JAYNE BOOK REVIEW: Jayne Mansfield's Wild Wild World by Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay

So here it is, my very first book review for this blog, so I thought what better book to choose than Jayne's very own book. This book is a delight to read for any Jayne fan and is highly recommended by this blogger. Now lets have a look at some of the deliciously juicy stories in Jayne's book.

It's wild, it's hilarious, it's most defiantly captivating. It's the wacky sexy life of sexbomb Jayne Mansfield. No tale goes left untold, Jayne certainly is not afraid to tell it how it is. From her first meeting of husband Mickey Hargitay and Mae West's disapproval, her pet peeve of over paying for postage, the ridicule she faces from people who claim her to be a Marilyn Monroe wannabe, and how she never took or was even offered a role Marilyn turned down, how people always ask her opinion on sex, her list of top ten rules to help a girl be more physically attractive, men who have tried to bed her, of being a sexpot and she even tells how she would go about bedding a women if she were a man, tales of her early Hollywood experiences and the little mishaps she experienced with the press watching, to her own original Jayne Mansfield words like Divoon and Skin Jag, which according to Jayne is a bath in pink champagne. It's Jayne Mansfield and she's dishing it out bare on a plate.

Front Cover

Back Cover

Mickey tells of how Jayne learnt her first lesson on sex in Hollywood when a man on the street asks her if she'd like to meet a producer. In the car ride the man unzips with the naive starlet left screaming and shaken.

In a lovely heartfelt tale Jayne tells of her first break and the man who took a chance on her. It was Don Hoster from the Daily News and the event was a Miss California contest. Something Jayne wanted to partake in so badly she drove an hour to the office. When she arrived she was told she needed photographs to enter which she did not have on her. Instead of sending her home, Don took photographs of Jayne right there in the office and even gave her $5 to buy a bikini so he could take swim suit photographs of her which were mandatory in order to enter the competition. Jayne was over the moon about being a contestant for Miss California. Her photo was run in the paper. But Jayne's joyful parade was soon rained down upon by her own husband, Paul Mansfield, who forbade her to enter. Jayne reluctantly pulled out of the running. This was the moment for Jayne when she realised her marriage was over and that she wanted a divorce.

Jayne discusses her first job working for a photographer at Ciro's nightclub. She talked people into having their photographs taken and would then process them in the dark room. Jayne did this in the evening while looking for film work during the day. Things turned around for Jayne when one day she over heard Larry Tierney talking about a movie about to start shooting over at Warner Bro's titled "Female Jungle". Jayne wanted to know more, she called the producers secretary, instead of declaring she was a starlet looking for work she said that she was calling on the behalf of Ciro's. Jayne auditioned and got the part, all thanks to her quick wit and smart thinking.

There were three men who helped Jayne out most in her early career. They were Jim Byron (her press agent), Bill Shiffrin (her agent) and Greg Bautzer (her lawyer). All three working off 5% of her income from her newly signed contract to Warner Bro's. At the time Jayne was only getting bit parts in movies, something she wasn't too happy about. Her press agent truly did wonders for dear Jayne. He started planting photo's and stories of Jayne in the papers, he had her hand deliver Christmas presents to the big newsmen in town. And it was while she was delivering one of these gifts to Jim Bacon at the Associated Press that he gave her the idea to attend a press junket for a new movie titled "Underwater".  And thus Jayne's first ever major publicity stunt was formed. Jayne happily tells of her day at the junket and how she lost her bikini top. The photographers absolutely loved her, she knew she was vastly becoming a star. Within days magazines wanted to interview her, various organizations, clubs and industries wanted to name her things like Miss Negligee, Miss Tomato, Miss Direct Mail, Queen of Cotton, Princess of Freeways, and many more. The publicity was coming in and Jayne had hardly been on the big screen.

A heartbreaking moment for Jayne was when she read of Warner Bro's dropping her. Jayne was away in Philadelphia filming "the Burglar" and was in the process of going through a divorce. She had not seen it coming at all. But need not to worry, Bill had big plans for her. He was in the process of setting up a meeting for Jayne with Julie Styne and George Axelrod (in New York), the writer of a cheeky new Broadway show "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter". Jayne drove to the meeting from Philadelphia. After Jayne's audition she tells of how she walked around the streets of New York window shopping waiting until it was time to go back and see what they thought. The minute she walked back in she was greeted with a "Hello Rita, congratulations". From that moment on she was Rita Marlow. Jayne moved to New York for the rehearsals. Reading from Jayne's words how she describes waiting for the reviews to come in after opening night, to see that they were all favourable and that Rock Hunter gave her confidence and power sure was a delight. Jayne was finally a star.

Jayne in Broadway smash hit
"Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter"

Jayne tells the humble story of when she posed nude for $250 for a Hawaiian cake mix company. At the time she was selling family albums door to door and had payments owing on her car, a red convertible Buick. The nude photo was featured in a convention. After the convention she was asked to pose nude for an all female sculpting class. Jayne absolutely loved it and felt no embarrassment. Jayne never did feel embarrassed about her body. When discussing the night with Sophia Loren at Romanoff's she admitted to not wearing a bra, but says she had no idea how much of her was showing.

The nude Hawaiian photo

Both Mickey and Jayne discuss their bodies and talk about exercise. Jayne mentions she plans on bringing up her kids to take pride in their bodies. Mickey gives advice on exercise and talks about health and exercise myths.

Jayne and Mickey exercise

A harrowing time for both Jayne and Mickey was when they decided to go water skiing while on vacation in Nassau, Bahamas. Jayne lost her balance while skiing, fell and was hit by one of the skiis, she started sinking into the ocean. A frantic Mickey pulled her out. Jayne grabbed for the boat rim, accidentally capsizing the boat. Jayne tells of the moment she was sinking and all the while thinking "My poor children, no mother to bring them up". A line I found incredibly sad and heartbreaking to read.
Jayne and Mickey and a man who was with them, from the hotel they were staying at called Jack spent the night on an island while search and rescue crews spent hours searching for them. They were rescued at dawn. They needed to be treated for cuts and bug bites. Naturally the media suspected it of a publicity stunt, to both Jayne and Mickey's disarray.

Jayne in the water being rescued

Jack, Jayne and Mickey on the rescue boat

Filming on Jayne's latest movie "Panic Button" was about to begin in Rome, and like always Jayne wanted her children there with her. Mickey objected to this thinking it best for the kids to sit this one out. By this point Jayne was tired and unhappy and she took it out on Mickey. She immediately filed for divorce without telling him. That afternoon the press came out to the house asking Mickey of his reaction to the divorce suit. This was of course the first time Mickey had heard of it. Mickey was hurt, and agreed with Jayne that if it would make her happy the kids and Mickey would go with her to Rome. So after a whirlwind 24hour split the Hargitay's were back together and heading for Rome.
One thing Jayne adored was the extravagance of her life style. She loved making publicity, going to premier's, making strong relationships with the newspapers and magazines. She thought it glamorous to own many pets and take them with her on her travels. She took pride in being named Queen, Princess, Miss etc, Her clothing was always stunning and glorious, as a movie star should be and above all she was so proud of her lavish home, she often had photo shoots there.

Jayne in her lavish bedroom

A rather strange tale told in Jayne's book is that of a kidnapping scheme gone wrong early in her career. One which you don't ever hear anywhere else except in this book. It makes me wonder if it really did happen or if it was Jayne fabricating certain aspects of the truth for her debut autobiography. None the less, this is the story Jayne tells: Jayne received a call from her publicity team advising her to get in contact with a man named Paul Sanders because he had a great idea. Jayne never did make the phone call to him but an hour later he showed up at her house anyways. He told her "You are going to mysteriously disappear - KIDNAPPED - In reality we're just going to stay at a Malibu beach hideout for 12 hours". Jayne didn't like the idea but Paul insisted that it had been O.K'ed by the studio and already sorted out. A reluctant Jayne packed her things and went with the strange man. She tried to phone Mickey but he was on a flight to Chicago. When they arrived at the house in Malibu there was a lady there, her name was Ruby. They told Jayne the phone was out of order and that she would just have to wait. When Rudy left to go for a swim Paul started on Jayne. He groped at her. Jayne fought him, she slapped him, he in return ripped her top off. As Jayne was struggling to get him off the phone rang. Paul went to answer it leaving Jayne to run for the front door - it was locked - Jayne got dressed and locked herself in the bathroom. She stayed in there until Rudy returned and was able to coax a distressed Jayne out of the bathroom. At this point Ruby tells her that Paul has kidnapped her and wants $50,000 for her release. By this time Mickey has received a Ransom note and was beside himself. He wanted to get Jayne out as quick as possible. Two good things had happened: 1 - A neighbor saw Jayne leave her house in a blue convertible with a dent in the rear fender and 2 - a Private detective Fred Otash figured out the Ransom note was made from a Racing Form. He was able to search a list of young men with prison records who gambled horses and owned a large convertible. This narrowed it down to nine people. Fred and Mickey set out to cover all nine on the list while keeping an eye out for the convertible with a dent. They had gone to seven houses until they found the right one. Mickey came to Jayne's rescue. While crashing into the house Paul and Ruby leaped off the balcony into the black ocean below. Mickey and Jayne did not inform the police or the press as they thought it could give others ideas. They never heard from the kidnappers again.

Jayne is a big believer in the astrology and gives an entire chapter of her book to her astrological chart which was mapped out especially for her by Adrian Don.

In the final chapter of her book Jayne talks of her divorce to Mickey. Mickey moved to an apartment house pool while Jayne flew from Hollywood to New York to Rome. The Mexican divorce papers were signed but how did they get there. Well it started out like this. The family moved to a Roman villa in April for the filming of Panic Button. Jayne absolutely feel in love with Rome and she was bewitched by the producer of the movie, Enrico Bomba. The press got hold of the news and all throughout the papers were photographs of Jayne and Bomba. Jayne and Mickey were giving each other the silent treatment. It was Jayne who left Mickey for Bomba, yet she was always calling Mickey, she just couldn't do without him. When they got to LA Mickey moved out and accepted an offer to host a heath and exercise show. Mickey insisted on taking nothing from the divorce. He wanted Jayne to have everything. In this period Jayne changed alot. She converted to Catholicism, changed agents and publicity firms and became more serious. She got a dramatic part in a Hitchcock TV movie and wanted more dramatic roles.

Jayne enjoys the Italian sunshine with Bomba

When in New York out having dinner with Bomba it hit Jayne that she wanted Mickey back. She called Mickey and told her she loved him. Mickey took Jayne back with open arms and just in time for Christmas too. In Jayne's words she said "Blame the Italian Sunshine for one wacky period of my life". However it may not have been just that.

Jayne & Neslon Sardelli

After three months of being back together in happened again. Jayne left Mickey for Nelson Sardelli. She once again filed for divorce in Mexico. Mickey moved out and this time built his own place. Mickey was once again hurt but this is what he said "I can tell you this, together or apart, Jayne and I will always be friends" & " I believe we'll be back together again sometime". And he was right. The book ends with this little note:

P.S Last Summer Mickey and Jayne announced they had reconciled and expected another child.

The last child the Hargitay's had together, Baby Mariska

Advertising for Jayne's book