Jayne Makes
Her Debut
Soon after Paul
was sent to Korea, Jayne headed west once again to Dallas.
She took classes including drama at Southern Methodist University
and earned a living by modeling. She also occasionally posed
nude for the universities women's art classes and it was
also at this time she had at least one session with a Dallas
photographer posing nude. Her thespian debut occurred on
September 21, 1951 in the Austin Civic Theatre's production
of Ten Nights in a Barroom.
She struck up
a friendship with Baruch Lumbet, father of Sydney Lumbet.
He suggested Jayne take acting courses at the Dallas Institute
of Performing Arts. When she confessed she couldn't even
afford a babysitter, let alone acting classes, he took pity
on the girl and gave her free classes. This led to a role
in the local production Death of a Salesman. Milton Lewis,
head of talent at Paramount Studios came to a performance,
and told Lumbet, "Let me know when she's ready to come to
Hollywood."
In 1954 Paul
returned to Korea and grudgingly agreed to pack up the family
Buick and head west to Hollywood so Jayne could follow her
lifelong dream of stardom. Later she would recall upon crossing
the California border, she got out of the car, kissed the
ground and proclaimed, "I am home!"
She showed up
in Hollywood, with no friends and without an agent. Without
wasting any time, she called up Paramount Studios and said,
"I want to be an actress. I have modeled and won many beauty
contests. What do I do?" Enter the talent department. On
April 30 she met with Milton Lewis, and had a screen test
for Joan of Arc. She reported after the test the man who
saw it said she was a good actress, but her figure was too
distracting for him, and if it was distracting for him,
it would be for everyone else. A few days later she then
tested for The Seven Year Itch, which led to nowhere.
Paul anxious
to get done with this little experiment and head back to
Dallas, gave her the ultimatum. Her marriage or her career.
She sent Paul back to Dallas without question. He tried
to gain custody of Jayne Marie with the position that his
wife's nude photos were hardly suitable for a fit mother.
His motion was denied. The newly freed Jayne became a habitual
party crasher, and at this time took on an on again off
again relationship with
Steve Cochran, an actor who lived across the road.
(Steve allegedly had an affairs with Joan Crawford,
Mamie
Van Doren and Mae
West.)
Her first television
appearance was for Lux Video Theater in the live broadcast
of The Angel Went AWOL on October 21, 1954. The story goes,
she was hired by the producer, after she painstakingly sat
in his office for three days. Finally she scribbled a note
to him, and had it delivered. The card read simply "40-22-34".
With measurements like that on her 5-foot-5-1/2 117-pound
frame apparently was impressive to the producer. The note
got her hired in the head spinning time of 30 seconds!
With her television
appearance under her belt, she was offered a minor role
in the production Hangover, which was re-titled The Female
Jungle. This role led to nothing, and she returned to the
theater where she worked selling popcorn. Upon seeing The
Female Jungle for the first time in New York, she recalled
her eyes filling with tears and she said, "I loved seeing
me up there on the screen. I was filled with a chill. I
had finally made it and wanted to stay there. 'I love you
Jayne Mansfield," I told my image. 'I'll work hard for you!
Nothing or no one could ever make me let you down.'"
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