A 1957 photo of Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield-one of the most famous and glamorous pictures in show business. But its story hides more than might at first appear.
In April 1957, at a Paramount Studio party organised to celebrate Sophia Loren’s arrival in Hollywood, actress Jayne Mansfield entered the exclusive Romanoff restaurant in Bever.
The evening’s guests included some of Hollywood’s most famous stars of the day, from Barbara Stanwyck and Montgomery Clift to Gary Cooper and Shelley Winters. But Frank Photography of Mansfield and Lauren provided the evening with an unforgettable place in Hollywood history.
According to IV Golden, author of Jane Mansfield: The Girl Couldn’t Stay.
In February 1955, she signed her seventieth contract with Warner Bros. The 24-year-old blonde and former Playboy model, who was considered a rival to Marilyn Monroe, “caused problems” for 20th Century Fox studio, says Golden BBC.
The two films in which Mansfield played – “A Girl Can’t Hold Back” (1956) and “Will the Hunter Succeed?” – quickly made a star out of the actress.
Sophia Loren was only 22 years old when she arrived in Hollywood.
Loren’s mother, who was born and raised in Italy during Mussolini’s Nazi regime, had “her own theatrical ambitions,” says Mary Ann MacDonald Carolan, author of The Transatlantic Image: Italian Cinema, American Film.
Lauren entered teen beauty pageants, where she met her future husband, film producer Carlo Ponti, and then joined Italy’s National Film School.
Ponti produced many of her first films. After World War II, Italy was also overwhelmed by Hollywood productions, and the studio took advantage of the lower production costs in the country.
“There was an extremely large artistic, economic, business and cinematic exchange between Italy and America at that time,” says Carolan Bee -by -Sea. They rely on the fact that she can follow her European counterparts Leslie Caron, Ingrid Bergman and Marlene Dietrich.
She entered wearing a “wide fur coat,” Golden says. When she took it off, she had a satin dress with an open back and an extremely deep neckline that the actress knew would attract the attention of everyone in attendance, especially photographers.
“She walked up and walked next to Sophia Loren,” Golden says. “It was definitely planned. Jane knew exactly what she was doing.”
Photographers Delmar Watson and Joe Sher shot Lauren and Mansfield nearby. But while Mansfield looked directly into the lens, the camera caught an oblique glance from Lauren, who threw on a cutout on the table.
Heidi Klum, Anna Nicole Smith, Sydney Sweeney and Apatu, Sofia Vergara and Julie Bowen all tried to replicate the scene.
Cultivating the picture, apparently, is also the fact that the photograph was captured of Lauren and Mansfield as polar opposites – elegance versus arrogance, Europe versus America, Brunette versus blonde.
“It was as if they were deliberately dressed to emphasise the contrast,” says Carolan.
The photograph’s long legacy
That this photograph has been remembered for so long has troubling implications. It highlights the media’s tendency to exaggerate female rivalry, spreading the harmful stereotype that women are always competing.
In fact, it was the only time the two actresses met, and Lauren may have been worried that Mansfield didn’t happen upon the “dress” in the journalists.
In a 2014 interview with Entertainment Weekly Magazine Lauren recalled, “Look at this picture. Where are my eyes? I’m looking at her nipples because I’m afraid they’re going to jump into the plate. My face is a spectacle. Table. Mansfield died when her daughter was only three years old.
In conversation with the vanity fair. Seeing another woman look at your mum, yes, was an unbearable ordeal for me as a child.”