Jayne Mansfield Documentary - Arena Blondes

I thought it would be a nice idea to do a post on my favorite Jayne Mansfield documentary, Arena Blondes. It is in my opinion one of the greatest films ever made for Jayne Mansfield. It really makes you feel and there are many people who personally knew Jayne who share their stories of Jayne including all three of her husbands (Paul, Mickey & Matt), Jayne Marie, Ray Strait and Hugh Hefner. The documentary starts with an old news reel report on the death of Jayne Mansfield with the undertaker Jim Roberts as well as the current owner of the car wreck talking about her tragic death.There are amazing rare photos and even rarer footage included in the documentary including colour footage of Jayne's life with Paul (some of these are shown in the A&E documentary but this one has those clips and more). I love two little clips from this period in particular. The first one being of Jayne looking super glamorous and walking seductively with Paul tracing behind her fumbling over Jayne's luggage and a hat box.The second is of little toddler Jayne Marie playing in the front yard and running to Jayne and Paul for hugs and kisses. Night club promoter Paul Blane talks of the first time he meet Jayne at the Underwater press junket and working with her later down the track on her Satire on the strip show. Sabin Grey the former fan club president briefly talks about Jayne. One of my favorite parts is the footage of Jayne showing Robert Robinson around her pink palace. First she opens the gate for him and greets him into her home, then she shows him her lounge room, explaining to him the coat of arms above the fire place. She takes him into the dinning room where she explains Mickey made the table with his bare hands. Next she shows the bedroom and explains that Mickey also made the head board above her bed for her from pink antique mirror. Then it's straight to the fluffy pink bathroom where she shows off her one of a kind heart shaped bath tub. Lastly Jayne shows off the pool and its impressive water display. It is great footage. I love to see anything from inside the pink palace.

I love that in this documentary we hear from all three of her husbands. They all talk about how they met Jayne and the life they shared with her. Mickey gets the most personal. I think no one loved Jayne as much as Mickey did and he never did stop loving her. It clearly shows when he describes his life with Jayne. You could still see the heartbreak in him when he talks about Jayne leaving him for Matt. Rare photos from Jayne and Matt's Mexican wedding are also shown in the film. One thing I found very interesting was Paul  Mansfield describing the time where he meet Jayne once again while she was married to Matt. He said it was in a nightclub in Talsa, Oklahoma and he went backstage to the tiny dressing room to say hello to Jayne and was shocked to find her husband (Matt) selling photos of Jayne for 50c a piece.

Jayne Marie speaks of the incident where Sam Brody beat her and she had to leave her Mum. A very touchy subject for Jayne Marie I am sure as this happened two weeks before her mother died. She says that she does not blame her mother for what happened. Zoltan explains what he remembers from the accident and there is colour footage of the children being taken into hospital. Also shown is footage from the funeral.

The documentary ends with all three husbands shown as they are today (well at the time the documentary was made) and a quick explanation of their lives since Jayne. Paul Mansfield married in 1957 to a woman named Sue and had three kids with her (she already had one son from a previous marriage). Matt remarried and his wife adopted Tony. Mickey and Ellen were shown in a house they built together 20 years prior and had been living in happily ever since.

Arena Blondes is approximately 53 mins long. I highly recommend watching this. You will not be disappointed. I guarantee.

Another documentary that is excellent from the Arena Blondes collection is the Diana Dors segment. I have this one also and it features a clip of Diana and Jayne chatting backstage at Jayne's show in 1967. They were talking about their kids. Diana was impressed that Jayne now had 5 children. That is also worth a watch if you are into Diana Dors.

A collage of screen caps I made from the documentary