I got my
Playboy Cover to Cover the 50's Searchable Digital Archive DVD set a few weeks ago, so this will be a look at some Playboy’s February editions from the fifties.
One of the leading sex symbols of the 1950s,
Jayne Mansfield was a Playboy Playmate of the Month in February 1955, but strangely, her name was not published along her centerfold photo.
Actually, there was not much info about any Playmates, since there weren’t any data sheets published along with pictorials until the sixties. Well, to be honest, “pictorial” is also a little stretched term for the fifties editions of Playboy magazine. There was usually only one centerfold photo of a Playmate and full frontal nudity was very rare.
Jayne had a long interview in next year’s February edition of the magazine and a semi-nude pictorial.
In the interview she said that she began her career as a semi-nude model and often brought her baby, to her job. Jayne was only 16 years old when she had her first child, Jayne Marie Mansfield, who appeared in Playboy in July 1976, following her mother's footsteps. Jayne’s other daughter is actress
Mariska Hargitay, star of TV series Law & Order.
Jayne became Playboy’s regular valentine girl and she had two semi-naked pictorials in February’s editions of the magazine in 1957 and 1958.
After the death of
Marilyn Monroe, interest in the blond bombshells began fading, but people still came out in droves to see Jayne’s plays, nightclub acts, store appearances, and even her home.
Jayne died in a highway accident in 1967 while she was traveling between nightclub engagements.