Jayne Mansfield: The Queen Mother of Self Promotion

The girl was not shy!

Some celebrities get where they are because of talent, looks or personality.  Jayne Mansfield did because of her breasts.  Although she made an effort to be good at acting, she eventually became more of an icon than an actress.

She started in films in the mid 1950s working at Warner Bros.  She appeared in forgettable films, some dramatic.  In 1955 she went to Broadway and starred in the hit, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?.  She returned to Hollywood and starred in The Girl Can't Help It (1956). This was Mansfield's first starring role.  Her voluptuous figure defined her character.

That same year, Mansfield signed a contract with 20th Century Fox.  Marilyn Monroe was making them tons of money, so another voluptuous blonde seemed like a sure thing.  They publicized her greatly and put her in several films.  1957 was her year.

She played a dramatic role in The Wayward Bus.   It is her most critically acclaimed role. It won her a Golden Globe for New Female Star Of The Year.  Mansfield starred in the film version of Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, with Tony Randall and Joan Blondell.   She also starred in Kiss Them for Me (1957) with the immortal Cary Grant.  It unfortunately bombed.  At 24 years of age she was now a has been.

She continued to act in small budget films and in Europe.  To keep her name in the papers she relied on her best assets, her breasts.  She would show up to parties as scandalously dressed as she could, such as showing up to a costume party dressed as Jane with Husband Mickey Hargitay dressed as Tarzan. 

The media often compared her to Monroe and she once responded,  "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."

Other movie stars shared their opinion of her talents.  At the 1958 Oscars, she was a presenter with Mickey Rooney. His eye level was exactly the same as her breasts. He adlibbed one of the best lines ever from any Oscar show, "So who wants to be tall?"  Bette Davis once commented, "Dramatic art in her opinion is knowing how to fill a sweater."

Even Sophia Loren was impressed with Jayne Mansfield's talents.

She appeared in print nearly topless or with her breasts "accidentally" exposed.  The most famous being when she sat at a table with Sophia Loren wearing a dress that threatened to expose them entirely.  Loren's reaction is priceless.  Not satisfied with that, she went a step further.

In 1963, Jayne Mansfield was the first mainstream American actress to do a nude scene in the film Promises! Promises!.  Pictures taken on the set were published in Playboy. The issue sold out and Hugh Hefner was sued with an obscenity charge because one of the pictures features a hair stylist touching one of her breast.  The suit was later dropped, but the publicity caused the film to be a financial success.

Like so many stars of the 50's, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, and Elvis Presley, Mansfield never saw old age.  She died in a car crash in 1967.  Also in the car were three of her five children, including actress Mariska Hargitay.  All three children survived.

You could say Jayne Mansfield was a combination of Mae West and Marilyn Monroe.  Like Monroe she had an effect on men's sexual fantasies.  Like West, she was brash about using her sexuality to get her places.   She knew what got people's attention, so she milked her breasts for all they were worth.