Now Jayne Mansfield, There’s a real 50’ies babe, if ever there was one. She looks like a woman should look, All the right bumps in all the right places, No skinny, tight, anorectic bag of bones, there, like most women you see now a days. A real woman, Jayne.
Like most of her blond bombshell contemporaries, Mamie van Doren, Diana Dors and all the rest, she had to live with being overshadowed by Monroe, the blond bombshell of all times. And when Marilyn died, she just about took the times of the blond bombshells with her to the grave.
But she knew how to get her part of the attention our Jayne. And she was one of the dishiest walking billboard around. In some of the earlier pictures of Mansfield you can catch a glimpse of the same raw uncertainty and the tender innocence that was Monroe’s trademark and in fact was her life. But Jayne soon grew out of that, and the decadent, voluptuous temptress became more her style. But you couldn’t help liking her anyway.
She was one of Hollywood’s most outrageous celebrities during the 50’ies and to gain attention she pulled the rawest stunts, she even “stranded” herself on a deserted island. Her extravagance and decadence made her larger than life, a blond stereotype starlet, a caricature. But all this was going to make her one of the biggest things around as the 50’ies rolled on.
Jayne was born Vera Jayne Palmer on April 19, 1933 in Pennsylvania and she is to day, more than 30 years after her death. one of the shining stars of the middle of the last century. Poor Jayne is to day where she always wanted to be, out of Monroe’s shadow.
Most of this fame is build on her relentless, shameless self promotion, she only had two really successful movies and one Broadway hit. Jayne loved Hollywood and every experience it had to offer. Few starlets climbing to the top of stardom embraced the effect that stardom brought as fiercely as Mansfield did. Most stars are complaining earnestly or in pretence the burden fame brings. Jayne never considered it a burden, she wallowed in it. She is one of the most remembered icons of the 50’ies to day. And our Jayne deserves it, lets give her that.
I have always had a deep respect for people without pretence, people who does not surrender to the numbness of conformity that most of us do.
Thanks for everything Jayne
There has never been many like you around.
Ted 🙂
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[…] Sometimes I miss the days before mobile phones. No aps or other mobile phone gear can beat a home phone like this. Since it is pink it wouldn’t surprise me if Jayne Mansfield had one which puts the heading for this post in the right perspective. But don’t get me wrong, I have a great respect for Jayne, I even posted a long tribute to her, you can read it here. […]