OUT ON THE TOWN

Mansfield's image was always of pair-a-mount importance.

And people think movie stars are bold today. This is of course Jayne Mansfield hanging out next to Sophia Loren at a Paramount publicity event that took place today in 1957 at Romanoff’s in Beverly Hills. We shared a couple of shots of the moment several years back, but we ran across them again while poking around the website and they made us laugh so much we resolved to circle back to that momentous night. What amused us—well, a couple of aspects of the photo amused us—but what largely amused us was thinking about how Loren probably dressed that night thinking she was garbed rather smolderingly, then saw Jayne—mother of a six-year-old, by the way, and doing just fine—and felt reality recalibrate. Loren wasn’t comfortable with displays of skin, though she’d been topless in an early career film called Era lui… sì! sì! Being faced by the full Jayne must have sent Loren home pondering where smoldering ended and combustible blew it out the revolving doors. Some might think Jayne’s display a bit over-the-top, but what a Hollywood moment. We tried to resist posting a zoom of the photo. We really did. We really, really did. But it’s historically significant, and so below… Mansfield—you gotta love her.

Los Angeles, Paramount Pictures, Romanoff's, Era lui... sì! sì!, Jayne Mansfield, Sophia Loren

Hollywoodland

April 24 2020

SIDE-EYE FOR THE AGES

Sometimes you simply have to look.

You know you shouldn’t look at them. You try to direct your gaze where it belongs—at the band, or at the Champagne pyramid, or maybe at the roasted baby pig platter. You see people staring and know if you do too they’ll all catch you. But the effort of not looking becomes a Sisyphean task. Lateral gravity becomes your enemy. Your eyes keep getting puuuuulled in that direction and you keep stopping them, just barely, by firing the reverse thrusters full power. But then, after many slow mintues of this torture, you figure, well screw this, maybe one day the planet will be in lockdown and this opportunity won’t even exist. So you decide to take a really good look, just one, to get it out of the way, because if you don’t you’ll be fighting it all night. Plus she wants them to be looked at. Clearly. So you look—and flash! Someone takes a photo and your glance is immortalized as the evil side-eye of all time.

That moment happened April 12, 1957, as Sophia Loren attended a glittering Paramount Pictures dinner where she was the guest of honor. It was held at Romanoff’s in Beverly Hills, a chic and popular restaurant, and Mansfield—being Mansfield—arrived last and sucked up the oxygen in the room like a magnesium fire. Every camera in the joint was following her—and by extension Loren, because the seating chart had placed them adjacent. Loren was a big star, but stars sometimes get trapped in other stars’ orbits. Loren and Mansfield got locked into the same space-time continuum, eyes moved to boobs, and the infamous photo was shot. The images of the encounter were all in black and white. What you see above is a colorization, a pretty nice one, except the retoucher didn’t do their homework. Mansfield’s dress was pink that night. She nearly always wore pink. It was her favorite color. Even her house was pink.

The colorization below gets the dress right, and this second angle shows just how much skin Mansfield was revealing, which gives a clearer indication why Loren had to look. Mansfield’s nipples were coming out. They had fishhooked Loren’s eyes. She couldn’t not look. Not not doing something is an ethical conundrum we’ve discussed before, and it’s baffled some of the greatest minds of all time. As you might imagine, Loren hates the shot. Sometimes fans ask her to autograph it and she says she always refuses. The dinner that night was intended to welcome her to Hollywood. Well, she was welcomed in more ways than one. Mansfield showed her a surefire method for playing the celebrity game, by always making a big entrance—even if it meant almost making a big exit from her dress.

Los Angeles, Paramount Pictures, Romanoff's, Sophia Loren, Jayne Mansfield, Michael Romanoff

ABOUT

EMAIL

LEGAL

SEARCH PULP INTERNATIONAL

PULP INTL.
HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

January 18

1967—Boston Strangler Convicted

Albert DeSalvo, the serial killer who became known as the Boston Strangler, is convicted of murder and other crimes and sentenced to life in prison. He serves initially in Bridgewater State Hospital, but he escapes and is recaptured. Afterward he is transferred to federal prison where six years later he is killed by an inmate or inmates unknown.

January 17

1950—The Great Brinks Robbery Occurs

In the U.S., eleven thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car company’s offices in Boston, Massachusetts. The skillful execution of the crime, with only a bare minimum of clues left at the scene, results in the robbery being billed as “the crime of the century.” Despite this, all the members of the gang are later arrested.

January 17

1977—Gary Gilmore Is Executed

Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on Capital punishment in the United States. Gilmore’s story is later turned into a 1979 novel entitled The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer, and the book wins the Pulitzer Prize for literature.

January 16

1942—Carole Lombard Dies in Plane Crash

American actress Carole Lombard, who was the highest paid star in Hollywood during the late 1930s, dies in the crash of TWA Flight 3, on which she was flying from Las Vegas to Los Angeles after headlining a war bond rally in support of America’s military efforts. She was thirty-three years old.

January 15

1919—Luxemburg and Liebknecht Are Killed

Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps. Freikorps was a term applied to various paramilitary organizations that sprang up around Germany as soldiers returned in defeat from World War I. Members of these groups would later become prominent members of the SS.

DON GIOVANNI

Giovanni Benvenuti was one of Italy's most prolific paperback cover artists. His unique style is on display in multiple collections within our website.

WALKING AFTER MIDNIGHT