Our Jayne Mansfield Tribute Video

We have made a tribute video featuring some of our favourite clips of Jayne in honour of our idol on the 47th anniversary of her passing. Rest in peace Angel xox

The LA Times Tribute to Jayne

Below is a little post and photograph courtesy of the LA Times. 

Sex symbol Jayne Mansfield was tragically killed with two other adults on this date in 1967 when the car in which they were traveling struck the rear of a tractor trailer on Interstate 90 east of New Orleans. She was just 34. Three of her children-including actress Mariska Hargitay-who were sleeping in the back seat, were injured by survived the fatal crash. Photo of Mansfield and Bob Hope in 1959 from the L.A. Times files.

47 Years On - Missing Jayne Mansfield More Than Ever

Today marks the 47th anniversary of Jayne Mansfield's passing and personally each year for me feels more and more sad. Jayne Mansfield is my Idol, my hero, my love, my life. I adore her and everything that she stood for so much. Jayne's fans really do live to love her more each day just like her headstone says. Jayne Mansfield shines just as bright today as she did in her own time, through the hearts of her thousands of fans the world over.

We miss you Jayne and wish you were here today.

After learning of Jayne's passing Jack Benny had this to say;

"She was an awfully nice person. To work with her was a joy. When she was directed correctly she was a fine actress."

And her dear friend Mr Bob Hope said this;

"Jayne made three Christmas trips with our show and brought great joy to our servicemen. This is very sad and a personal loss as far as I'm concerned."

After the loss of Jayne Mansfield a lot of negative publicity was printed in the papers regarding the arguments between her ex husbands and mother as to where Jayne should be laid to rest and then again with her estate as she held no current will at the time of her death. A New Orleans court awarded Mickey Hargitay the right of final disposition of her remains to which he chose to have her buried alongside her beloved father. Early in their relationship Jayne told Mickey that when she died she wished to be with her father, Mickey made sure Jayne got her wish. Mickey designed a beautiful heart shaped headstone made of marble to honor Jayne. Jayne was buried at Fairview Cemetery in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, on the 3rd of July 1967. The remote location did not stop celebrity seeks from attending. Here is a news article printed from the time;

"Her family had sought to avoid the sharp spotlight of publicity which the 34 year old Miss Mansfield relished all her life. But the public craving to be near a celebrity, even in death, created a circus atmosphere in the tiny borough where she had spent several years of her early childhood. Spectators broke through police lines and ran across grass covered graves to snap photographs of pink roses."

Throughout her entire career, where ever Jayne went she always caused a massive stir, drawing in huge  crowds (by the thousands) to get a glimpse of the buxom blonde. So it is of no surprise that her final farewell was no exception. It was a true Jayne Mansfield farewell tribute. Jayne's funeral service was a fitting tribute to an exceptional woman.

Below are a few photos from the service. A full album of funeral service photos will be added to our Google+ page.

Jayne Mansfield Anniversary Article

In the lead up to the 47th Anniversary of Jayne Mansfield's passing (tomorrow) Yahoo News UK has posted an article about Jaynie pie. We always enjoy seeing Jayne pop up in the news so many years after she left us. It goes to show that it isn't only her fans who remember her. Click the image below to read the article.

New Book Coming Out to Feature Jayne Mansfield's Pink Palace

Lost Los Angeles is a book by Dennis Evanovsky due to be released on the 1st of December this year and features astonishing images of vanished Los Angeles. Jayne Mansfield's Pink Palace is one of the vanished historical buildings featured in the book. No word yet of what the cover looks like but we doubt it will be Jayne's home on the cover. We shall have to wait and see. Amazon are taking pre-orders for the book at the link below.

http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Los-Angeles-Dennis-Evanovsky/dp/1909815594/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403661541&sr=8-1&keywords=Lost+Los+Angeles+Dennis+Evanovsky%2C+Eric+J+Kos

Jayne Mansfield Wall Art by Drapl

Located in Brisbane, Australia is this incredible wall mural of Jayne Mansfield by street artist Drapl. 

Biloxi Memories and The Broadwater Beach Hotel Featuring Jayne Mansfield

Wyes New Orleans is holding an event on the 23rd of July called Biloxi Memories and The Broadwater Beach Hotel. The event encourages visitors and members to attend and share their memories of the area. No doubt a few people will reminisce about Jayne Mansfield who visited in 1963 and again in 1967 where she would sadly spend her last days. The organisers of the event have already shared this special photo of Jayne with Gus Steven's taken in 1963.

U.S.S Massey Remembers Jayne Mansfield

U.S.S Massey crew members remember the day Jayne Mansfield came to visit them in Rotterdam 1957.

“Our last day in Rotterdam was the 11th of October 1957. This was perhaps the most memorable day to the crew during the entire cruise. On that Friday afternoon, the MASSEY was proud and pleased to have aboard a guest and ‘honorary shipmate’ the lovely film actress – Jayne Mansfield.” Our 24-year-old ‘shipmate’ stated; “I am very happy to be on your beautiful ship. You are all very wonderfully sweet and the officers are tops… very chic!”

- The Massey Mirror

"I was on board that day, it was quite a day for us. Jayne Mansfield was a beautiful lady, in all ways, she talked with the crew, and spent some nice time aboard the Massey. That’s me right by her right elbow, I will never forget that cruise. Gary Kartz, Yeomen ships office."

-Gary Katz

New Archive Images

Since changing our profile and cover images a few days ago we have heard back from a few people wanting to know where they came from. In answer to your questions the images are a part of a newly added batch of images added to the Getty online archive. We have added all the new images on our google+ page at www.google.com/+JayneMansfieldPage. Since we no longer have an instagram account associated with sharing Jayne Mansfield images we will be building up our google+ page as being our main source for Jayne Mansfield photo sharing. That is including all the rare stuff too, so make sure to add us to your google+ circles so you don't miss out on any of our posts. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the new archive images as much as we did.

Robert Lebeck Reminisces About Jayne Mansfield

Our latest YouTube clip is about Robert Lebeck who as you already know, passed away this week at the age of 85 years. In this clip Lebeck reminisces about shooting Jayne Mansfield with his photographs of Jayne in the backdrop as well as footage of Jayne in Berlin 1961 for the Berlin Film Festival.

We hope you enjoy this one

Your Guide to Jayne Mansfield Autograph Collecting

Once you've familiarised yourself enough with Jayne Mansfield's writing patterns like I have you can easily spot an authentic autograph from a secretarial or the dreaded fakes and forgeries. Jayne signed a lot of autographs through out her life. She never turned anyone down when it came to obtaining her autograph. She was every bit the professional when it came to handling the admiration of her fans. Because of this authentic Jayne Mansfield autographs are not hard to come by and they can also be relatively cheap to obtain. I myself now have several of her autographs, handwritten letters, signed documents etc. And every one of them I have gotten for very affordable prices ( I have never paid more than $100 for one autographed item. I once purchased a lot of signed items for $200 but that included 5 autographed documents/items.) Most of my Jayne Mansfield autographed items I got for $50 - $80. I was once extremely lucky to get myself a two page handwritten letter for GBP-50 pounds. When buying a Jayne Mansfield autograph auction sites like eBay are the best to get a bargain but you have to be careful because not all the autographs listed on eBay are the real deal. Auction houses who specialise in autographs like RR Auction usually sell for around $200 - $250 for an autograph which I personally would only spend that much on an autograph if the photo it was signed on was an extremely rare and unique photo or if the inscription was quite lengthy or personal. A plain signed autograph saying 'Best Wishes Jayne Mansfield' or 'Affectionately Jayne Mansfield' for $200 is just too common and pricey for me. I have obviously gotten used to the bargain prices. With that said there are also some very expensive Buy it Now prices for autographs on eBay but those never sell. The sellers originally purchased them from auctions held by autograph auction specialists (like RR Auction or Icollector) for around the $200 mark and then try and sell them for $800 or more, good heavens there are a few who try and sell them into the thousands, they NEVER EVER sell.

Secretarial Signatures
A secretarial signature is what a fan would receive when writing to Fox Studios asking for a Jayne Mansfield photo to be signed. A team of Fox employees signed signatures for all of the studio's biggest stars. The secretarial signatures for Jayne were usually much smaller and thinner than her own personal handwriting. In later years when Jayne was not affiliated with Fox her secretarial signatures were signed by her own staff like Ray Strait, Ted Siffo and even eldest daughter Jayne Marie would sign on behalf of her mother, these secretarial's are quite messy looking. Jayne would receive thousands of fan mail daily requesting for her autograph, on top of that Jayne was a very busy woman so it is understandable that she (and all other stars for that matter) did not have the time to read and reply to every piece of fan mail personally. Most sellers who list a secretarial signature of Jayne's do not even realise that they are selling a secretarial and not an authentic Jayne sig so you really have to be careful with these. Luckily they are very easy to spot. Signed letterheads are most often secretarial as well.

Authentic Autographs
Jayne was always out and about, travelling her home country and the world. Everywhere she went she would meet thousands of her fans and when asked for an autograph Jayne would always happily oblige. These autographs from fans and passer bys are the most common authentic Jayne autographs you will find today. Quite often when buying one of these on eBay you are in fact buying it straight from the person who obtained it from Jayne or their family member. It is always great to hear the story of how they came to get it as well. Jayne would also often sign autographs for business owners she came across, so if she dinned in their restaurant or shopped in side their store she would sign them an autograph and if she loved the place enough she would continue to correspond with them, send them Christmas cards and updates on when she would be visiting next. Co workers and crew members from the set of her movies would also get the pleasure of hearing from Jayne via letters and Christmas cards.

Fakes and Forgeries
Autographs that fall under this category are always a cinch to spot. Luckily they never look anything like the real deal. People may even try to trace Jayne's signature but there is no copying it. When you get a good eye for it you will know right away when you see a fake. Not too many of these pop up that often thankfully.The most often occurrence I have seen of these are from sellers in Germany who sell them on old postcards.


Now it is time for the examples, I will try to use items that are currently for sale for my examples.

This autograph is in fact a secretarial signature from the Fox days.
The secretarial signature was smaller and never as flowy
or bubbly as Jayne's own handwriting

Fox secretarial

A signed Gentlemen Prefer Blondes program
for sale on eBay at the moment
This is 100% authentic and amazingly enough
this is the second time it has been listed.
It did not sell the first time for $50. Unreal.

Authentic on eBay for $100

For sale on eBay for $500
Secretarial from post fox days

Another secretarial from post Fox days

Fake

Fake

Spotlight on Jayne Mansfield's Heart Shaped Sofa

One of Jayne Mansfield's most memorable pieces of furniture was her soft baby pink heart shaped sofa. The sofa was kept in Jayne's bedroom but started out in the nursery shortly after the birth of little Miklos in late 1958.

In the 90's the couch was one of a small handful of furniture pieces from the pink palace that sold at auction. The sofa was purchased by the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas and was on display in their museum for several years. In 2012 the sofa was placed in storage as the museum was forced to move location for the government to widen Interstate 15. I believe that it is now back on display inside the museum and no longer in storage. If anyone is ever in the Las Vegas area it wouldn't hurt to check out the museum, it sure would be fun to take selfies with Jayne's sofa.

Here are some images of Jayne's beloved custom made sofa, both from Jayne's time and more recent years.

Burlesque queen Dixie Evans shows off Jayne's couch
in 1998 at the museum. 

The sofa in storage in 2012

Tribute to Robert Lebeck

In the previous post we notified you about the passing of one of Jayne Mansfield's photographers, Robert Lebeck. This post is a tribute to Robert with a handful of his gorgeous Jayne Mansfield images. Enjoy.

Rest In Peace Robert Lebeck

One of Jayne Mansfield's most prominent photographers Robert Lebeck has sadly passed away at the age of 85. German photog Lebeck's most famous photo of Jayne was taken at the 1961 Berlin Film festival and shows a tux clad Mickey Hargitay lifting his wife Jayne up towards to ceiling to eat grapes from above. Lebeck photographed Jayne a few times while she was in Germany. In a more recent documentary Lebeck recounts the time he photographed her at a local watering hole. We are sad to hear of Lebeck's passing. Here are two of our favourite Lebeck photos.

Jayne Mansfield at The Casa Villa

Here Jayne Mansfield is pictured at the Casa Villa with husband Matt Cimber and Seafair Pirates. The Seafair Pirates made Jayne and Matt honorary pirates. Jayne and co are seen searching for a missing cufflink.

Sweet Jayne Mansfield Photo

Super Rare Footage Of Jayne Mansfield Celebrating Her Last New Year

It was New Years in 1967 and the buxom and very happy blonde, Miss Jayne Mansfield, rang in the new year with friends at a Party she attended with boyfriend Sam Brody, eldest son Miklos and youngest daughter Mariska in tow. This footage shows a joyous Jaynie at the party, enjoying the nibblies, chatting and kissing fellow guests and keeping her two children who attended with her occupied and happy. It is beyond sad that this was Jayne's last New Years celebration. This video clip took a very long time to edit so we hope that all our readers enjoy and appreciate us sharing this very rare gem. xx

What We Wouldn't Do To Own That Shoe

Jayne pictured in Holland in 1957 drinking champagne from a traditional clog at Schiphol Airport photographed by Kees Scherer. A great collection of his photographs of Jayne are currently at auction.