June 29, 1967: The Death of Jayne Mansfield

June 29, 1967: Actress Jayne Mansfield is killed in a car crash. She was 34 years old.

Vera Jayne Palmer was born on April 19, 1933 in the Philadelphia suburb of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Highland Park, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. She took violin lessons, and, in 1957, after becoming a star, played the violin on The Ed Sullivan Show. She was better than Henny Youngman, and better than Jack Benny pretended to be.

In 1950, she married public relations executive Paul Mansfield -- she was 17, and 3 months pregnant, and he was 20 -- and began using the stage name Jayne Mansfield. Late that year, their daughter, Jayne Marie Mansfield, was born.

In 1955, she did a nude spread in Playboy magazine, starred on Broadway in the comedy Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? By early 1957, she had starred in the film version of it, and in one of the early rock-and-roll-themed films, The Girl Can't Help It. 

Just as every record label had decided that it has to have its own version of Elvis Presley, so, too, did every film studio decide that it now needed its own version of Marilyn Monroe. 20th Century Fox had Marilyn, and, in Jayne, with her platinum-blonde hair (in her case, unlike Marilyn's, natural) and her large breasts (bigger than Marilyn's), Fox seemed to have "the next Monroe." Unfortunately, like Marilyn, she was considerably smarter than the "dumb blonde" roles the studios tended to give her.

In 1963, she appeared in the comedy Promises! Promises! This made her the 1st mainstream American actress to appear nude in a starring role. This was a key event in the breaking down of the Hays Code, although she would not live to see its complete fall. In 1964, an election year, in a play on her figure, she appeared in a pinup book titled Jayne Mansfield for President: The White House or Bust.

Another unfortunate way in which her life paralleled Marilyn's was in having her personal life be a mess. By the time she became a star, her 1st marriage was effectively over, due to infidelities on both sides, but the divorce was not finalized until 1958.

This enabled her to marry Miklós "Mickey" Hargitay, a Hungarian-born bodybuilder-turned-actor, a contemporary of Steve Reeves and a precursor to Arnold Schwarzenegger. They had 2 sons, Miklós Jr. (or "Mickey Jr.") and Zoltán; and a daughter, Mariska. But, again, the marriage was stormy, and both of them cheated.

Soon after their divorce in 1964, she married Matteo Ottaviano, an Italian film director using the name Matt Cimber. They had a son, Tony Cimber, but this marriage also collapsed, as Jayne couldn't stop drinking or sleeping around. She even told Matt that the only man who had ever made her happy was Nelson Sardelli, a singer who she was seeing during both her 2nd and 3rd marriages.

She began an affair with her lawyer, Sam Brody. He helped jump-start her singing career, and booked her at the Gus Stevens Supper Club in the resort city of Biloxi, Mississippi in June 1967. She played 2 shows on June 28, and was due to appear on a radio show in New Orleans, 87 miles to the southwest, the next afternoon.

Jayne's last concert

Jayne, Sam, and their 20-year-old driver, Ronnie Harrison, were in the front seat of a 1966 Buick Electra 225.  Sam was in the front passenger seat, and the driver was Ronnie Harrison, only 20 years old. Miklós, Zoltán and Mariska were in the back seat. (Jayne Jr. and Tony were living with their fathers.)

At 2:25 AM on June 29, on U.S. Route 90, about 20 miles northeast of New Orleans, the car crashed into the back of a tractor-trailer, which had slowed down to maneuver around a truck that was flashing a red light, because it was spraying insecticide. The adults were all killed. The children sustained minor injuries. Jayne was 34 -- 2 years younger than Marilyn Monroe was when she died in 1962.

An urban legend said that Jayne was decapitated. She wasn't, although it was a head injury that caused her death, instantaneously.

In 1976, Jayne Marie Mansfield became the 1st daughter of a Playboy "Playmate" to also become one. She also followed her mother into acting. So did Mariska Hargitay, who plays Detective, now Captain, Olivia Benson on the NBC crime drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She holds the record for longest tenure playing a single character in the history of American prime-time television.

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June 29, 1967 was a Thursday. There were 6 baseball games played:

* The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 at Shea Stadium. Jim Bunning pitched a 3-hit shutout, beating Jack Fisher. The only run came in the top of the 4th inning, when Bobby Wine singled Clay Dalrymple home.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Frank Robinson did not play.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 14-0 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 2-for-5. Tony Pérez went 4-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Milt Pappas, whom the Reds traded Frank Robinson for, pitched a 5-hit shutout. Don Drysdale was knocked out of the box in the 2nd inning, having allowed 8 runs.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline did not play.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks went 2-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Roberto Clemente went 3-for-5.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 12-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. With 9 hits, 2 walks and an error, the Giants scored 11 runs in the 1st inning, before the Cardinals even came to bat. This was with Bob Gibson as the opposing starting pitcher: They scored 7 before Gibson could even record an out. Gibson came into the game with an ERA for the season of 3.01, and left it with 3.68.

And then, in the bottom of the 1st, the Cardinals started with 4 straight hits and 2 runs off Giant starter Joe Gibbon. Manager Herman Franks pulled Gibbon, and Bobby Bolin then allowed 2 runs on 7 hits over 9 innings. Willie Mays went 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs.

On July 15, the Cardinals lost to the Pirates, partly due to Gibson taking a Clemente line drive off his leg, resulting in a broken fibula that kept him out for nearly 2 months. At the time, the Cards led the National League, leading the Cubs and Reds by 4 games each, the Giants by 4 1/2, and the Atlanta Braves by 6. But even without Gibson, they pulled away, and ended up winning the Pennant by 10 1/2 games over the Giants.