GOODE STUFF: THE MUSCLEMAN & THE MOVIE STAR by Dave Goode

Of all the blonde bombshells of the fabulous 50s my favorite was Jayne Mansfield. The pneumatic blonde knockout was Marilyn Monroe to the Nth degree. She was a human publicity machine and a genius at self promotion. A living caricature of a Hollywood glamour girl with her pet chihuahuas and pink palace mansion complete with a heart-shaped swimming pool. When she portrayed Rita Marlowe on Broadway in WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? she was playing herself. Or at least a variation of her own public persona.

Mansfield would even marry her male counterpart when she married 1955 Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay in 1958.

Miklos Hargitay was born in Budapest, Hungary were he played soccer and
was a noted speed-skater. He also performed in an acrobatic act with his brothers. During the 2nd World War he fought in the underground against the Nazis. In 1947 he emigrated to the United States where he would eventually become a citizen. Inspired by a photo of Steve Reeves on the cover of a magazine Mickey would take up bodybuilding. A familiar story.

After winning the amateur NABBA Mr. Universe championship in 1955, he joined Mae West's muscleman troupe at New York's Latin Quarter.

It was there that he would meet Jayne Mansfield.

He would appear in the movie adaptation of WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK
HUNTER? (1957) playing Rita Marlowe's former boy fried Bobo Branigansky, a television jungle hero a la Tarzan. Oddly enough the couple had no scenes together in the movie. But the muscular Mickey stands out in his one scene in the movie clad in leopard-skin.

The couple would appear onscreen together in THE LOVES OF HERCULES (1960) at the height of the peplum movie cycle with Mickey starring as the mythical muscleman.

Jayne and Mickey would also appear together in a Las Vegas revue where the performed an adagio act. That reminds me that in the Edgar Rice Burroughs' book TARZAN AND THE LION MAN, that lampoons Hollywood jungle man movies, one of the people who is considered to play a Tarzan-type is a marathon runner. Another is an adagio dancer. Which of course has me wondering why no one thought to have Mickey and Jayne play Tarzan and Jane. And if not Tarzan and his Mate, perhaps one of the many Tarzan imitators to be found in comic books. Perhaps Ki-Gor. Maybe in some sort of comedy.

And check out the latest Golden Adonis comic by Dave Goode and Vance Capley to get some idea what a jungle movie starring the muscleman and the movie star might have looked like.