Jayne Magazine - The Jayne Mansfield Story

OK, so because there isn't too many books purely on Jayne Mansfield on the market I have decided to include the Jayne Mansfield magazines to my book reviews from now on. I have decided to start with one of my favorites, simply titled Jayne. Jayne is a pocket magazine printed in 1956 by Show magazine. The article inside the magazine is titled The Jayne Mansfield Story. Majority of the magazines entirely on Jayne were printed in the late 50's and a couple in the early 60's. Sadly there aren't any that I am aware of from her later life. As her popularity had dwindled Jayne still featured on many covers across the world but did not feature in any more magazines with herself as its entity. Also I think another reason for this is because that sort of magazine was not as popular as it had once been. Moving along, here is my review of the magazine Jayne.

The Jayne magazine is a wonder little pocket book packed full of interesting stories and features many glamours rare early photos of our darling Jayne. The very first page is a brief bio/facts table on Jayne with her name, age, weight, height (etc) recorded. The article was written by Evelyn Harvey and talks of Jayne's life to date. It says that Jayne Mansfield told people she comes from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania because that is where she was born but she actually lived in Phillipsberg, New Jersey. Jayne speaks of her father Herbert Palmer and his law firm practice he owned before he sadly passed away when Jayne was only three. Jayne was in awe of her father and you can tell how proud she was to be his daughter. Jayne talks of growing up a methodist because of her Grandfathers roots and speaks highly of her step father Harry Peers who was a sales man for Ingerson Rand at the time the magazine was printed. There is quite a bit of mention of Jayne's home life with Jayne Marie and her love for animals. One thing I found a little funny is that at the time Jayne Marie preferred to be called Linda, according to the story anyways. All of Jayne's beloved pets get a mention in the article. They were Philip the chihuahua, Lord Byron the great dane, two cats Romulus and Sinthia and a puppy named Charlessa. Not to mention the pets she no longer had. A pink toy poodle who died, Remus who was Romulus' twin and another cat called Sabrina who she had to give away.

There are stories about Jayne from co-workers and photographers who had the pleasure of working with her. And also from James Haspiel, a fan who had the privilege of becoming friends with Jayne. James was seventeen at the time and was one of about half a dozen Jayne fans in New York. This is what he says about Jayne. "It's a little embarrassing because we're really Marilyn Monroe fans. We belong to the Marilyn Monroe Fan Club of New York and we follow her where ever she goes. But we always come down and see people like Sheree North and Jayne to find out if they can give her any competition. We decided to help Jayne where we could, bring her clippings and stuff. I have a sort of brotherly feeling toward her. I'm very critical and I tell her what I think she does that's wrong. She takes it. She is very trusting. Sometimes when I meet her, I run out and grab a cab for her or we go to the movies or something. But she's really nothing like Marilyn. Marilyn is more polished, knows how to project herself. I think Jayne wants to get away from it."

Another interesting story is from her boyfriend at the time, Robbie Robinson. Robbie was an airline pilot and tells of the time he meet Jayne on a flight from Dallas to LA.

The last page in the magazine is a list of things she had appeared in. Rock Hunter is mentioned and also her first five films. A few titles she accepted like Miss Negligee and Miss Photoflash are also mentioned.

All in all, I love this little magazine. And I think every fan should own a copy. Keep an eye out on eBay as they do pop up every now and then and it is defiantly worth getting.