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Diamonds to Dust: The Life and Death of Jayne Mansfield
The True Story of The Original Tabloid Blonde!
Before Anna Nicole, Before Pam Anderson, there was Jayne Mansfield. The original working mom with severe determination and drive. The original Playboy centerfold, the first huge Hollywood star to appear nude in a film. Marriage, Divorces, Five Children, Success and Disappointment, the Story of Jayne Mansfield's life has it all, and I'm happy to tell the true story of TV Star Mariska Hargitay's mothers life!
Before Anna Nicole, Before Pam Anderson, there was Jayne Mansfield. The original working mom with severe determination and drive. The original Playboy centerfold, the first huge Hollywood star to appear nude in a film. Marriage, Divorces, Five Children, Success and Disappointment, the Story of Jayne Mansfield's life has it all, and I'm happy to tell the true story of TV Star Mariska Hargitay's mothers life!
120 pages, Paperback
First published June 18, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 11, 2022
Having seen Jayne Mansfield switch on Blackpool illuminations as a youngster and remembering that Linda and I were on Bournemouth railway station when news of her untimely death came through, I thought it would be interested to read a biography of her. How wrong I was as, even though there are some interesting biographical details in the book, it is mostly the author's opinion as to how he felt about his idol. But more distressing was the appalling editing, spelling, grammar and punctuation plus the many illustrations are a hotch-potch, one to a page whatever the size. It must rate as possibly the worst book I have ever read taking all that into account.
Born Vera-Jayne Palmer on 19 April 1933 in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, she became a Mansfield when she married Paul of that ilk and, after he had served a short prison sentence, the family, she had daughter Jayne-Marie very soon after the marriage, moved to Los Angeles because Jayne had set her heart on becoming a star. The author states, 'So the new buxom blonde set out determined to wipe the floor with Hollywood's current blonde Marilyn Monroe and all of her current imitators.'
He first movie role was in 'The Female Jungle', a B-movie for her role in which she was paid $100. Her second movie was with Jane Russell, who she tried to outdo by 'squeezing into a red bikini, which just happened to become untied while she was swimming in the pool'! When her and Paul divorced, she said unashamedly, 'I like the sound of Jayne Mansfield, it sounds like the name of a famous movie star.'
She later married Mickey Hargitay, a Hungarian bodybuilder, and they moved to Hollywood. She later switched studios from Warner Brothers to Fox where she was hailed as a 'Super Monroe' after the success of the rock 'n' roll film 'The Girl Can't Help It'. And it was Hollywood where she pulled off one of her famous publicity stunts when trying, and succeeding in part, to upstage Sophie Loren when the latter was being welcomed to America at Romanoff's.
Movie followed movie, she had a tangled love life, with Mexican divorces being recognised and then not recognised, had five children and lived in a residence named the Pink Palace. In later times she did some cabaret work, posed for Playboy, had various affairs, toured in the play 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' and visited the UK.
Then after doing a show in Biloxi, Mississippi, she took the fateful car journey to New Orleans, where she was scheduled to do a morning talk show that ended with the accident that caused her untimely death on 29 June 1967. Thereafter the proceedings became messy as there were many claims on her estate. And Ferruccio summed up the final act of her funeral with 'It was a huge circus f publicity, a last farewell that Jayne would have loved, she was the Star again, for one last time.'
Having said all that, I leave it for those who choose to read the book to decide how they feel about the poor standard of the text.
Born Vera-Jayne Palmer on 19 April 1933 in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, she became a Mansfield when she married Paul of that ilk and, after he had served a short prison sentence, the family, she had daughter Jayne-Marie very soon after the marriage, moved to Los Angeles because Jayne had set her heart on becoming a star. The author states, 'So the new buxom blonde set out determined to wipe the floor with Hollywood's current blonde Marilyn Monroe and all of her current imitators.'
He first movie role was in 'The Female Jungle', a B-movie for her role in which she was paid $100. Her second movie was with Jane Russell, who she tried to outdo by 'squeezing into a red bikini, which just happened to become untied while she was swimming in the pool'! When her and Paul divorced, she said unashamedly, 'I like the sound of Jayne Mansfield, it sounds like the name of a famous movie star.'
She later married Mickey Hargitay, a Hungarian bodybuilder, and they moved to Hollywood. She later switched studios from Warner Brothers to Fox where she was hailed as a 'Super Monroe' after the success of the rock 'n' roll film 'The Girl Can't Help It'. And it was Hollywood where she pulled off one of her famous publicity stunts when trying, and succeeding in part, to upstage Sophie Loren when the latter was being welcomed to America at Romanoff's.
Movie followed movie, she had a tangled love life, with Mexican divorces being recognised and then not recognised, had five children and lived in a residence named the Pink Palace. In later times she did some cabaret work, posed for Playboy, had various affairs, toured in the play 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' and visited the UK.
Then after doing a show in Biloxi, Mississippi, she took the fateful car journey to New Orleans, where she was scheduled to do a morning talk show that ended with the accident that caused her untimely death on 29 June 1967. Thereafter the proceedings became messy as there were many claims on her estate. And Ferruccio summed up the final act of her funeral with 'It was a huge circus f publicity, a last farewell that Jayne would have loved, she was the Star again, for one last time.'
Having said all that, I leave it for those who choose to read the book to decide how they feel about the poor standard of the text.
November 24, 2015
OMG where do I even begin on how horrible this book was! Its easier to do a top 5 reasons why it was horrible and then explain.
1. It was nothing but an opinion piece by the author. He puts his love for Jayne Mansfield aside to give his opinion on everything. I don't even know if you could call this a nonfiction biography because of how much opinion he puts in and not enough facts. This wouldn't even be a C+ book report because of how bad it was.
2. The editing is so horrible my book is bleeding from me editing it. The misspellings, words were capitalized randomly, random comas or a lack of comas, etc. Did no one read this book before it was printed because seriously the whole book is littered with mistakes. He doesn't even stay in the correct tense. One minute he's writing in the past tense and then in the present tense yet he's talking about past events. This especially confusing because Jayne is dead so you can't talk in present tense about her like she's alive.
3. Where were the facts? I basically was reading a longer version of Wikipedia. No sources are listed, no actual quotes by anyone and each chapter is just a list of this happened then this happened. 2 pages to sum up a whole period of her life?
4. Its such a short book but then again with the mistakes and the opinions I don't think I would have finished it if it went on any longer. But seriously Jayne Mansfield is an interesting person so how is there not more information to put in this book? 52 pages were used for photos. I love the photos but they didn't need to take up most of the book especially photos that were small and yet took up a whole page. The chapters were so tiny because again no actual facts were put in there.
5. What was the point of this book? The author's website would have been the best place for this information. I seriously regret paying money and reading a book on Jayne Mansfield that fell beyond par. This isn't even a high school level book because of how poorly it was written.
DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME READING THIS!
1. It was nothing but an opinion piece by the author. He puts his love for Jayne Mansfield aside to give his opinion on everything. I don't even know if you could call this a nonfiction biography because of how much opinion he puts in and not enough facts. This wouldn't even be a C+ book report because of how bad it was.
2. The editing is so horrible my book is bleeding from me editing it. The misspellings, words were capitalized randomly, random comas or a lack of comas, etc. Did no one read this book before it was printed because seriously the whole book is littered with mistakes. He doesn't even stay in the correct tense. One minute he's writing in the past tense and then in the present tense yet he's talking about past events. This especially confusing because Jayne is dead so you can't talk in present tense about her like she's alive.
3. Where were the facts? I basically was reading a longer version of Wikipedia. No sources are listed, no actual quotes by anyone and each chapter is just a list of this happened then this happened. 2 pages to sum up a whole period of her life?
4. Its such a short book but then again with the mistakes and the opinions I don't think I would have finished it if it went on any longer. But seriously Jayne Mansfield is an interesting person so how is there not more information to put in this book? 52 pages were used for photos. I love the photos but they didn't need to take up most of the book especially photos that were small and yet took up a whole page. The chapters were so tiny because again no actual facts were put in there.
5. What was the point of this book? The author's website would have been the best place for this information. I seriously regret paying money and reading a book on Jayne Mansfield that fell beyond par. This isn't even a high school level book because of how poorly it was written.
DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME READING THIS!
March 4, 2010
Wow! What an interesting fact filled book! I like books I can read in one night, and this is a page turner! Buy It now!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews