Jayne Mansfield (Dead Blondes Episode 9)

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More famous today for her gruesome car crash death than for any of the movies she made while alive, Jayne Mansfield was in some sense the most successful busty blonde hired by a studio as a Marilyn Monroe copy-cat. Mansfield’s satirical copy of Monroe’s act was so spot-on that it helped to hasten the end of the blonde bombshell, paradoxically endangering both actress’ careers. But she did manage to star in Hollywood’s first rock n’ roll movie, Hollywood’s first postmodern comedy, meet The Beatles, experiment with LSD, cheerfully align herself with Satanism for the photo op, and much more.

Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield, 1957

Jayne Mansfield in The Girl Can't Help It (1956)

Show notes:

Sources specific to this episode:

Jayne Mansfield and the American Fifties by Martha Saxton

The Tragic Secret Life of Jayne Mansfield by Raymond Strait

Affectionately, Jayne Mansfield by Richard Koper

“Night my friend John Lennon played a vile trick on Hollywood's sexiest woman: How Beatle urinated into Jayne Mansfield's cocktail and watched her drink it when he became tired of her during US tour” by Chris Hutchins, Daily Mail, May 2015

“Sophia Loren Finally Tells the Story Behind That Infamous Jayne Mansfield Photo” by Johanna Robinson, Vanity Fair, November 2014

“The Beatles Playboy Magazine Interview” by Jean Shepard, February 1965

“Jayne Mansfield's Head” New York Times Magazine, May 1997

“The Tragic Pattern of Sex Symbols” by Lloyd Shearer. Pageant, August 1967

Credits:

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Anton Lavey and Jayne Mansfield, 1966

MGM Stories Part Six: Jean Harlow

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As part of the publicity campaign for his film Hell's Angels, Howard Hughes made Jean Harlow a star, branding her “The Platinum Blonde.” But after Hell's Angels, Hughes couldn’t figure out what to do with Harlow, so she ended up signing a contract with MGM, at the urging of Paul Bern, who became Harlow’s new impresario and husband. Despite the fact that Louis B. Mayer had dismissed her as just a “floozy,” Harlow had five years of super stardom at MGM. But during that time, Bern died under mysterious circumstances — as did Harlow herself, in 1937, at the age of 26

Sources:

Eyman, Scott. Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer. Simon & Schuster, 2008 Kindle Edition.

Fleming, E.J. The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine McFarland & Co Inc, 2004. Kindle Edition.

Stenn, David. Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow Lightning Bug Press, 2000