1962. Jayne's attempts to change her image around 1964 were unsuccessful, and she fell into being a caricature of her former self.

Through it all, though, Jayne Mansfield was really the only serious contender to knocking Marilyn Monroe off her high-horse, even if she ultimately fell short of fulfilling the task.

 

[ClassyCo]

THE JAYNE MANSFIELD STORY (1980) is loaded with inaccuracies and buckets of hogwash, but Loni Anderson made a good Jayne. She was bubbly and giggly, and provides us with a good version of "Jayne" even if it's void of reality.

 

[DallasFanForever]

THE JAYNE MANSFIELD STORY (1980) is loaded with inaccuracies and buckets of hogwash, but Loni Anderson made a good Jayne. She was bubbly and giggly, and provides us with a good version of "Jayne" even if it's void of reality.

I’ve never seen this one to be honest. My first thought was feeling Loni wasn’t quite right for this but given it was made in 1980 I can kind of see her pulling this off at the time.

 

[Crimson]

I haven't seen it in ages, but I recall THE JAYNE MANSFIELD STORY as being entertaining. The first time I saw it, randomly on TV as a kid, I didn't even know Jayne was a real person. I thought it was a roman à clef about Marilyn with the details greatly changed. I thought the casting was pretty good, with both Loni and Arnold being good matches with Jayne and Mickey.

There was an abundance of TV-movies of the era about classic Hollywood movie actresses: Lynda Carter as Rita Hayworth, Ann Jillian as Mae West, Cheryl Ladd as Grace Kelly, and a few, I think, about Marilyn.

 

[ClassyCo]

I’ve never seen this one to be honest. My first thought was feeling Loni wasn’t quite right for this but given it was made in 1980 I can kind of see her pulling this off at the time.

I got the movie on a duo-DVD with WHITE HOT, the made-for-TV biopic about Thelma Todd, also starring Loni Anderson.

I think Loni is a good option to play Jayne. The tagline for the movie was: "The blonde bombshell of the '80s brings to life the blonde bombshell of the '50s."

Loni was big on WKRP at the time, and she was good at playing ditsy. Just like Jayne and Marilyn, she sometimes played dumb blondes, but was actually a intelligent and at least semi-talented actress.

I haven't seen it in ages, but I recall THE JAYNE MANSFIELD STORY as being entertaining.

"The Official Razzie Movie Guide" lists it as one of the 100 "Most Enjoyable Bad Movies" ever made.

The first time I saw it, randomly on TV as a kid, I didn't even know Jayne was a real person. I thought it was a roman à clef about Marilyn with the details greatly changed

I could see how one would draw that conclusion, especially as a kid. There was a TV movie called THE SEX SYMBOL in the mid-70s with Connie Stevens playing a thinly veiled version of "Marilyn".

I thought the casting was pretty good, with both Loni and Arnold being good matches with Jayne and Mickey.

Yes, they were both well-cast, but the script could've been better.

There was an abundance of TV-movies of the era about classic Hollywood movie actresses: Lynda Carter as Rita Hayworth, Ann Jillian as Mae West, Cheryl Ladd as Grace Kelly, and a few, I think, about Marilyn.

I've never seen any of these TV movies, but several are available for free on Tubi -- or they were at one time, at least.

And, yes, there were several about Marilyn about that time. Two come to mind: THIS YEAR'S BLONDE with Constance Forslund as a young Marilyn (the movie mainly focuses on her relationship with agent Johnny Hyde early in her career), and MARILYN: THE UNTOLD STORY, with Catherine Hicks as Marilyn. They both aired in 1980, if memory serves.