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The FIR Vault

JAYNE MANSFIELD’S STARLET DAYS

By • Aug 1st, 2012 • Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

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At Warners in '55 JM displays her assets and a starlet is born

1954’s newly blonde Jayne next garnered a screen test at Warner Brothers. She filmed the “piano bit” scene she had tried at Paramount earlier. (Ironically, this time, on a soundstage not far away, the same scene was being recorded for cinema history by Marilyn Monroe for the 20th Century-Fox production of THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH.) “I thought I had a contract when they gave me the screen test,” Jayne said, “Days passed into weeks… Warners didn’t call me back.”

In early ’55, her newly acquired agent promoted a pair of plane tickets to the premiere activities for Howard Hughes’ movie UNDERWATER, in Florida. With her spectacular figure encased in a skin-tight swimsuit, Ms. Mansfield’s flamboyant personality created a sensation among the reporters and photographers, despite the fact that she wasn’t in the film they were covering. The junket received front-page notice in “Variety.” January 12, ’55. Although the trade paper omitted the ‘y’ from the spelling of her name, Jayne’s presence at the festivities was not overlooked: “There was an added attraction for the photogs in an unknown named Jane Mansfield. How she got included in the party from Hollywood is unknown at the moment. But she proved to be worth her weight in cheesecake.” It added, “Miss Mansfield is a road company Marilyn Monroe.” Jayne was also very prominent that February in the centerfold of the relatively new “Playboy” magazine. Warners took another look and in January, ’55 they signed Jayne to a six-month beginner’s contract.

On set of ILLEGAL

Her first movie assignment under the WB contract was ILLEGAL, which began filming on February 14th. She played the kept girl. The critic for the New York “Times” (October 29, ’55) wrote: “ILLEGAL tries to blueprint THE ASPHALT JUNGLE’s Marilyn Monroe. Jayne Mansfield plays precisely the same role.” “Variety” delivered the definitive review of this performance: “Jayne Mansfield battles gamely with what looks like an impersonation of an imitation of Marilyn Monroe.” Jayne’s studio chair on the set of ILLEGAL read, not MANSFIELD, but 40-21-351/2.

CASABLANCA publicity still

Her second WB film, which went before the cameras on March 28, ’55, beat ILLEGAL to theatrical release. Although Jayne would become closely identified with blondeness, she made her public WB cinema debut as a redhead in Pete Kelly’s Blues. It was said that producer-director Jack Webb hired Mansfield to play the part of a cigarette girl after she had appeared in a walk-on on his filmed tv show “Dragnet.” By May 10th, she was blonde again and cast in HELL ON FRISCO BAY: her unbilled part consisted of a scene, with dialogue, in a cocktail lounge. Jayne was beginning to realize that she was spending more time in the WB portrait gallery than in front of their motion picture cameras. A brief romance with director Nicholas Ray brought Jayne on to the set of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, resulting in several WB publicity items announcing that she would be seen in the James Dean film – but while Ray might find a place for her in his personal life, he was not so inclined when it came to his film. Jayne bounced back: a costume portrait of this period, one that cannot be matched to any of her theatrical film roles, advises us that “Jayne Mansfield can be seen in the “Warner Brothers Presents” T.V. Series CASABLANCA for ABC-TV.” CASABLANCA was a filmed series consisting of ten one-hour episodes, and began its run on network television September 10, ’55. While Mansfield’s name does not appear in any of the cast credits for these shows, the costume portrait-still suggests she most probably did appear on one of the programs.

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