Friday, September 25, 2009

JAYNE MANSFIELD'S HOUSE


There it is (above), the famous Pink Palace at 10100 Sunset Blvd. in Beverly Hills.



Jayne lived there with husband Mickey Hargitay, a body builder and contractor.



Most of the rooms were pink, with a few accents of black or purple. That's Jayne on the balcony overlooking the living room.



Here (above) the wall appears to be painted white, maybe to fit with the white piano. It actually saw a lot of use. Jayne was classically trained on both piano and violin. You can hear her play on the net. She's not bad.






Above, the famous pink bathroom, done in pink shag and terrycloth. You could dry off just by wiggling against the wall.



I like to think that after a nice bath Jayne relaxed in an angora bikini.



Or maybe she didn't. Five kids must've kept her pretty busy. Here's the nursery. It's the way I imagine Liberace must have spent his childhood.



Here (above) she reclines on her black silk bed spread surrounded by...guess what...more pink! But what the heck is that white mist on the floor? Did she have a fog machine in the bedroom? If she did, my admiration knows no bounds.



It must have been hard for Mickey to live around pink all the time.



No doubt there were times when Mickey just had to escape from all that pink....escape into his own room where everything was...red. Quilted red, too...even the ceiling!



This (above) is the way I'd like to think all of Beverly Hills used to be, but maybe only Jayne and Liberace lived up to the ideal. Did they visit each other and compare notes?



Outdoors, the famous heart-shaped pool.



I'm willing to bet the barbecue area was pink too, even though it appears blue in the photo.



I don't know why, but I'd like to think that Peter Lorre and his family lived next door. Can you imagine him at Jayne's back door, borrowing a cup of sugar?



24 comments:

Zoran Taylor said...

I here I was thinking garish colour was invented in 1965!

thomas said...

Peter Lorre next door. Why not?

I'd imagine them getting long really well.

They both had a sense of humor about themselves.

They'd have made a great comedy team .

Lester Hunt said...

Wow, I didn't realize she was that wealthy. How the heck did she rake in all that dough? It's hard to believe that she and Mr. Hargitay earned it making movies like "The Loves of Herkules," but stranger things have happened in America.

Anonymous said...

Peter Lorre must have attempted to borrow a cup of blood sausage numerous times from Jayne, but always left disappointed.

Ricardo Cantoral said...

Peter Lorre ! LOL ! The contrast is too hilarous.



OT Eddie but last night I saw Angels With Dirty Faces. I just LOVE old fashion slums featured in the films. Don't you ?

Kali Fontecchio said...

Lorre next door??????

That red room looks like an expensive insane asylum!

I.D.R.C. said...

It must have been hard for Mickey to live around pink all the time

My theory is he was color-blind.

Anonymous said...

Celebrities used to be interesting people. 100 years from now people will still be nostalgic for the golden days of hollywood but noone will care about Lindsay Lohan and The cast of Gossip Girl

Anonymous said...

Hilarious self caricature on the top right! Don Martin meets Hirschfeld

Anonymous said...

Can you imagine the oppurtunity for observation as a cartoonist of havine Peter Lorre as your next door neighbour!

Anonymous said...

They should make a show about a place where all the classic celebrities live across from each other, except it's them in their screen personas.

Eddie, your side banner is a great new touch to the site. I love that drawing of you, but that last sentence made laugh so hard I threw out my back.

Craig said...

"It must have been hard for Mickey to live around pink all the time"
Eyes-Of-Love probably only allowed him to see voluptuous green.

Zoran Taylor said...

Anon: Yeah, imagine what you could do with that! You could turn him into a sociopathic chihuahua and make him live in a surreal shape-shifting landscape with a big fat red cat who sounds like Larry Fine! Of course, no such thing exists yet - you can't make stuff like that up. You'd have to see it firsthand. It's too bad, though - that would make a pretty good show, would it not?

Jenny Lerew said...

Nah, Lorre lived in Hollywood in a much more modest house-I could show you where it is. You know, Englebert Humperdinck bought this place after Hargitay sold it and lived there for a long time. Of course it's all different now but I believe even the current owners kept the heart-shaped pool(at least I hope they have).
My friends from high school grew up with Mariska Hargitay, Jayne's daughter; back then Jayne was a kind of a forgotten sex kitten, and all my friends knew of her was that she'd been killed in that horrible accident. She also was a very intelligent woman(wasn't she a member of MENSA?), read a lot and as you say was classically trained musically, a terrific comedienne and did an awful lot of performances on Broadway--something the woman she made her fame imitating (Monroe) could never have pulled off as it takes memorizing lines, blocking, performing live-and great stamina.
From these pictures I think she also had a great sense of showmanship-and humor.

Sean Worsham said...

Living cartoon-like legends at their finest ;).

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Jenny: Glad you like Mansfield, and you gave good reasons. I came across an NYTimes review of her poetry record, which they panned. I thought it was terrific. She actually seemed to have a passion for the material. I have no trouble believing she really did have more brains than people gave her credit for.

Anonymous said...

If you look at the critics the Times had back then they were always these dour British men, it's funny to read reviews by guys with names like Basil Crawlethenger III pan classics like Breathless and Seven Samurai

buzz said...

Yowza! Wotta house! A perfect fit for the occupants, tho!

aaa j ii a vvvvvvv a jjj i aaaa v said...

The textures being repeated on floors, wall, and ceiling make it feel very enclosed, claustrophobic. Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit staged inside a Hostess cupcake.

Carol said...

I've never seen these pictures. Thank you fir posting them!!
I want her house for reference.... Incredible.

Anonymous said...

That is one house I would not want to see in person, I cannot understand how someone would spend$$$ on that!

Anonymous said...

jayne mansfield was a very good actress,she appeared in many film,she and micky where a beuatiful couple.jayne had five children and had such a short life,hope they are both happy now.susanxxxx

Anonymous said...

Is there a google map of the pink place before it was razed?

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Anon: I don't know about the map. I didn't know the house doesn't exist anymore. I was looking forward to seeing it.