celeb: Jayne Mansfield
occupation: Film Actress and Marilyn Monroe Wannabe
then
1960s
Jayne Mansfield started her career as a pretty brunette but her film career began only after she imitated Marilyn Monroe, dying her hair platinum and speaking in a breathy voice. Amazing what a little hair dye can do. In 1955, Jayne was signed by Warner Brothers as it’s answer to 20th Century Fox’s Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn made Fox millions and Warner hoped Jayne would do the same (see my blog Marilyn Monroe ) In 1955, Jayne starred as Gladden in The Burglar. Jayne played one of her finest roles however the film was a flop.
She made one more movie with Warner in Illegal (must have been referring to her measurements…Sophia Loren seems to think so) but it was another flop and Warner dropped her on her curvy bottom. Ouch. In 1956, Jayne signed a six-year contract with 20th Century Fox who molded Jayne as a Marilyn Monroe second to threaten their star when she got out of line. The studio touted Jayne as “Marilyn Monroe King Sized”. Ouch. Not my idea of a compliment.
video: Jayne Mansfield in Cannes
video: Jayne Mansfield in Vegas 1958
video: Marilyn Monroe vs Jayne Mansfield
Fox soon realized that Jayne was no Marilyn. Jayne starred in The Wayward Bus in 1957. It was no coincidence that around this time Marilyn starred in Bus Stop. Whatever Marilyn did, Jayne mirrored it. Marilyn had the last laugh when Bus Stop made them millions and The Wayward Bus was only a mediocre success. So there. If possible Jayne was made into a bigger joke than Marilyn (you’ll see why when you watch her videos). The media wrote scathing comments such as, “we are amused when Miss Mansfield strains to pull in her stomach to fill out her bikini better.” By the late 1950s, Jayne received more negative publicity from exposing her breasts in staged “accidents” (we call them wardrobe malfunctions nowadays), a trick she copied from, who else, Marilyn.
video: Never Before Seen Jayne Mansfield
video: Jayne Mansfield in song and dance clip **warning: painful**
video: Mae West Sues Jayne Mansfield: calls Marilyn Monroe an impersonator
Jayne’s next flop was Kiss Them for Me (1957). The movie was described as “vapid” and “ill-advised”. Ouch. It was the last attempt Fox made to promote its unsuccessful Marilyn wannabe. That’s when Jayne’s career took a serious nosedive. Sucks to be you Jayne. She was demoted to low-budget films until Fox tried to cast her in a comedy, Rally ‘Round the Flag, Boy!, but the part went to Joan Collins. Ouch again. In a vain attempt to revitalize her career Jayne appeared nude in a mainstream film. In 1963, Playboy displayed the pictures, which closely resembled the style and background of Marilyn’s photographs taken by Bert Stein in 1962. That same year Playboy published Marilyn’s nude photos posthumously and the edition sold far more copies than Jayne’s. Jayne would never escape the spectre of Marilyn Monroe.
video: Jayne Mansfield What’s My Line (probably “I wanna be Marilyn Monroe”)
video: Jayne Mansfield That Makes It!
video: CBC Archives: Jayne Mansfield on Tabloid 1957
By 1964 Jayne’s film was in the toilet. In her last film Single Room Furnished, Jayne gave up the Marilyn thing and appeared without make up and wore a black wig. The film wasn’t released until after her death in a car accident. Due to graphic photographs depicting the roof of the car pinned beneath a truck and clearly visible mangled blonde hair, the rumour circulated that Jayne was decapitated although this was later confirmed to be false. The hair was a wig Jayne wore at the time of death. The death certificate stated the immediate cause of Mansfield’s death was a “crushed skull with avulsion of cranium and brain.” Gory, yes, but not severed. Jayne, like Marilyn (of course) died in her 30s at the age of 34.
video: Jayne Mansfield: It Happened in Athens
video: Loni Anderson The Jayne Mansfield Story
Wow a bit harsh. Jayne Mansfield was always in my opinion way more interesting than Marilyn Monroe. Monroe was looked at as a snake who used sex to get ahead, Jayne just had sex cause she had to have it. I recall comedians at the time referring to Monroe as the Hollywood Spermbank… But don’t let those crazy Monroe fans hear that… They try and discredit Monroe for the true user she was. Jayne was by far smarter than Monroe, and was everything Marilyn was only more. She was prettier, blonder had bigger breasts and other than her hair color it was all her. Unlike Monroe who had her nose done to get that stunning face. But most of all Jayne was fun. Marilyn was boring, painfully serious and demanded she be taken seriously for what little talent she had.
Jayne’s career failing at Fox wasn’t her own doing she was used by them. Plus she could of done more films only she was pregnant constantly. Something the studios did then was frowned upon women who wanted families and married. When the studios preferred them childless and to be seen around town with local contract players. Jayne always defied them and had five kids and still manged to hold down a career. Keep in mind though her film career had taken a decline she was never starving. She got paid well for Vegas and nightclub gigs. She died very wealthy with 2 mil in the bank unlike Monroe who died near broke(only 50 grand ouch!) due to doctor bills and whoever else was leeching off from her.
Jayne’s last film was Guild for the Married Man(1967), Single Room Furnished(1964 three years before her death) was never completed. Though since we are comparing. If you compare their looks you would see Jayne was in the same shape she was when she filmed The Girl Can’t Help It, where in Marilyn’s Misfits she was fat and grotesque.
Other than their hair color each had nothing in common. Marilyn had that weak, vulnerable, fragile little girl lost kind of image(Which I still can’t figure out why that’s appealing.). Where as Jayne was a campy creation of her own doing it was tougher, and more of a put on(sort of like a female female impersonator). Jayne made a blueprint and made her career happen using her brains(167 IQ, and played violin at a concert level, Monroe couldn’t even play a ukulele), in essence it’s a feminist victory.
could not agree more
Mr Wirth,
You start out saying “Wow, a bit harsh”, then dovetail into one of the nastiest diatribes I have ever read. I doubt anyone has to take any of this seriously, MM is the STAR and Jayne is the pathetic wannabe, period, end of story. Jayne was a living cartoon. Marilyn had more talent in her little finger than Jayne had in her whole headless body!
You know I generally like Jayne, otherwise I wouldn’t have landed on this site, but with bitter fans like this, ugh, I just want to look at more MM sites.
Both ladies are beautiful sexy blonde but Jayne got education. And it’s hard to tell that Jayne had 5 kids. So impressive. There was only one Marilyn and only one Jayne in whole word so obiously we can’t copy each other. Even we did we never going to be that person.
Nasty people. MM and Jayne both got used. No need to trash either one. “Comparisons are odious . . .” Both impressive.
I agree with James Wirth, only maybe with a lighter touch. Jayne LOVED LIFE, and was not seen as fragile or misunderstood (read: miserable). She’s not going to cry before you kiss her, she’s going to laugh and kiss you. She’s the opposite of a candle in the wind, she’s that steady flame that life is drawn towards. Although she has been seen as a MM wannabe, I think it’s a little over simplified. There are plenty of blonde-bombshells. Jayne capitalized on what was hers, which was zest, zeal and sex appeal. What mother of 5 (biological) children can you name that did as much?
People shouldn’t make nasty comparisons between them! They were both extremely beautiful and talented women, each in their own unique way. Just because you are a fan of one, more so than the other, doesn’t mean you have deride the other one! Yes James Wirth, I’m speaking to you!
Was surprised to notice that Jayne looked and spoke exactly like Marilyn in the film ‘Kiss Them For Me’. Shame that Jayne had to lose herself…but if she was content to earn a great income by mimicking Monroe then hats off to her.
As a fan of both women, I find this “one vs. one” commentary extremely sad. Being blonde, smart, sexy, and talented was nothing new by the the time either of these women became stars. I’m sure Lana Turner saw them both as upstarts and wannabes.
Simply put, enjoy the impact the true stars made on our collective consciousness. These types of “stars” are a thing of the past.
Wow, two men trying to belittle two powerful women by pitting them against each other. So typical.
BOTH STUNNING, AND I RECENTLY WATCHED JAYNE IN A HITCHCOCK THRILLER,SHE WAS SO GOOD,AT THIS STRAIGHT PART,GIVE HER CREDIT WHEN DUE.BOTH LADIES WHERE STARS.XXXXSUSAN.
jayne Mansfield was not prettier than Monroe Nor did she have a better body, She was simply taller and bigger in every sense of the word, I can’t even believe the comments posted here, She was clearly Jealous of Monroe who was really the money maker at the time in the Studios, There hasnt been a woman as beautiful as Monroe in film nor will there be a logical comparison to Jayne Mansfield who was not pretty at all and needed imitatw Marilyn to make a buck,