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Mansfield was quotable and colorful. Her name, face, and figure became daily phenomena in newspapers and magazines. It has been said with authority that she achieved more notoriety in her year on Broadway than most actresses do in a lifetime. Yet Jayne remained, within the film industry, little more than a “starlet,” her bids for movie stardom having already been rejected at Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers, and in effect, Columbia Pictures. On October 27, ’55, Earl Wilson had reported, “Jayne Mansfield confers with top man Dore Schary today about an MGM contract.” That was the last anyone read of Jayne Mansfield and MGM (until a decade later when she would finally make it beyond the gates of that studio for a cameo-bit in THE LOVED ONE. Her scene was destined to be cut prior to THE LOVED ONE’s release: she was never to he seen on-screen publicly in an MGM picture).

While Marilyn Monroe was Topic A throughout the media for wanting to extricate herself from her existing contract with 20th Century-Fox. Jayne zeroed in on what would once have been an unimaginable target – to he the blonde successor to MM at Monroe’s own home studio! Marilyn’s self-imposed exile from Fox was causing the studio financial headaches: they had been in litigation for almost a year in hope of retrieving their Number One Star. In Mansfield Fox suddenly saw the possibility of creating a SUPER-MONROE, so they gave Jayne a screen test. She tested in a scene from John Steinbeck’s THE WAYWARD BUS. It was filmed in early ’56, at Fox’s New York City headquarters on West 54th street. As a frequent companion of Jayne’s at the time [author Jim Haspiel] I found myself in the unusual position of being asked by her for assistance with the challenge presenting itself. Jayne was slated to sing “Put the Blame on Mame” in the test, which she realized had been done with memorable effect by Rita Hayworth (dubbed) in GILDA, so we searched for days in vain to locate a local movie house revival of the movie she desperately wanted to study. On the eve of committing the test to film Jayne handed me the script and asked me to rehearse it with her. I was not impressed by her histrionic ability. In fact, at a point in the test script where she recited the line, “You men are all alike – you take one look at a girl and your buttons go pop-pop-pop!” her emphasis on the words “poppop-pop!” caused me to break up. With great embarrassment I passed the script to someone else present and excused myself. It can be assumed that Jayne fared better with professional direction the next day when she was tutored for the actual filming of the test by George Axelrod.

To obtain Jayne’s release from her run-of-the-play contract Fox purchased the screen rights to WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? She left the cast on September 15, ’56, after 452 performances: her endless pursuit of publicity was acknowledged as having been largely responsible for the play’s long run. (I [author Haspiel] asked Marilyn her opinion of Jayne’s forthcoming trip to Hollywood – and 20th Century-Fox, Marilyn’s soft-spoken reply: “I just wish she’d realize that there is room for everyone.”) On the morning of Jayne’s return to Hollywood and a seven-year contract – September 16th – the words of her astrologer were ringing in her ears: “You are destined to outshine Marilyn Monroe. Gina Lollobrigida, and Sophia Loren. You are entering your period of utmost greatness – from June 9th, ’56 to June 11th, ’62.” (Ironically. on July 3, ’62. 20th Century-Fox announced they were not picking up their option for Jayne Mansfield’s services.)

If there hadn’t been a Marilyn Monroe there might never have been a Jayne Mansfield. Hollywood’s Sidney Skolsky explained the phenomenon in his first column on Fox’s new blonde: “Jayne Mansfield is getting the star treatment. There’s no doubt that when Jayne acts, walks and talks, you are reminded of Marilyn Monroe, regardless of the fact that Jayne gets your full attention. Jayne has become Marilyn Monroe, king size.”

In all, she was to make twenty-seven films before her life ended tragically in an automobile accident on June 29, ’67. Thrice wed, the mother of five children, she was then thirty-four. Four years before her death, her career in steep decline, Jayne posed a pitiful question: “Once you were a starlet. Then you’re a star. Can you he a starlet again?” A year later we sat through a summer theater production of BUS STOP – starring Jayne Mansfield in one of Monroe’s best-remembered roles. Jayne considered 13 her lucky number: a head count showed that was the number of people in the audience that night.

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