Who is Jayne Mansfield?
Jayne Mansfield was an American actress and model of the 1950s and 60s, famous for her extreme hourglass figure and her trademark high-pitched squeal. Though she saw some success in Hollywood, her public bombshell persona, complete with wardrobe malfunctions, gained her the most public attention. Jayne Mansfield exemplified the dumb blonde, but was reportedly a genius in real life, with an IQ of 163. Jayne Mansfield was born on 19 April 1933 in Pennsylvania, but lived in New Jersey with her parents, Herbert and Vera, during her early years. Mansfield showed an interest in performing very early on, often singing to an audience of stuffed animals. When she was three years old, her father died of a heart attack. She claimed to have fond memories of him, though she was so young at the time of his death. Three years later, Vera remarried and the family moved to Dallas, Texas. After a trip to Hollywood, California in 1946, Jayne Mansfield was sure her true calling was as a movie star. She ma
” “Why she’s a big movie star, you little dope.” For those too young to remember, Jayne Mansfield was a blonde bombshell in the mold of Marilyn Monroe (about a year later, just like Marilyn, she died tragically young) and was then making a big splash as one of the era’s great sex symbols. Mansfield had become the recent sister-in-law of a resident who lived on Aspen Street whose husband, Jerry Lamonica, was a good enough tenor to sing at the prestigious State Theatre in New York City. Years later I ran with her son, Tommy, who was a budding track star at Floral Park Memorial. That summer she was visiting her in-laws and it caused quite a commotion. Ted Caragol, Judge Caragol’s son, was then in his early 20s and remembers the first time she walked out of Levines stationery store in one of those revealing, eye-popping outfits precipitating mass cardiac arrest of every male in the vicinity of Tulip Avenue. Passing cars were practically riding up on the sidewalk, Ted laughingly recalled. I
