Customer Reviews

Jayne Mansfield and the American fifties

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Martha Saxton's 'Jayne Mansfield And The American Fifties' is a fascinating, deeply probing biography on the short, tragic life of a Hollywood ... symbol. Ms.Saxton does extensive research and interviews with all the surviving key players in Jayne Mansfield's life and career,and is able to fit all the pieces of this puzzle together for a well rounded portrait of the star. The author illuminates the tail end of Hollywood's golden age, and how a brunette girl from Texas became a Hollywood blonde bombshell and star! Martha Saxton points out that unlike Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield could speak three languages and showed real acting talent!
This is the book to buy on Jayne Mansfield.

You would not ordinarily expect Jayne Mansfield to be held up as a feminist model, but that's what Martha Saxton does in this unusual book.

Martha takes the view that Jayne was a cluster of paradoxes - very intelligent yet "played dumb," very down-to-earth yet adaptive to an extreme degree of glamour, very ambitious yet reticent in a strange way.

I learned a lot about who we were in the American 50s because of this book, and enjoyed the ride - except for the very end of Jayne's life in the tragic auto accident.

Martha Saxton does a fairly good job for a simple basic chronological biography on Jayne. Saxton sticks to the point in the picture she has painted of Jayne. From Jayne's simple basic middle class upbringing to her zealous tinsel-town lifestyle once star struck in Hollywood. Many details of Jayne's personality and behavior I feel were left out or just indeed forgotten. My only argument is the argument many have had on the real fact whether Mansfield was really literally decapitated. Terrible rumors have flown around over the years that her head even ended up in the backseat of the car! The book said she was decapitated, however I have actually seen the death picture and the head was still attached from what I could tell. The ending of the book provided rather interesting information though about the settlement of the estate. Many of the more serious fans or collectors though may still be left somewhat hungry after reading this book. However I would still recommend reading it for those wanting to know whatever they can possibly find out about Mansfield as she was indeed a true Hollywood legend.

I'll keep it short and sweet. If you're looking for a quick, easy to read biography that covers a lot of Jayne Mansfield's life, this is it.

Martha Saxton's writing is easy and to the point. HOWEVER, this book was written at the height of the Women's Lib movement in 1975 and Saxton is an obvious feminist. This makes her distaste for her subject very obvious. But if you can get past that you may just enjoy it.

I enjoyed reading Jayne Mansfield and the American Fifties. It had a lot of insight, but there was irony in the writing; a thought provoking point would be made and then dismissed with more information. Some parts of the book were slightly confusing, but the interesting coverage of Jayne's wild life makes up for that.
This book does in fact live up to its name. The life of Jayne Mansfield is tied into the culture of America in the fifties very well. I would reccomend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about "Old-Hollywood" actresses and their antics.

This is the first book that I read about Jayne Mansfield,and made me a fan.
It is very well written,and describes how Jayne became an ''has-been'' by 1960,at age 27.
The drastic changes in morality,and roles of women in America from the fifties to the sixties,made Jayne an anachronic figure as far as the views of what a woman were or should be.
To describe this state of affairs,Ms. Saxton describes the meeting with the Beatles in 1964.When they arrived as ''The British Invasion'',Jayne was the first person they wanted to meet.The result of that famous encounter? George Harrison referring to Jayne (then 31) as an ''old bag''.
Well spirited book,with an intellectual,and ''women's studies'' edge.
One of the best book written about the Jayne Mansfield Phenomenon,and how much she symbolised the American Fifties,the Good,the Bad and the not-so-good sides.
Recommended reading