Publicity
Mansfield's publicity drive was one of the best in Hollywood. For publicity gave up all privacy keeping her doors always open to photographers. In 1954, the day before Christmas she walked into publicist James Byron's office with a gift and asked him to supervise her publicity. From that time till the end of 1961, Byron shaped much of her publicity. Byron appointed most people in her team – William Shiffrin (press agent), Greg Bautzer (attorney) and Charles Goldring (business manager), and constantly planted bits of publicity material in the media. She appeared in about 2,500 newspaper photographs between September 1956 and May 1957, and had about 122,000 lines of newspaper copy written about her during this time. Because of the successful media blitz, she quickly became a household name. In 1960, Mansfield topped press polls for more words in print than anyone else in the world, made more personal appearances than a political candidate, and was regarded as the world's most-photographed Hollywood celebrity. She made news on a regular basis, from dresses falling off to clothing which burst strategically at the seams to the lowest cut dresses worn with a bra. Things started to get over the top even in her standards when she took charge of her own publicity without advice. According to Shiffrin, "She became a freak." James Bacon wrote in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner in 1973, "Here was a girl with real comedy talent, spectacular figure and looks and yet ridiculed herself out of business by outlandish publicity".
Read more about this topic: Jayne Mansfield
Famous quotes containing the word publicity:
“Publicity is the life of this culture—in so far as without publicity capitalism could not survive—and at the same time publicity is its dream.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“Is America a land of God where saints abide for ever? Where golden fields spread fair and broad, where flows the crystal river? Certainly not flush with saints, and a good thing, too, for the saints sent buzzing into man’s ken now are but poor- mouthed ecclesiastical film stars and cliché-shouting publicity agents.
Their little knowledge bringing them nearer to their ignorance,
Ignorance bringing them nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.”
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)
“With publicity comes humiliation.”
—Tama Janowitz (b. 1957)