I don't know about you, but I seem to know a startlingly large number of people who are Jayne Mansfield fans - serious ones, too, not just glancingly nostalgic ones.
I'm talking people willing to sit through the most crapulous of her vehicles (and that's saying something) as well as the far too few gems she left behind. People who can knowledgeably discuss everything from the décor of her fabled Pink Palace to the exact itinerary of the ill-fated cabaret tour that took her to that dark highway outside Biloxi, Mississippi in 1967
But here, a decade earlier in August of 1957, all that's far in the future. Jayne's a star, and while she makes a game attempt to play the game, she's quickly found out (although she's a pretty good whistler, don't you think?).
As charming as she is, it's the rest of the episode that really catches my eye. First up we have exactly the kind of offbeat occupation that brings out the best in the panel, and it's the second guest, not the Hollywood Mystery Challenger, who I've decided is my spirit animal for the coming fall. Mrs. Grace Clarke of Houston, Texas, is a card, pure and simple, and I think she'd be a hoot to take out for a drink at Toots Shor's after the show, don't you?
Well that was fun. All interesting guests and this is Jayne's best appearance on the show that I've seen, her later ones showed her as decidedly frowzy and a bit rough around the edges. Disregarding the uber blonde hair you can definitely see shades of Mariska Hargitay in her face.
ReplyDeleteThese shows are such a rabbit hole for me, I start and I can't stop especially the mystery guests. Bennett Cerf was certainly erudite and sharp but sometimes I can't help finding him an insufferable ass, however I absolutely love John Daly and of course the Misses Francis and Kilgallen.