#martha saxton

[bitter69uk]

“The movie is a bedroom farce about a writer (Tommy Noonan) and his wife (Jayne) who are on a cruise with their friends, a famous actor (Mickey Hargitay) and his wife (Marie “The Body” McDonald). Tommy and Jayne want to have a baby, and Jayne takes various concoctions cooked up by the ship’s doctor. Tommy, who believes he is sterile, also drinks potency potions. There is a bedroom mix-up, a female impersonator who does Tallulah Bankhead imitations and two short sequences of Jayne thrashing about in bed bra-less, having disturbing dreams. It was because of these sequences that the movie was only shown in “art” theatres. Jet Fore, who was publicist for the movie, had erotic posters of Jayne printed up with a lot of words about the first time ever au naturel for a major star. Each sequence lasts about thirty seconds and bears no relation to the rest of the film which is as clean as a troop of Girl Scouts … In Promises … Promises! Jayne, wearing wedgies and skin-tight pedal pushers, straddles an open door and rubs her calf suggestively up and down against it. One expects the door to moan. It was theatre of sex at its most laughable.”

/ Jayne Mansfield and the American Fifties by Martha Saxton, 1975 /

“It was at this point that Jayne made the most inexplicable, self-destructive move of her career, one that tipped her over from fading star to unemployable dirty joke. Actually, it was two moves: she agreed to star in the cheesy softcore porn film Promises … Promises! and to pose topless for Playboy … Why did Jayne agree to do nude scenes and in such a cheap film? She was not stupid or naïve when it came to show business – she had to have known no major studio would star her after this, and that family-friendly TV would be off-limits. But she had to work, even if she was a big nude fish in a small scummy pond.”

/ Jayne Mansfield: The Girl Couldn’t Help It by Eve Golden, 2021 /

Sixty-one years ago today (15 August 1963) in smut history: the notorious Jayne Mansfield nudie movie Promises … Promises! was released.

[xtruss]

Florida always has been different. Green Iguanas (above) fall onto driveways during cold snaps. Thousands of poisonous Cane Toads escape. Rhesus Monkeys break free. Invasive intruders include Hissing Ducks, Walking Catfish, Hermaphroditic River Eels, Bloodsucking Worms, Pet-eating Monitor Lizards, and rodent-sized African Land Snails. Now the Ferocious—and Carnivorous—Kinkajou is presenting new challenges among the Sunshine State's strange menagerie. One paper calls Florida the “Jurassic Park” of exotic species. Photograph By David Geeting

This fall Sunnyfields Farm in the town of Totton, England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, features a Giant Mask-Wearing Jack-o’-Lantern made from more than 5,000 Pumpkins and Squashes. Photograph By Henry Stephen, Alamy

The National Museum of Ireland 🇮🇪—Country Life, near the Town of Castlebar, displays a Plaster Cast of an early 1900s Jack-o’-Lantern, known as a “Ghost turnip.” Photograph By National Museum of Ireland

The Chinchorro People in Present-day Chile 🇨🇱 used Clay Masks and Pieces of Wood to Reshape and Decorate their Mummies. Photograph By Martha Saxton, National Geographic Image Collection

[scvpubliclib]

Her wide range of subjects included the actress Jayne Mansfield, the novelist Louisa May Alcott and Mary Washington, the mother of a president.

[antonio-velardo]

Antonio Velardo shares: Martha Saxton, Historian Who Explored Women’s Lives, Dies at 77 by Clay Risen

By Clay Risen Her wide range of subjects included the actress Jayne Mansfield, the novelist Louisa May Alcott and Mary Washington, the mother of a president. Published: July 20, 2023 at 05:45PM from NYT Books https://ift.tt/XGea0id via IFTTT

[rockislandadultreads]

New Fiction: Domestic Stories and Women’s Fiction

The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley

Sometimes all you need is one person to really see you. Piper Parrish's life on Frick Island—a tiny, remote town smack in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay—is nearly perfect. Well, aside from one pesky detail: Her darling husband, Tom, is dead. When Tom's crab boat capsized and his body wasn't recovered, Piper, rocked to the core, did a most peculiar thing: carried on as if her husband was not only still alive, but right there beside her, cooking him breakfast, walking him to the docks each morning, meeting him for their standard Friday night dinner date at the One-Eyed Crab. And what were the townspeople to do but go along with their beloved widowed Piper? Anders Caldwell’s career is not going well. A young ambitious journalist, he’d rather hoped he’d be a national award-winning podcaster by now, rather than writing fluff pieces for a small town newspaper. But when he gets an assignment to travel to the remote Frick Island and cover their boring annual Cake Walk fundraiser, he stumbles upon a much more fascinating tale: an entire town pretending to see and interact with a man who does not actually exist. Determined it’s the career-making story he’s been needing for his podcast, Anders returns to the island to begin covert research and spend more time with the enigmatic Piper—but he has no idea out of all the lives he’s about to upend, it’s his that will change the most.

Super Host by Kate Russo

A deeply funny and shrewdly observed debut novel about being lost in the very place you know by heart. Bennett Driscoll is a Turner Prize-nominated artist who was once a rising star. Now, at age fifty-five, his wife has left him, he hasn't sold a painting in two years, and his gallery wants to stop selling his work, claiming they'll have more value retrospectively...when he's dead. So, left with a large West London home and no income, he's forced to move into his artist's studio in the back garden and list his house on the popular vacation rental site, AirBed. A stranger now in his own home, with his daughter, Mia, off at art school, and any new relationships fizzling out at best, Bennett struggles to find purpose in his day-to-day. That all changes when three different guests--lonely American Alicia; tortured artist Emma; and cautiously optimistic divorcée Kirstie--unwittingly unlock the pieces of himself that have been lost to him for too long. Warm, witty, and utterly humane, Super Host offers a captivating portrait of middle age, relationships, and what it truly means to take a new chance at life.

To Love and to Loathe by Martha Waters

The widowed Diana, Lady Templeton and Jeremy, Marquess of Willingham are infamous among English high society as much for their sharp-tongued bickering as their flirtation. One evening, an argument at a ball turns into a serious wager: Jeremy will marry within the year or Diana will forfeit one hundred pounds. So shortly after, just before a fortnight-long house party at Elderwild, Jeremy’s country estate, Diana is shocked when Jeremy appears at her home with a very different kind of proposition. After his latest mistress unfavorably criticized his skills in the bedroom, Jeremy is looking for reassurance, so he has gone to the only woman he trusts to be totally truthful. He suggests that they embark on a brief affair while at the house party—Jeremy can receive an honest critique of his bedroom skills and widowed Diana can use the gossip to signal to other gentlemen that she is interested in taking a lover. Diana thinks taking him up on his counter-proposal can only help her win her wager. With her in the bedroom and Jeremy’s marriage-minded grandmother, the formidable Dowager Marchioness of Willingham, helping to find suitable matches among the eligible ladies at Elderwild, Diana is confident her victory is assured. But while they’re focused on winning wagers, they stand to lose their own hearts.

Under the Southern Sky by Kristy Woodson Harvey

Recently separated Amelia Saxton, a dedicated journalist, never expected that uncovering the biggest story of her career would become deeply personal. But when she discovers that a cluster of embryos belonging to her childhood friend Parker and his late wife Greer have been deemed “abandoned,” she’s put in the unenviable position of telling Parker—and dredging up old wounds in the process. Parker has been unable to move forward since the loss of his beloved wife three years ago. He has all but forgotten about the frozen embryos, but once Amelia reveals her discovery, he knows that if he ever wants to get a part of Greer back, he’ll need to accept his fate as a single father and find a surrogate. Each dealing with their own private griefs, Parker and Amelia slowly begin to find solace in one another as they navigate an uncertain future against the backdrop of the pristine waters of their childhood home, Cape Carolina. The journey of self-discovery leads them to an unforgettable and life-changing lesson: Family—the one you’re born into and the one you choose—is always closer than you think.

[davestone13-blog]

Mary Ball Washington, George’s single mother, often gets overlooked – but she's well worth saluting

Mary Ball Washington, George’s single mother, often gets overlooked – but she’s well worth saluting

Martha Saxton, Amherst College On Mother’s Day, it is important and poignant to recall the hard life of Mary Ball Washington, who struggled – mostly alone – to raise our Founding Father. Historians have left us with inaccurate and mostly unpleasant accounts of her long and laborious years. Estimated reading time: 8 minutes But where would he be without his mother?/Photo by Todd Trapani on…

[tellusepisode]

The Lovely Bones (2009)

Drama, Fantasy, Thriller |

The Lovely Bones is a supernatural thriller drama film directed by Peter Jackson, and starring Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Michael Imperioli, and Saoirse Ronan. The screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Jackson was based on Alice Sebold’s award-winning and bestselling 2002 novel of the same name. It follows a girl who is murdered and watches over her family from “the in-between”, and is torn between seeking vengeance on her killer and allowing her family to heal.

An international co-production between the United States, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand, the film was produced by Carolynne Cunningham, Walsh, Jackson, and Aimee Peyronnet, with Steven Spielberg, Tessa Ross, Ken Kamins, and James Wilson as executive producers.

In 1973, 14-year-old high school freshman Susie Salmon dreams of becoming a photographer. One day, Ray, a boy she has a crush on, asks her out. As Susie walks home through a cornfield, she runs into her neighbor, George Harvey, who coaxes her into an underground “kid’s hideout” he has built. Inside, Susie grows uncomfortable and attempts to leave; Harvey grabs her and the scene fades until she is seen rushing past her alarmed classmate Ruth Connors, seemingly fleeing Harvey’s den.

The Salmons become worried when Susie fails to return home from school. Her father, Jack, searches for her, while her mother, Abigail, waits for the police. In town, Susie sees Jack, who does not respond to her when she calls. Susie runs home to find Harvey soaking in a bathtub. After seeing the bloody bathroom and her bracelet hanging on the sink faucet, Susie realizes she never escaped the underground den and Harvey murdered her.

Director: Peter Jackson

Writers: Fran Walsh (screenplay), Philippa Boyens (screenplay), Peter Jackson (screenplay), Alice Sebold (novel)

Stars: Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg, Saoirse Ronan, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Michael Imperioli

►Cast:

Mark Wahlberg…Jack SalmonRachel Weisz…Abigail SalmonSusan Sarandon…Grandma LynnStanley Tucci…George HarveyMichael Imperioli…Len FenermanSaoirse Ronan…Susie SalmonRose McIver…Lindsey SalmonChristian Ashdale…Buckley SalmonReece Ritchie…Ray SinghCarolyn Dando…Ruth ConnorsNikki SooHoo…Holly (as Nikki Soohoo)Andrew James Allen…Samuel HecklerJake Abel…Brian NelsonAJ Michalka…ClarissaTom McCarthy…Principal CadenStink Fisher…Mr. ConnorsEvelyn Lennon…Susie Salmon (aged 3 years)Stefania LaVie Owen…Flora Hernandez (as Stefania Owen)Marley McKay…NateAshley Brimfield…Teenage Girl in Parking LotJohn Jezior…Mr. O’DwyerAnna George…Mrs. SinghKirit Kapadia…Mr. SinghRichard Lambeth…DeputyWilliam Zielinski…DeputyGlen Drake…DeputyNick Baker…DeputyDan Kern…Hospital DoctorGreg Wood…Hospital DoctorFreya Milner…Jackie MeyerKatie Jackson…Leah FoxRuby Hudson…Lana JohnsonTina Graham…Sophie CichettiPhoebe Gittins…Mr. Harvey’s VictimAnna Dawson…Mr. Harvey’s VictimLili Bayliss…Mr. Harvey’s VictimBruce Phillips…GrandfatherVeronica Horn…Grace TarkingJack Hoffman…Fashion Show MCDavid C. Roehm Sr.…Mr. Coleman (as David C. Roehm Sr)Seth F. Miller…Soccer CoachLee Miller…TownspersonMichael A. Salvato…TownspersonNakia Dillard…TownspersonWilliam Hummel…TownspersonJames Vassanelli…TownspersonScott Evans…TownspersonBilly Jackson…Mall ShopperBob Burns…Mall ShopperKathy Burns…Mall ShopperApril Phillips…Police Station MotherGrace Carden-Horton…Police Station GirlGabby Greig…Police Station GirlBravo…Holiday the Salmon family dogStan The Wonder Pug…SelfMichael Ahl…Traveler / ShopperCourtney Baxter…School KidGary Beck…Tim – Gas Station AttendantRobert Bizik…Mall ShopperColin Bleasdale…Construction Worker / MinerJames Brady…Police OfficerMichael Edward Brooks…Suspect #1 in MallLee Burkett…Christmas ShopperGregory R. Campbell…Mall ShopperDavid Collihan…Mall ShopperTrevor Cooper…Quarry WorkerCatherine Corcoran…Murder VictimTom Delconte…Mall ShopperMartha Gay…Diner WaitressRichard Graves…Mall PatronPeter Jackson…Man at PharmacyJaQuinley Kerr…Mall ShopperBasil Kershner…Curious NeighborBruce Kirkpatrick…Mr. SteadmanCharlie Kirkwood…Bell Bottoms Guy at MallSandra Landers…Schoolteacher / VictimMaximilian Law…Police Officer PerezRobyn Malcolm…Foreman’s WifeFallon Maressa…NurseCosimo Mariano…Gas Station CustomerJaclyn McHugh…Mall ShopperAndrew McKeough…Soccer PlayerJeffrey Mowery…PhotographerMichelle Nagy…Toy Store CashierJean Orlando…Mall ShopperWayne Phillips…Orchard WorkerJohnny Pulcinella…Soccer PlayerTom Rainbird…Office WorkerVincent Riviezzo…Store OwnerShawnee Robertson…Mall Patron / TravelerKurt Runkle…Mall PatronCharlie Saxton…Ronald DrakeChuck Schanamann…PedestrianBrian Michael Scully…Mall PatronJoseph Tornatore…Mall ShopperDan Van Wert…Hospital OrderlyMark Violi…Mall ShopperDavid Von Roehm…Gas Station CustomerRichard Whiteside…DetectiveMike Wilson…Mall ShopperJohn Wooten…ShopperScott Yannick…Police Officer Henderson

Sources: imdb & wikipedia

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[bitter69uk]

"Mickey’s critics like to point out his failures. He succeeded, however, at making Jayne happy for a while. His secret was extreme passivity under the guise of total indulgence … Mickey provided the quiet, super-masculine presence and Jayne provided the excitement.” 

/ From Jayne Mansfield and The American Fifties (1975), Martha Saxton’s essential biography / feminist analysis of the doomed, messy but fabulous life of Jayne Mansfield /

Born on this day 97 years ago: Mr Universe 1955 Miklós “Mickey” Hargitay (6 January 1926 – 14 September 2006). Forget Liz and Dick or Kanye and Kim: the ultimate trashy, publicity-crazed show business couple was Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay. (Seen here at the Cannes film festival circa 1964).

[bitter69uk]

“It was a successful holiday. The kids had a good time and there were lots of presents. Zoltan got special treatment of course, as well as a robot, a bat, baseballs, a kickstand for his bike and plenty of other things. Jayne was happy to have Zoltan home and happy to have been on the front page for three weeks.  She wasn’t callous about Zoltan’s injury. She was terribly upset, but it was natural for her to think of telling the press. She was accustomed to reading about herself and she knew the public would be interested. The news was made, and Jayne wasn’t going to suppress it. She had worked for years to become news and her reward was having the press cooperate with her. There were pictures of Jayne and Zoltan, Jayne, Sam and Jayne, Mickey and Jayne and Zoltan, Jayne and Zoltan on the front pages of newspapers all across the country. Jayne’s grief was transcontinental.” 

/ From Jayne Mansfield and the American Fifties by Martha Saxton (1975) / 

Pictured: Christmas day 1966 at the Pink Palace, Jayne Mansfield’s final Christmas. (Her fatal car crash was in June 1967). On 27 November 1966 Mansfield and her children were visiting Jungleland USA, a zoo and theme park in the San Fernando Valley, when in a freak accident her six-year-old son Zoltan was severely mauled by a lion.  After surgery and weeks of recuperation, Zoltan was allowed home on Christmas morning to be greeted by a twenty-foot tree, a towering mound of gifts and – and perhaps inevitably – a houseful of photographers and journalists. As Mansfield’s most recent biographer Eve Golden recalls in The Girl Couldn’t Help It (2021), “A reporter asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, and Zoltan – his mother’s son when it came to a good quip – told him, “A lion tamer.””

[bitter69uk]

"Mickey’s critics like to point out his failures. He succeeded, however, at making Jayne happy for a while. His secret was extreme passivity under the guise of total indulgence … Mickey provided the quiet, super-masculine presence and Jayne provided the excitement.”

/ From Jayne Mansfield and The American Fifties (1975), Martha Saxton’s essential biography / feminist analysis of the doomed, messy but fabulous life of Jayne Mansfield /

Born on this day 97 years ago: Mr Universe 1955 Miklós “Mickey” Hargitay (6 January 1926 – 14 September 2006). Forget Liz and Dick or Kanye and Kim: the ultimate trashy, publicity-crazed show business couple was Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay (seen here photographed 17 May 1964).

[bitter69uk]

“It was a successful holiday. The kids had a good time and there were lots of presents. Zoltan got special treatment of course, as well as a robot, a bat, baseballs, a kickstand for his bike and plenty of other things. Jayne was happy to have Zoltan home and happy to have been on the front page for three weeks. She wasn’t callous about Zoltan’s injury. She was terribly upset, but it was natural for her to think of telling the press. She was accustomed to reading about herself and she knew the public would be interested. The news was made, and Jayne wasn’t going to suppress it. She had worked for years to become news and her reward was having the press cooperate with her. There were pictures of Jayne and Zoltan, Jayne, Sam and Jayne, Mickey and Jayne and Zoltan, Jayne and Zoltan on the front pages of newspapers all across the country. Jayne’s grief was transcontinental.”

/ From Jayne Mansfield and the American Fifties by Martha Saxton (1975) /

Pictured: Christmas day 1966 at the Pink Palace, Jayne Mansfield’s final Christmas. (Her fatal car crash was in June 1967). On 27 November 1966 Mansfield and her children were visiting Jungleland USA, a zoo and theme park in the San Fernando Valley, when in a freak accident her six-year-old son Zoltan was severely mauled by a lion. After surgery and weeks of recuperation, Zoltan was allowed home on Christmas morning to be greeted by a twenty-foot tree, a towering mound of gifts and – and perhaps inevitably – a houseful of photographers and journalists. As Mansfield’s most recent biographer Eve Golden recalls in The Girl Couldn’t Help It (2021), “A reporter asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, and Zoltan – his mother’s son when it came to a good quip – told him, “A lion tamer.””

[bitter69uk]

“Not surprisingly, Mickey played Hercules, well-oiled and wearing what seemed to be a very short skating skirt adorned with leather suspenders. Unlike any other male in the movie, Mickey is tanned and greased and so muscle-bound that he can’t walk with his arms at his sides but looks like some kind of great, jerky mechanical bear. The plot, very sketchily, has Mickey’s first wife murdered. He sets out to seek revenge, meets a black-haired tribal queen and falls in love in nine minutes. The black-haired queen is played by Jayne, wearing a black wig and a padded bra. It was some kind of gravitational miracle that she didn’t fall over with all that frontage on her. At any rate, she and Hercules have to overcome a lot of obstacles to their love, including the murderous impulses of the red-haired Amazon queen who captures Hercules. Jayne plays the Amazon queen in a different wig but the same bra. The movie is dubbed in a variety of accents so that Mickey delivers Shakespearean English, Jayne West Coast American and the others sound indigenous to locales between Los Angeles and London … Jayne’s dual roles were an object lesson in male fantasy. She gets to play the demanding, emasculating woman men fear and the demure, passive woman they want.”

/ From Jayne Mansfield and the American Fifties by Martha Saxton, 1975 /

Released in Italian cinemas 63 years ago today (19 August 1960): “sword-and-sandals” peplum film The Loves of Hercules (aka Hercules vs the Hydra) starring fabulous fame-crazed husband and wife duo Mickey Hargitay and Jayne Mansfield, made in Cinemascope at the height of the “Hollywood on the Tiber” era. In the UK at least, this movie is seemingly impossible to see. Over the years some scratchy, faded versions have surfaced on YouTube – but always dubbed exclusively in Italian! Where oh where is the 4K restoration English language director’s cut Blu-ray?

[bitter69uk]

“That summer Jayne went to Germany where she made a movie called Heimweh nach St Pauli, or Homesick for St Pauli with a German rock star named Freddy Quinn, an Elvis Presley imitator. It is a musical in which Jayne sang a couple of songs in German with glockenspiels and accordion in the background. In this country the film was released only in a couple of theatres in Yorktown [sic: she means Yorkville], the German section of New York City. While Jayne was in Munich, she wrote to her friends that she was very upset, confused and unsure of herself. One thing that was one her mind was that she was pregnant.”

/ Jayne Mansfield and the American Fifties by Martha Saxton, 1975 /

“At the end of May Jayne, Mickey Jr and Zoltan flew to Hamburg where Jayne made her first and only German film, Heimweh nach St Pauli (Homesick for St Pauli) … St Pauli was directed by Werner Jacobs, whose long career included German versions of Heidi and The Merry Widow; it was based on a play by Gustav Kampendonk, who also wrote the script. Both men specialized in lightweight, whipped-cream movies and Heimweh nach St Pauli was no exception. The production company, Rapid Film, was not as squeaky-clean, with titles such as Swinging Wives, The Resort Girls and Carnal Campus to its credit, but Jacobs and Kampendonk rose above their producers’ rowdiness and made a film anyone could take their grandmother to see … St Pauli – which was shot very quickly for a big-budget musical – is a silly, enjoyable film with songs and dances crammed in approximately every five minutes …”

/ Jayne Mansfield: The Girl Couldn’t Help It by Eve Golden, 2021 /

(Barely) released on this day (29 August 1963) sixty-one years ago: sex kitten-gone-berserk Jayne Mansfield’s little-seen German film Heimweh nach St Pauli (pictured). Thankfully her ultra-kitsch musical numbers (“Snicksnack Snucklechen” and “Wo ist Der Mann?”) are viewable on YouTube.

[bitter69uk]

“That summer Jayne went to Germany where she made a movie called Heimweh nach St Pauli, or Homesick for St Pauli with a German rock star named Freddy Quinn, an Elvis Presley imitator. It is a musical in which Jayne sang a couple of songs in German with glockenspiels and accordion in the background. In this country the film was released only in a couple of theatres in Yorktown, the German section of New York City. While Jayne was in Munich, she wrote to her friends that she was very upset, confused and unsure of herself. One thing that was one her mind was that she was pregnant.”

/ Jayne Mansfield and the American Fifties by Martha Saxton, 1975 /

“At the end of May Jayne, Mickey Jr and Zoltan flew to Hamburg where Jayne made her first and only German film, Heimweh nach St Pauli (Homesick for St Pauli) … St Pauli was directed by Werner Jacobs, whose long career included German versions of Heidi and The Merry Widow; it was based on a play by Gustav Kampendonk, who also wrote the script. Both men specialized in lightweight, whipped-cream movies and Heimweh nach St Pauli was no exception. The production company, Rapid Film, was not as squeaky-clean, with titles such as Swinging Wives, The Resort Girls and Carnal Campus to its credit, but Jacobs and Kampendonk rose above their producers’ rowdiness and made a film anyone could take their grandmother to see … St Pauli – which was shot very quickly for a big-budget musical – is a silly, enjoyable film with songs and dances crammed in approximately every five minutes …”

/ Jayne Mansfield: The Girl Couldn’t Help It by Eve Golden, 2021 /

(Barely) released on this day (29 August 1963) sixty years ago: sex kitten-gone-berserk Jayne Mansfield’s little-seen German film Heimweh nach St Pauli. Thankfully her ultra-kitsch musical numbers (“Snicksnack Snucklechen” and “Wo ist Der Mann?”) are viewable on YouTube.

[bitter69uk]

"Mickey’s critics like to point out his failures. He succeeded, however, at making Jayne happy for a while. His secret was extreme passivity under the guise of total indulgence … Mickey provided the quiet, super-masculine presence and Jayne provided the excitement.” 

/ From Jayne Mansfield and The American Fifties (1975), Martha Saxton’s essential biography / feminist analysis of the doomed, messy but fabulous life of Jayne Mansfield /

Born on this day 96 years ago: Mr Universe 1955 Miklós “Mickey” Hargitay (6 January 1926 – 14 September 2006). Forget Liz and Dick or Kanye and Kim: the ultimate trashy, publicity-crazed show business couple was Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay.

[bitter69uk]

“Over the years publicity had an effect on Jayne’s perceptions. She ceased to recognize a difference between public and private. Her love affairs and her children were news … She had become the person she and the newsmen had created. She depended upon seeing herself as a way of confirming who she was …  She had come to a point where she simply didn’t know onstage from off … towards the end of her life Jayne was on a TV talk show with Mickey (ex-husband Mickey Hargitay) in the Midwest. Mickey was gaunt having suffered from ulcers and given up bodybuilding. Jayne looked at him and said she was sorry for all the trouble she’d given him and that she wished she had been nicer. Jayne had forgotten that she was on camera or, rather, it made no difference to her.” 

Jayne Mansfield and The American Fifties (1975) by Martha Saxton will always be a sacred text for me. Saxton is exceptionally insightful about the tumultuous, on-off relationship between Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay, my all-time favourite show business couple. I love this moody shot of them, where the public veneer has fleetingly dropped.