Jayne Mansfield in Male Call

From the collection of

The Box
Established in 1992, the South West Film & Television Archive collection spans from 1893 to the present day containing more than 250,000 items. Formed from a variety of depositors, including broadcast news and programmes material from the Westward and TSW archive. In 2018 the archive collection transferred to The Box in Plymouth.

Jayne Mansfield in Male Call


Jayne Mansfield turns it on for the camera at the Webbington Country Club.

Jayne Mansfield arrives at the Webbington Country Club Axbridge with her promoter Alan Wells and is interviewed by TV reporter David Mudd. She reportedly broke with promoter Don Arden after refusing to perform in a see-through dress and apparently received £3000 for appearing at this venue near Weston-super-Mare. Her show included anecdotes, singing and violin-playing. Almost exactly two months later Jayne Mansfield was killed in a car accident in Louisiana.

Born Vera Jayne Palmer, Jayne Mansfield signed to Twentieth Century Fox and gained recognition in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957) and The Girl Can't Help It (1956). Mansfield appeared nude in Promises! Promises! (1963) to rival Marilyn Monroe who was to have appeared nude in Something's Got to Give (1962). Mansfield appeared nude in Hugh Hefner's Playboy magazine and thereafter failed to shake the poor man's Marilyn Monroe image. By 1962 she was dropped by the studio and her career was on the wane. Rumours abounded while she toured the UK of an album with John Lennon, a role in the West End production of The Prince And The Showgirl and of a possible Bond girl role in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969).


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