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1-6 of 6
- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
One of the leading sex symbols of the 1950s and 1960s, film actress Jayne Mansfield was born Vera Jayne Palmer on April 19, 1933 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, the only child of Vera J. (nee Palmer; later Peers) and Herbert W. Palmer. Her parents were well-to-do, with her father a successful attorney in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, where she spent a portion of her childhood. Her parents were both born with the same surname, and her ancestry was seven eighths English and Cornish and one eighth German. She was reportedly a talented pianist and played the violin when she was young.
Tragedy struck when Jayne was three, when her father suddenly died of a heart attack. Three years later, her mother remarried and she and her mother moved to Dallas, Texas, buying a small home where she had violin concerts in the driveway of their home. Her IQ was reportedly 163, and she attended the University of Dallas and participated in little-theater productions. In 1949, at the age of 16, she married a man five years her senior named Paul Mansfield. In November 1950, when Jayne was seventeen, their daughter, Jayne Marie Mansfield was born. The union ended in divorce but she kept the surname Mansfield as a good surname for an actress.
After some productions there and elsewhere, Jayne decided to go to Hollywood. Her first film was a bit role as a cigarette girl in Pete Kelly's Blues (1955). Although the roles in the beginning were not much, she was successful in gaining those roles because of her ample physical attributes which placed her in two other films that year, Hell on Frisco Bay (1955) and Illegal (1955). Her breakout role came the next year with a featured part in The Burglar (1957). By the time she portrayed Rita Marlowe in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957) and Playgirl After Dark (1960), Jayne was now known as the poor man's Marilyn Monroe. She did not get the plum roles that Marilyn got in her productions. Instead, her films were more of a showcase for her body more than anything else. She did have a real talent for acting, but the movie executives insisted she stay in her dumb blonde stereotype roles. By the 1960s, her career had options that grew lower. She made somewhat embarrassing guest appearances like on the popular game show What's My Line? (1950), she appeared on the show four times in 1956, 1957, 1964, and 1966 and many other 1950s and 1960s game shows. By 1962, she was dropped from 20th Century Fox and the rest of her career had smaller options like being in B movies and low budget movies or performing at food stores or small nightclubs.
While traveling from a nightclub in Biloxi, Mississippi and 30 miles from New Orleans to where she was to be on television the following day, she was killed instantly on Highway 90 in Slidell, Louisiana in a car crash in the early hours of June 29, 1967, when the car in which she was riding slammed into the back of a semi-tractor trailer truck that had stopped due to a truck in front of the tractor trailer that was spraying for bugs. Her car went under the truck at nearly 80 miles per hour. Her boyfriend Samuel Brody and their driver Ronnie Harrison, were also killed. The damage to the car was so bad that the engine was twisted sideways. She was not, however, decapitated, as had long been misreported. She was 34 years old.
Mansfield's funeral was on July 3, 1967 and hundreds of people lined the main street of Pen Argyl for Mansfield's funeral, a small private ceremony at Fairview Cemetery in Plainfield (outside Pen Argyl), Pennsylvania (where her father was also buried), attended by her family. The only ex-husband to attend was Mickey Hargitay. Her final film, Single Room Furnished (1966), was released the following year. In 2000, Mansfield's 97 year old mother, Mrs. Vera Peers, was interred alongside Mansfield.
After Mansfield's death, Mansfield's mother, as well as her ex-husband Mickey Hargitay, William Pigue (legal guardian for her daughter, Jayne Marie), Charles Goldring (Mansfield's business manager), and Bernard B. Cohen and Jerome Webber (both administrators of the estate) all filed unsuccessful suits to gain control of her estate, which was initially estimated at $600,000 ($3,712,000 in 2018 dollars), including the Pink Palace (estimated at $100,000 ($619,000 in 2018 dollars)), a sports car sold for $7,000 ($43,000 in 2018 dollars), her jewelry, and Sam Brody's $185,000 estate left to her in his last will ($1,145,000 in 2018 dollars).
In 1971, Beverly Brody sued the Mansfield estate for $325,000 ($2,011,000 in 2018 dollars) worth of presents and jewelry given to Mansfield by Sam Brody; the suit was settled out of court.
In 1977, Mansfield's four eldest children (Jayne Marie, Mickey, Zoltan, and Mariska) went to court to discover that some $500,000 in debt which Mansfield had incurred ($3,093,000 in 2018 dollars) and litigation had left the estate insolvent.- He turned to boxing in his early youth and initially had an amateur career. Carnera had his first professional fight in September 1928: He defeated Leon Sebilo by knockout. in the second round. Carnera also won the following five fights, only to lose to Franz Diener in Leipzig due to a disqualification. Further victories followed, including against Young Stribling. In the 1930s, Carnera took part in several fights in the USA. He won his first 17 encounters with American boxing by knockout victory. In February 1933, Carnera took on Ernie Schaaf in New York, whom he knocked out in the 13th round. defeated. His opponent died two days later as a result of his battle injuries.
In June 1933, Carnera won against Jack Sharkey in New York, becoming the world heavyweight boxing champion. The new world champion was able to successfully defend his title twice, against Paulino Uzcudun and Tommy Loughran, and was exploited as an Italian national hero by Benito Mussolini's fascist regime. Carnera then lost the world title in June 1934 to Max Baer, who knocked him out in the 11th round. defeated. A year later he also suffered a defeat against the future boxing world champion Joe Louis. Because of a kidney removal in 1938, the diabetic was forced to stay away from boxing for several years.
During this time he was able to celebrate some success as a boxing actor in Hollywood. Carnera attempted a comeback in professional boxing in 1945, which initially started well with two victories. However, after three consecutive defeats against Luigi Mussina, he finally retired from active boxing. The former boxer then began a second sports career as a wrestler in 1946, which he continued successfully into the 1960s. In 1947, Budd Schulberg wrote the novel "The Harder They Fall", about a boxer whose fights were arranged, and which was made into a Hollywood film in 1956.
Since Carnera had always been said to have contacts with the underworld, he was immediately identified with the leading role in "The Harder They Fall". The former boxer sued the film company that made the novel, but without success. Carnera married Giuseppina Kovacic in 1953, with whom he obtained American citizenship, settled in Los Angeles and had two children. - Cinematographer
- Director
- Actor
While attending Stanford University in 1912, Bert Glennon was hired as an assistant cameraman, and, upon graduation, went into the film business full-time. Becoming a director of photography in 1916, Glennon became one of the industry's most respected craftsmen and worked often for such perfectionist directors as John Ford and Cecil B. DeMille. His success as a cinematographer didn't carry over to his attempts at directing, however; the few films he directed from 1928 to 1932 were increasingly mediocre, and he gave up his attempts at directing to resume his distinguished cinematography career, where he stayed until his retirement in 1963.- Claude Mansard was born on 20 September 1922 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for The 400 Blows (1959), Shoot the Piano Player (1960) and Bluebeard (1963). He died on 29 June 1967 in Paris, France.
- Director
- Writer
- Editor
José Leitão de Barros was born on 22 October 1896 in Lisbon, Portugal. He was a director and writer, known for Ala-Arriba! (1942), Camões (1946) and Lisboa (1930). He was married to Helena Roque Gameiro. He died on 29 June 1967 in Lisbon, Portugal.- Maria Tomaszewska was born on 20 January 1941 in Dobrush, Byelorussian SSR, USSR [now Belarus]. She was an actress, known for Paryz - Warszawa bez wizy (1967). She died on 29 June 1967 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland.