Star’s desert island risks
QUESTION Was actress Jayne Mansfield shipwrecked on a desert island?
JAYNE Mansfield was as notorious for her publicity stunts as for her on-screen presence. Who can forget the way she upstaged Sophia Loren at her own welcome party in 1957?
But in 1962, the actress was reported lost at sea, feared drowned, after her boat capsized off Nassau in the Bahamas.
Born Vera Jayne Palmer in 1933, Jayne Mansfield was an American actress and Playboy centrefold. One of the leading sex symbols of the 1950s, like Marilyn Monroe she starred in several popular Hollywood films that emphasised her platinum-blonde hair, dramatic hourglass figure, and cleavage-revealing costumes.
She never attained the enduring fame of Monroe — perhaps because it was always felt she was trying too hard.
In February 1962, Jayne was vacationing in the Bahamas with her second husband, Mickey Hargitay, a former Mr Universe.
On Wednesday 7, they went on a water skiing jaunt — conveniently accompanied by public relations man Jack Drury.
Jayne fell off her water skis and Hargitay swam to retrieve her. Drury called out that he thought he’d seen sharks (residents will tell you that this is highly unlikely). A terrified Jayne began flailing about. Hargitay tried to drag them both onto the boat, managing to capsize the 17-foot vessel. Jayne knocked her head on the boat, lost consciousness and went under.
The pair managed to drag her onto the capsized vessel and the trio floated for three hours before they came in sight of a small coral reef, near the sparsely inhabited Rose Island.
Jayne was too terrified to leave so they clung to the reef. Jayne recalled, ‘the water kept coming higher and higher. It kept coming until we thought it was going to take us! Sitting there like that you think you are going to die.’
At 4am the tide was receding and the men ‘dragged her into the water’ (Drury’s words) off the reef to Rose Island.
Meanwhile, the coast guard and small boats had been searching for the party. The tabloids had a field day with: ‘Movie Beauty lost at sea’. Finally at 8.39am they were picked up by a fishing boat.
Meanwhile, Life magazine photographer Michael Rougier happened to be at hand to photograph Jayne lying provocatively on deck — this despite a local doctor saying: ‘Miss Mansfield was suffering from severe sun exposure and plenty of insect bites’.
All this led to speculation that the whole thing was a stunt, though the participants insisted it was true. ‘Jane went under’, Hargitay later told the press, ‘She was unconscious... I thought she
was dead... I don’t think I ever would have found her if my leg hadn’t brushed against her’.
The late film critic Roger Ebert once wrote of Jayne: ‘There is very little to say about her that is not the invention of a press agent... Jayne Mansfield, who was not a dumb blonde, spent most of her adult life in the service of that image.’ She was killed in a horrific car accident near New Orleans in 1967. She was just 34.
Justin Warner, Reigate, Surrey.
QUESTION What were the remarks that prompted Glenn Hoddle’s departure from the England soccer manager’s job?
IN January 1999, Glenn Hoddle did an interview with Matt Dickinson of the Times that would ultimately lead to the former Spurs midfielder being ditched as England manager.
The remarks that caused the controversy centred on Hoddle’s spiritual beliefs. He commented: ‘You and I have been physically given two hands and two legs and half-decent brains. Some people have not been born like that for a reason. The karma is working from another lifetime. I have nothing to hide about that. It is not only people with disabilities. What you sow, you have to reap.’
This sparked enormous anger, as critics perceived the comments to be blaming disabled people for their own situation.
The then British prime minister Tony Blair was among those to criticise Hoddle, commenting: ‘If he has said what he was reported to have said in the way he is reported to have said it, then it was very wrong. It would be very difficult for him to stay [as England manager].’
Hoddle said his remarks had been misconstrued. However, matters were not helped by revelations that he had expressed similar sentiments in an interview the previous year, commenting: ‘I think we make mistakes when we are down here and our spirit has to come back and learn. That’s why there is an injustice in the world, why there’s certain people born into the world with terrible physical problems and why there’s a family who has got everything right, physically and mentally.’
The controversy would not subside, and the FA terminated Hoddle’s contract in February 1999.
Still, not everyone accepts the comments were the reason Hoddle got the sack, as some believe the FA was starting to become dissatisfied with his performance as manager before this incident.
Hoddle had started reasonably well as England boss, topping a qualifying group ahead of Italy to secure a place at the 1998 World Cup. England made it through the group stage at the tournament itself, but exited in a penalty shootout against Argentina in the last 16. Some may consider this an early exit, but Hoddle avoided most of the criticism, as David Beckham was largely scapegoated after he was red-carded during the Argentina match.
However, Hoddle’s popularity with the public soon began to dwindle, and his relationship with his players became frosty. His decision to publish a book, Glenn Hoddle: My 1998 World Cup Story, was strongly criticised, as the tome was perceived to have betrayed dressing-room secrets — in particular with its rather lurid account of Paul Gascoigne’s rage when he was left out of the tournament squad.
Hoddle’s decision to invite faith healer Eileen Drewery into the England camp also led to a perception that he was allowing his spiritual beliefs to interfere with his work. Indeed, Ray Parlour believed that a quip he made when Drewery laid her healing hands on the midfielder — ‘short back and sides, Eileen, while you’re there’ — was a death sentence for his own England career. ‘He [Hoddle] never picked me any more,’ Parlour later revealed.
Ultimately, the game is a results business, and prior to Hoddle’s infamous interview, England had suffered a sluggish start to their Euro 2000 qualifying group, including a 2-1 loss away to Sweden and a 0-0 draw at home to Bulgaria. Many believe Hoddle’s unwise comments gave the FA a handy excuse to wield the axe.
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