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WB next announced that Jayne would be appearing in their upcoming production, SINCERELY YOURS, but before filming commenced, Jayne’s status at the studio underwent a drastic change. Mansfield spent day after day of the early summer of ’55 posing in the studio’s pin-up gallery, her main function reduced to a voiceless cheesecake subject. Oblivion was staring her in the face. In July she opted for a studio loan-out position to play a substantial role in THE BURGLAR, an independent production subsequently released by Columbia Pictures. While filming on location in Philadelphia Jayne was informed that WB had terminated her contract. “It was the most terrible moment of my life. Everything turned gray and empty.”

When filming on THE BURGLAR was completed Jayne went to New York and auditioned for a role in an upcoming Broadway stage comedy, WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? The play’s pivotal character was Rita Marlowe, a platinum blonde movie sex symbol: a thinly disguised surface burlesque of – who else? – Marilyn Monroe. Among those considered for the lead were Mamie Van Doren, Sheree North, and Marilyn Maxwell, but Jayne got the part disclosing: “From the first day of rehearsal I became Rita Marlowe. She is brassy and extroverted, refreshing and direct, and not entirely oblivious of her bombshell of a body. The role gives me a chance to act on stage the way I would like to behave off-stage.” Theater critics were unanimous in their praise of Broadway’s new blonde. Walter Winchell said. “Jayne Mansfield is as beautiful as Marilyn Monroe in every department, and effortlessly delivers the most devastating impression in years.”

On December 12, ’55, the ballroom of NY’s Astor Hotel was jammed as the cream of show business enjoyed supper following a screening of THE ROSE TATTOO, a benefit for the famed Actors Studio. Seated at the main table was the Studio’s head, teacher Lee Strasberg, and his illustrious pupil, Marilyn Monroe. Strasberg and Monroe were in conversation when interrupted by a series of popping flashbulbs and an eager photographer shouting. “Move a little closer to Marilyn and turn your face to the cameras!” Monroe pivoted and suddenly found herself face to face with Broadway’s MM caricature who was staring intently at the subject of her personalized travesty. There was no formal introduction. As the confusion of the moment passed, Monroe and Strasberg resumed their discussion, while from across the room Jayne Mansfield continued to gaze admiringly. Her public image as a synthetic Monroe was to dominate the rest of Mansfield’s professional life.

The news of Jayne’s existence spread nationwide when on two occasions she graced the cover of “Life”. On the November 21, ’55 cover she had posed with four other “Shining Young Broadway Stars.” Her solo “Life” cover, April 23, ’55, four days after her twenty-third birthday, was captioned, “Broadway’s Smartest Dumb Blonde.” Jayne guest-starred on literally every New York TV program of the period and became, briefly, a panelist on a weekly quiz show called “Down You Go.” Her impact was confirmed by her appearance on Edward R. Murrow’s nationally televised “Person-To-Person”, May 4 ’56. She also found time to headline two NBC 90-minute specials. Her part in The Bachelor, a musical comedy televised in prime time on July 18, ’56, was described the next day by N.Y. “Herald Tribune” TV critic Marie Torre as “a squealing Marilyn Monroe in search of culture.” On a “Sunday Night Spectacular: Atlantic City Holiday,” televised less than four weeks later on August 12th, Jayne was again caught with her guard down and her imitation up as she appeared in a bubble bath reading, of all things, a paperback copy of The Brothers Karamazov. At this time the media were buzzing about Marilyn’s expressed wish to act in a cinema version of that Dostoyevsky novel. “Variety’s” review of the special reported: “Jayne Mansfield… held up her end as well as the others, even taking a go at a song with breathless intonation which must have conjured up to many a certain other charmer.” Jayne’s breathlessly intoned song just happened to be “Heat Wave” a number warbled by MM the previous year in Fox’s THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS.

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