Classic Entertainment Autographs

Cat. #0016635: JAYNE MANSFIELD

Rare and FANTASTICALLY campy vintage 8x10-inch black and white borderless glossy portrait of the bikini-bound beauty on a film set, posing with a poodle and a chihuahua, boldly signed in blue ballpoint pen, we believe for the unidentified woman shown on the left side. In good condition for its age, with minor edgewear and a few light surface creases. Despite a prodigious I.Q., and remarkable abilities to play both the piano and violin in childhood, Jayne Mansfield was increasingly drawn to the popular entertainment industry, and, having blossomed into a breathtaking beauty in adulthood, she found work as eye candy in films and on stage  from 1954 onward. Her high-pitched squeal of delight and the studied ease with which she flaunted her pulchritude led to a succession of roles as sex kittens and dumb blonde bombshells B-pictures like Female Jungle (1955), Illegal (1955), The Girl Can't Help It (1956), Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957), Kiss Them for Me (1957), The Loves of Hercules (1960), Playgirl After Dark (1960), It Happened in Athens (1962), Promises... Promises! (1963), and Panic Button (1964). The delightfully trashy bombshell was a constant source of gossip in the press, which touted her affairs with luminaries like J.F.K. and his younger brother, Bobby, dubbing her "The Poor Man's Marilyn Monroe". Her tragic death at age 34 was equally sensational:  In 1967, while traveling along Highway 90 from a nightclub in Mississippi to New Orleans for a television appearance, she was instantly killed when her car slammed into the back of a semi-tractor trailer truck at a speed of 80 miles per hour. Rumors that Mansfield was decapitated began when police photographers found her platinum blonde wig on the dashboard of the car.