The Girl Can’t Help It Part 2

The Girl Can’t Help It:
Jayne Mansfield Retrospective

Part 2 (1964-1967)
Written By: Rudy Hatfield
Mondo Film & Video Guide Feature Contributor

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The year was 1963 and the times were much more conservative than they are now, but Jayne did not seem to care. She was out to make film history. Jayne became the first big major star to do a nude scene in a major Hollywood production. She also was one of the first big stars to bare it all for Playboy magazine. The article entitled “The Nudest Jayne Mansfield” corresponded with the production of the film Promises Promises (1963) in which Jayne did the first nude scene in a major Hollywood film. Both drew much attention. The saddest thing about this film is that Jayne’s performance is actually really good, but the nude scenes are all that are ever discussed (and of course they do deserve attention, but Jayne’s performance was solid as well).

By today’s standards the exposed Jayne seems playful and harmless, but in 1963 the film caused quite a scandal being banned in several states and Hugh Heffner being arrested in Chicago on obscenity charges. Playboy magazine shot their layout behind the scenes of the movie and Jayne agreed to do the pictorial without compensation, another bad move on her part. The issue went on to become the biggest seller for Playboy magazine up to that point in the magazine’s history. Jayne’s decision to do the film only seriously hurt her goals of being taken as a serious actress. There were also rumors that Jayne was having an affair with the producer and writer Tommy Noonan. And yet even with all this publicity Promises Promises was nowhere near the box office hit that Jayne had hoped for. By the middle of 1963 she returned to focus on the nightclub circuit.

There are also rumors that Jayne had an affair with John F. Kennedy and while some biographers have tried to downplay this affair, based on the description of a White House visit that Jayne and daughter Jayne-Marie had where little Jayne-Marie was left with staff while the president and Jayne went off alone for a time, one has to wonder. In any event, Jayne’s life continued its downward spiral in 1963. It was clear that she was becoming very insecure of herself and uncertain of her future. First, Jayne kicked Mickey out of the house and had a much publicized affair with married singer Nelson Sardelli, whom she met at the Gus Stevens Supper Club in Biloxi Mississippi where both were performing (this was also the club where she gave her last public performance). She initially filed for divorce in California but decided that she could not wait and instead got a Mexican divorce so she could marry Sardelli. The couple was photographed together at the Pink Palace and Jayne publically announced her divorce from Mickey and her love for Sardelli. At this point the press was having a field day and the film studios simply shook their heads. She also filmed two poor quality movies in Germany at this time, Dog Eat Dog (1963) and Homesick for St. Paul (1963). The quality of her film work had taken a noticeable decline from her earlier efforts.

Then Sardelli and Jayne suddenly split and Jayne went back to Mickey. They held a press conference and stated their love for one another. But they had no remarriage plans as they stated that the Mexican divorce Jayne had filed was not valid in the United States. Jayne then got pregnant again and on January 23, 1964 gave birth to Mariska Magdolna Hargitay (for readers who do not know, yes this is the same Mariska Hargitay who currently stars on the popular television series Law & Order SVU). While biographers report that Jayne remained sober when she was with child, she was still drinking heavy after her children were born and when intoxicated she would continue to become totally out of control.

Jayne could always rely on her nightclub routines and her nightclub act was a combination of show tunes, stand-up comedy, and usually ended with a with a striptease routine. She continued to tour the nightclub scene and was well-received, but a nightclub performer she had never desired to be. Jayne also made frequent television appearances in lieu of staying active in film. For example, she appeared on shows Follow the Sun, two Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes, was on the Jack Parr show (who famously announced “Here they are- Jayne Mansfield”), and appeared on the television programs of Red Skelton and Jack Benny. And in 1964 she did a guest appearance on an episode of Burke’s Law that was well-received.

Despite her decline in film Jayne still had her share of popularity. When the Beatles came to America and were asked which American celebrity they would most like to meet, believe it or not they named Jayne. Jayne hooked up with them at the Whiskey A-Go-Go on Sunset Strip. When she first met John, and saw his long hairdo and she asked if it were real. John joked, “Are those real?” referring to Jayne’s bosoms. “There’s one way to find out” Jayne replied.

As movie offers were now slim Jayne also took over the lead roles of theater productions of films made famous by the late Marilyn Monroe such as Bus Stop. The Bus Stop production had Jayne playing the Monroe character and Mickey playing the bus driver. The director of the play was the up and coming Matt Cimber.

During the production Jayne started hanging out with Cimber and drinking until late in the evening while Mickey remained in a hotel room with the children. Then Cimber, Jayne, Mickey and the kids flew to Europe where Jayne shot two films: Primitive Love (1964) and The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield which was not released until 1968. When watching these films now one can see that while Jayne was still attractive, the drinking and weight gain/loss cycles had begun to take their toll on her body. When they returned home Mickey and Jayne split again and Jayne did the theater production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She also did some other television work through Cimber’s influence and she believed that he would get her back on the “A” movie list. Interestingly, Jayne turned down a perfect role for her that might have been the stabilizing point in her life, the role of Ginger on the television series Gilligan’s Island. Jayne and Cimber were married in Mexico on September 24, 1964 with Jayne now citing that the Mexican divorce she had gotten earlier from Mickey was valid. Jayne, Cimber, and her children moved to New York. Over the next three years Jayne’s life was to go from hectic to frantic.

While she was with Cimber Jayne did a some good film work such as Single Room Furnished which was not released until after her death in (1968), but she also did some really terrible films such as the forgettable Las Vegas Hillbillys (1966) and The Fat Spy (1966) which was shot while Jayne was visibly pregnant with her last child. Jayne gave birth to her fifth child, Anthony Richard Cimber (a.k.a. Antonio Raphael Ottaviano) on October 17, 1965. Mickey still tried to hang around and there was a famous photograph of him and Cimber trading blows posted all over the country that may have been real or staged. Cimber also was able to get Jayne some television exposure and some theater work, but Jayne’s nightclub routines remained her most positive performances.

Jane actually had a fair singing voice and did a lot of singing in her nightclub acts. She also did some songs in English and German in several films. Also, in attempt to get accepted as a serious artist, Jayne released Jayne Mansfield: Shakespeare, Tchaikovsky & Me, an album on which she recited sonnets by William Shakespeare and classic poems to a backdrop of the music of Tchaikovsky. The album was not well-received and the cover of the album had Jayne scantily dressed in an effort to entice male buyers even though she had done the album to break free of her image. She also recorded a 45-single on which she sang and Jimmy Hendrix played guitar in 1965. None of these efforts were as successful as her nightclub acts, some of which have been recorded. As stated earlier her singing in The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw was dubbed by Connie Francis.

Jayne’s relationship with Cimber went downhill very quickly. First Jayne was drinking heavily and taking pills for weight control which helped make her quite emotionally unstable and secondly Cimber was not able to get her back into the mainstream movie star list. They began fighting frequently and while on the Mike Douglas Show Jayne surprised everyone with the announcement of their separation. Cimber still controlled her professional career however.

Jayne toured South America in 1966 for two months during the summer but wound up in scandal and could not return home as she refused to pay the typical exit charges for the money she earned while on tour there. She finally resolved the issue she came home with a “bodyguard”, the 18 year-old Douglas Olivares. She did a stint in Vegas and took Olivares with her, but when he started spending too much time with her oldest daughter Jayne-Marie, she sent him back to South America. Cimber was still handling her affairs and the two were still constantly arguing over the phone.

Jayne returned to the Pink Palace and decided to formally end her relationship with Cimber. She contacted attorney Sam Brody through the Melvin Belli law firm. The Belli firm was quite prominent and had represented Jimmy Hoffa and Jack Ruby. Brody helped her sort out her financial difficulties and of course in Jayne’s eyes that was good enough for her to start an affair with him. Brody was married and had two children, but even worse was the fact that his wife was disabled and wheelchair bound with Multiple Sclerosis. He spent a great deal of time at the Pink Palace handling Jayne’s divorce and affairs (and handling Jayne as well). Brody’s wife was amazingly tolerant of the affair but finally kicked him out when she learned that he had spent the family savings on a 20 karat diamond bracelet for Jayne. Jayne was named the mistress in the divorce case which was more bad publicity for her.

Jayne’s relationship with Brody was her most unstable relationship to date. Brody and Jayne had a major personality clash that resulted in constant fighting for control both privately and publically. The couple began to get a bad reputation around the LA area. Nonetheless, Brody won a custody proceeding from Cimber and Jayne got custody of young Tony, which probably helped in keeping them together. During their short and abusive relationship there were several scandals. While Jayne did a publicity shoot for the “Jungleland” zoo her son Zoltan crawled away unsupervised and got into a lion enclosure eventually getting badly mauled by a lion. Jayne called Mickey in Europe and he came to her aide (he was always there for her). Fortunately the press was amazingly kind to Jayne during this incident and did not overplay the unfit mother image that they could have easily invoked.

But then her daughter, Jayne-Marie, ran away from home and asked the LA police for protection against Jayne and Brody. She claimed to have been abused and beaten with a belt by Brody. This resulted in a well publicized trial which caused Jayne’s fans and others to become concerned over her out of control lifestyle. Jayne also became involved with Anton Szandor LeVay, the self-proclaimed head of the Church of Satan. Jayne had shot some photos with LeVay as another cheap publicity stunt after she had met LeVay at the San Francisco Film Festival. Jayne never took him seriously, but the press did. To this day one can still find stories that claim Jayne was a Satanist.

Jayne and Brody’s well-publicized drinking, partying, and fighting would eventually put an end to a tour that she was involved in Great Britain due to bruises on her legs which made her unable to wear the short costumes during her act on stage. Jayne claimed that the bruises were the result of abuse by Brody, but Brody maintained that they were self-inflicted. Jayne came back to America.

Jayne continued to do the nightclub routine. Mamie Van Doren, who was also touring, was doing a show in New York. Van Doren’s show in New York was held over, and she asked Jayne if she could fill in for her in a show in Mississippi, and then Mamie would reciprocate by taking one of Jayne’s shows. Jayne agreed and performed her final show at the Stevens Supper Club in Biloxi Mississippi. The plan was to drive back to New Orleans after the show so Jayne could do a talk show in the morning. In the car were Jane, Brody, driver Ronnie Harrison, Jayne’s children Mickey Jr., Zoltan, and Mariska, and three Chihuahuas. They briefly stopped at an all-night restaurant for Jayne to use the rest room. When she returned she put Zoltan in the back seat and sat up front with the two men. A mosquito spraying pesticide machine had just sprayed the marsh land and left a fog over the highway. On June 29, 1967 at 2:15 am on the dark road between Biloxi and New Orleans, Jayne Mansfield’s car crashed into the back of a tractor trailer at an estimated speed of 80 mph. The top of the 1966 Buick Electra she was in was sheared off at impact. The three adults in the front seat were killed instantly. The tractor driver removed Jayne’s body from the car and placed it on the side of the road in an effort to get to the children who were crying in the back, but her wig remained on the dashboard. This has led to the rumor that Jayne was decapitated in the accident, but this was not true and this rumor has been publically denounced by the New Orleans coroner, who has testified that Jayne’s body was intact. However, there was one area on her head where her scalp had separated from her skull. The three children were cushioned in the back seat and suffered cuts and bruises. Jayne officially died of a crushed skull and avulsion of the cranium and brain (basically meaning her scalp had been partially sheared away). Jayne Mansfield was only 34 years-old.

The world was stunned by this tragedy, especially after losing Marilyn Monroe just a few years earlier. Later, Mickey Hargitay would comment on Jayne’s downward spiral that occurred over her last years and state that he and Jayne’s parents knew something bad was coming. Jayne was laid to rest in Fairview Cemetery in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania and there is also a centograph dedicated to her in the Hollywood Forever Memorial Park in Hollywood, California.

Marilyn Monroe left an estate of about 150,000 dollars despite making millions. Jayne Mansfield, “the poor man’s Marilyn Monroe” left an estate of about two million dollars, a tidy sum in 1967. Shortly after Jayne’s funeral, Mickey Hargitay sued his former wife’s estate for more than 275,000 dollars to support the children. He and his wife raised Jayne-Marie, Mickey Jr., Zoltan, and Mariska. Jayne’s youngest child, Tony, was raised by his father, Matt Cimber. The divorce between Cimber and Jayne was pending when she was killed. In 1968, wrongful-death lawsuits were reportedly filed on behalf of Jayne-Marie Mansfield and Matt Cimber, for 4.8 million and 2.7 million dollars respectively. The Pink Palace was auctioned off along with all of Jayne’s personal items. There were major to conflicts in the settling of the estate between Mickey Hargitay and Matt Cimber who were both recognized as Jayne’s husbands as the Mexican divorce between Jayne and Hargitay was never recognized in the U.S. and Cimber and Jayne were married in Mexico, but their divorce was never finalized. After all the legal battles Mansfield biographer Frank Ferruccio reported that each of the children wound up with about 1100 dollars. As always the only ones who seem to profit in these situations are the attorneys.

Jayne Mansfield’s life story reads like an American version of a Shakespearean tragedy. Her drive and quest for stardom led her to promote herself in a manner never before seen in Hollywood. But that same dream and drive devoured her and led to her downfall and ultimate demise. On the one hand her drive and energy stands as a grand example of how determination and hard work can achieve almost anything; yet on the other hand her obsessiveness and willingness to do anything to get what she wanted stands as an example of how extremes in behavior can be self-defeating. In the beginning her image was fresh, exhilarating, and romantic; but near the end her image became tired, tainted, and she became a parody of herself in much the same way that Mae West did. Her quest for love and acceptance rested on the notion that happiness was a consequence of a “pink lollipop world.” The difficulty with that notion is that happiness is really a state of mind that eventually is comprised of contentment or satisfaction in reaching a certain place, and Jayne was never one to be content. The “pink lollipop” world Jayne strived for was never a place where she could stay very long; instead it was a temporary spot that very few people ever realize. Jayne was one of those few who made it to the top, but once you reach that peak there is only one direction which you can eventually take. Jayne became addicted to the glamour and the attention that came with being a sex symbol, the alcohol and drugs were used to cope with the reality of that fantasy. In her quest for love, self-verification, and acceptance she looked in the wrong places instead of looking within.

Nonetheless Jayne Mansfield was an amazing person and her accomplishments remain unique. There is a wonderful innocence to her in her earlier films that makes her even sexier. In the end she was the last of her kind, the definitive Hollywood glamour girl. She was never a “poor man’s Marilyn Monroe” but she was the one and only, Jayne Mansfield.

Some of Jayne Mansfield’s Best and Worst Films

Want to view some of the highlights and disappointments of Jayne Mansfield’s film career? Below is a smattering of what I consider to be must see Mansfield films. Of course opinions will differ but after watching most of her films I suggest that you check these out:

The Girl Can’t Help It (1956). This is a wonderful film on two accounts: 1) Several fledging rock and roll stars such as Little Richard, Fats Domino, Eddie Cochran and a host of others appear performing numbers in the film and 2) A young Jayne Mansfield as a caricature of a vamp steals every scene she is in. The plot is pretty straight forward: A down-and-out gangster (Edmund O’Brian) hires an alcoholic press agent (Tom Ewell) to make his blonde bombshell girlfriend (Jayne Mansfield) a recording star. But things get complicated when the gangster and agent learn that she has no singing talent and when the agent and the girl fall in love. Mansfield is great!

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957.) Many would argue that this is Jayne’s best film. When an advertising executive (Tony Randall) is about to lose his job he comes up with a scheme to get the world’s most famous sex-symbol (guess who?) to endorse one of the firm’s client’s lipsticks. The only problem is that she wants something in return; he must pose as her new lover. The complications get hilarious! Mansfield steals the show. Look for Joan Blondell, Mickey Hargitay, and the great one, Groucho Marx (my personal hero).

Playgirl After Dark (a.k.a. Too Hot To Handle, 1961). Jayne plays it totally straight in this film, which is why I really liked it. One can see that she really had the ability to be a solid actress. In London’s Soho district Johnny Solo (Leo Glenn) runs the Pink Flamingo Club, a seedy burlesque club. Solo is a tough customer and when he starts getting ultimatums for protection from a competitor he fights back (the identity of the muscle is unbeknownst to him). Midnight Franklin (Jayne Mansfield), Solo’s girlfriend, is one of the club’s headliners and tries to get him to quit the business. Look for the great Christopher Lee in a dramatic role.

Promises Promises (1963). If you read the article then you can see why there are obvious reasons as to why this is a must see Jayne Mansfield film. In spite of its historical significance and seeing Jayne totally exposed, Jayne gives a good performance in this film. The plot is real simple: After a drunken binge on a cruise ship, two women discover that they are pregnant and set out to find the fathers. Look for Tommy Noonan (who claimed to have an affair with Jayne during the filming) and Mickey Hargitay, as well as Richard Dawson and Imogene Coco in cameo appearances.

The Wayward Bus (1957). This is an early role for Jayne that again highlights her potential as a solid actress. This film is based on the Steinbeck novel and given its time of release it is watered down a bit. The film’s simple plot follows a bus driver, his wife (Joan Collins), and his passengers (Jayne Mansfield, Dan Daily and others) on a trip where there are interesting sidetracks and revelations. Good dialog and vintage Jayne.

Las Vegas Hillbillys (1966). As we move from solid to awful films, one of the must see (if you dare) films that highlights Jayne’s downfall has got to be this mess of a movie. Actually is not that bad if you can stand low level “Hee Haw” style camp, but it does highlight the demise of the blonde bombshell actress that occurred following the death of Marilyn Monroe. The plot is simple: Woodrow Wilson Weatherby (Ferlin Husky), a poor Tennessee wood hauler, inherits a Las Vegas casino from his uncle. Once he goes there he finds that it has a debt of $38,000 and a couple of determined creditors. Look for Mamie Van Doren (another fallen sex symbol) and Jayne’s version of the song “Chantilly Lace.”

The Loves of Hercules (1960). If you can sit through this film you can appreciate why I believe that it is the film that marked the beginning of the end for Jayne’s aspirations of ever being taken seriously as an actress, not that Jayne is all that bad, but the movie quality, production, and so forth are so bad that one wonders how a top Hollywood star could ever be involved in such a film. The answer is simple-movie options for Jayne were drying up. In the film, Hercules (Mickey Hargitay) is away from home and his family is murdered so he sets out for revenge. Jayne, who was pregnant during filming and gave birth, plays multiple roles.

The Wild Wild World of Jayne Mansfield (1968). Released after her death in 1968 in an effort to capitalize on her legend (but shot several years earlier) in this documentary Jayne takes us along on her last world tour. She takes us through Rome, Cannes, through a nudist colony on the Isle of Levant, to Paris where she attends some revealing dance revues, and finally to New York and Los Angeles where she visits female impersonators and a topless all-girl pop band. The film ends with some posthumous footage of her family in mourning. Voted as one of the 100 all-time worst amusing films; if you watch you’ll most certainly agree.

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