Jayne Mansfield

Jayne Mansfield (born Vera Jayne Palmer; April 19, 1933 – June 29, 1967) was an American actress, ''Playboy'' Playmate, and sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s. She was known for her numerous publicity stunts and open personal life. Her film career was short-lived, but she had several box-office successes and won a Theatre World Award and Golden Globe Award. She gained the nickname of Hollywood's "smartest dumb blonde".

Mansfield gained popularity after playing the role of fictional actress Rita Marlowe in '' Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?'' on Broadway in 1955–56 and reprising it in the 1957 film adaptation. Her other film roles include the musical comedy ''The Girl Can't Help It'' (1956), the drama '' The Wayward Bus'' (1957), the neo-noir '' Too Hot to Handle'' (1960), and the sex comedy '' Promises! Promises!'' (1963), the last of which made Mansfield one of the first major American actresses to perform a nude scene in a post-silent era film.

Mansfield's professional name came from her first husband, public relations professional Paul Mansfield. She married and divorced three times (the third not finalized at the time of her death) and had five children. On June 29, 1967, she died in a traffic collision at age 34.

Early life

Jayne Mansfield was born Vera Jayne Palmer on April 19, 1933, at Bryn Mawr Hospital in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, the only child of Herbert William Palmer and Vera Jeffrey (née Palmer) Palmer. She inherited more than $90,000 ($ in dollars) from her maternal grandfather, Thomas, and more than $36,000 ($ in dollars) from her maternal grandmother, Beatrice Mary Palmer, in 1958.

Until age six, Mansfield lived in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, where her father was an attorney practicing with future New Jersey governor Robert B. Meyner. In 1936, her father died of a heart attack. In 1939, Mansfield's mother married sales engineer Harry Lawrence Peers and the family moved to Dallas, Texas, where she was known as Vera Jayne Peers. As a child, she wanted to be a Hollywood star like Shirley Temple. At age 12, she took ballroom dance lessons. She graduated from Highland Park High School in 1950. While in high school, she took violin, piano, and viola lessons. She also studied Spanish and German. She received grades in the high Bs in all subjects consistently.

At age 17, she married Paul Mansfield on May 6, 1950. Their daughter, Jayne Marie Mansfield, was born on November 8, 1950. Jayne and her husband enrolled in Southern Methodist University to study acting. In 1951, Jayne moved to Los Angeles and attended a summer semester at UCLA. She entered the Miss California contest, but Paul forced her to withdraw. She and Paul then moved to Austin, Texas, where she studied dramatics at the University of Texas at Austin. There, Mansfield worked as a nude art model, sold books door-to-door, and worked as a receptionist at a dance studio. She also joined the Curtain Club, a campus theatrical society that included lyricist Tom Jones, composer Harvey Schmidt, and actors Rip Torn and Pat Hingle. Mansfield then spent a year at Camp Gordon, Georgia, while Paul served in the United States Army Reserve during the Korean War.

In 1953, she moved back to Dallas and studied acting for several months under Baruch Lumet, the father of director Sidney Lumet and founder of the Dallas Institute of Performing Arts. Lumet gave Mansfield private lessons and called Mansfield and Rip Torn his "kids". He helped Mansfield get her first screen test at Paramount in April 1954. Paul, Jayne, and Jayne Marie moved to Los Angeles in 1954. Jayne worked various odd jobs, including selling popcorn at the Stanley Warner Theatre, teaching dance, selling candy at a movie theater, modeling part-time at the Blue Book Model Agency, and working as a photographer at Esther Williams's Trails Restaurant.

Career

''Playboy''

While attending the University of Texas at Austin, Mansfield won several beauty contests, including Miss Photoflash, Miss Magnesium Lamp, and Miss Fire Prevention Week. By her own account, the only title she refused was Miss Roquefort Cheese, because she believed it "just didn't sound right". Mansfield rejected "Miss Prime Rib" in 1957 as well. In 1952, while in Dallas, she and Paul Mansfield participated in small local-theater productions of ''The Slaves of Demon Rum'' and ''Ten Nights in a Barroom'', and '' Anything Goes'' in Camp Gordon, Georgia. After he left for military service, she made her first significant stage appearance in a production of Arthur Miller's ''Death of a Salesman'' on October 22, 1953, with the players of the Knox Street Theater, headed by Lumet. While at UCLA, she entered the Miss California contest (hiding her marital status), and won the local round before withdrawing.

Early in her career, some advertisers considered her prominent breasts undesirable, which led to her losing her first professional assignment, a General Electric commercial that depicted young women in bathing suits relaxing around a pool. Emmeline Snively, head of the Blue Book Model Agency, had sent her to photographer Gene Lester, which led to her short-lived assignment in the commercial. In 1954, she auditioned at both Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. At Paramount, Mansfield performed a sketch she had worked out with Lumet from ''Joan of Arc'' for casting director Milton Lewis. Lewis told her she was wasting her "obvious talents" and had her come back a week later to perform the piano scene from ''The Seven Year Itch''. Mansfield failed to impress but learned she would have to go blonde. She then performed the piano scene for Warner Brothers, but, again, failed to impress. She landed her first acting assignment in the CBS series ''Lux Video Theatre'', in the episode "An Angel Went AWOL", aired on October 21, 1954. In it, she sat at a piano and delivered a few lines of dialogue for $300 ($ in dollars).

In December 1953, Hugh Hefner began publishing ''Playboy''. The magazine became a success in part because of early appearances by Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, Bettie Page