Vanity On Parade, Fake And Frantic And Strange

Recently I stumbled on a photo of Jayne Mansfield that raised at least 1.3 of my eyebrows. 

The image uses the 'large' display setting. Does it really need it?

In case you couldn't tell, it's also a picture of Sophia Loren, who appears to be staring at Mansfield's ample cleavage. That's quite the expression Sophia has right there. Turns out it's a death glare, for Mansfield's  upstaging of Loren at a dinner party in the Italian star's honor. According to Wikipedia, Mansfield's career began to fade in the early 60's and as a result she occasionally bared her ample assets to snag headlines - mainly tabloid headlines.

Interestingly, Mansfield and other blonde bombshell actresses began to fall out of favor in the late 50's, at the same time as the larger and heavier autos built throughout the decade. Smaller autos like the Nash Rambler were in demand and slim actresses and models such as Audrey Hepburn and Twiggy began to rise in popularity. Rock'n'roll even entered a slow period that would only fully recover with the arrival of the Beatles; Elvis was in the army, Buddy Holly had died, and Chuck Berry would end up in prison by 1960. And amid all this, there was a minor recession over the change of the decade. Funny how so many pages turned all at the same time.