There have been other Jayne Mansfield books—but none like this one. Eve Golden's even-handed, clear-eyed approach to Jayne's often convoluted life pegs Jayne Mansfield: The Girl Couldn't Help It as one of the best star bios ever.
In Jayne Mansfield: The Girl Couldn't Help It, Eve Golden offers a joyful account of the star Andy Warhol called 'the poet of publicity,' revealing the smart, determined woman behind the persona. This funny, engaging biography offers a nuanced portrait of a fascinating woman who loved every minute of life and lived each one to the fullest.
Eve Golden has given us an impeccably researched, fast-paced, unvarnished but loving tribute to one of Hollywood's great 1950s blonde bombshells.
In this eye-opening, intriguing and oft-times laugh-out-loud biography of the busty blonde bombshell, Eve Golden has managed to bring to three dimensional life the facts and fantasies surrounding the ubiquitous sex symbol of the 50's and 60's.
Pop the pink champagne for Eve Golden's breezily written tribute to the phenomenon known as Jayne Mansfield, which quite notably includes an appreciation of her undervalued talent and sadly unfulfilled potential. Immersed in the giddy pleasures of mid-century pop culture, this book is consistently entertaining while always respectful. Even when it's funny, it never treats Mansfield as a joke.
Eve Golden brings impeccable research and stylish writing to this mid-century American icon. Jayne Mansfield: The Girl Couldn't Help It dispels the myths about Jayne Mansfield and examines her continuing popularity.
As Eve Golden reveals in this ferociously readable biography, there were always two Jayne Mansfields: a dramatic actress who dressed like a stripper, an avowed Christian and serial adulteress, an animal-lover swathed in mink. Ms. Golden takes on the daunting task of reconciling these contradictions and succeeds admirably, giving us a vivid, well-rounded (no pun intended) account of a unique life.
As with any person we encounter on screen or in the pages of a magazine, Jayne Mansfield was more than just what the media portrayed. These other facets of her life as well as what the public saw is what author Eve Golden has chronicled in her new biography, Jayne Mansfield: The Girl Couldn't Help It. Golden takes her reader through a very detailed account of Mansfield's entire life bringing forth a more holistic picture of the Hollywood legend as a celebrity, actress, mother, woman, and person.
This is a confection of a book, but that is not to say it is without substance. The same could be said about its subject. With humor and a keen eye for separating fact from the multitude of fiction surrounding Mansfield, Golden provides the first definitive (and positively page-turning!) work on an underrated actress and cult icon. Readers will fall in love with the multi-talented Mansfield who refused to accept failure. Through turbulent romances and career hiccups, Jayne's first love was truly being a celebrity. She embraced her over the top persona with a wildly eccentric home (called the pink palace) to complete her image. She was a fine comedienne and able to laugh at herself. Still, it is a shame few are aware of the depth of emotion and subtlety this bombshell could bring to her performances. Golden's endlessly entertaining, cute yet intelligent, exhaustively researched book is a must for Mansfield devotees and film scholars alike.
In Jayne Mansfield: The Girl Couldn't Help It, Golden tells the story of a 1960's American icon who made a name for herself in the entertainment industry and also in pop culture – and this was before the evolution of social media and more modern-day methods of self-promotion. She was a reality show unto herself. Golden's book delves into the world of that self-promotion and also how relevant it is today.
An engrossing picture of a woman who was both a throwback to classic Hollywood glamour and a harbinger of modern, "famous for being famous" reality stars.
"This is a confection of a book, but that is not to say it is without substance. The same could be said about its subject. With humor and a keen eye for separating fact from the multitude of fiction surrounding Mansfield, Golden provides the first definitive (and positively page-turning!) work on an underrated actress and cult icon. Readers will fall in love with the multi-talented Mansfield who refused to accept failure. Through turbulent romances and career hiccups, Jayne's first love was truly being a celebrity. She embraced her over the top persona with a wildly eccentric home (called the pink palace) to complete her image. She was a fine comedienne and able to laugh at herself. Still, it is a shame few are aware of the depth of emotion and subtlety this bombshell could bring to her performances. Golden's endlessly entertaining, cute yet intelligent, exhaustively researched book is a must for Mansfield devotees and film scholars alike." — Cynthia Brideson, author of He's Got Rhythm: The Life and Career of Gene Kelly and Ziegfeld and His Follies: A Biography of Broadway's Greatest Producer
★ 04/01/2021
Noted entertainment biographer Golden's second entry in the "Screen Classics" series (after John Gilbert: The Last of the Silent Film Stars), on actress and sex symbol Jayne Mansfield (1933–67), is an archetypal Hollywood cautionary tale—you can get what you want, but do you want what you get? Mansfield devoted her life to becoming, and remaining, a movie star in the classic 1940s Hollywood sense—the look, the endless quest for attention, the material trappings, all of which hindered her career but would have played out seamlessly on a contemporary reality television show. This lengthy and richly documented biography follows the trajectory of Mansfield's life with an almost day-by-day accounting. Golden paints a picture of someone with a brilliant ability to manufacture publicity and an insatiable need to be adored, who was also genuinely kind to her many fans and gave to numerous charitable causes. Golden covers Mansfield's films, television appearances, and Las Vegas night club and lounge acts; she accompanies it all with voluminous critical, and often snarky, commentary from newspapers large and small. VERDICT Exemplary in its research and detail, Golden's book may well become, the definitive word—if not the last word—on the Mansfield story.—Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX
