Broadway Bound

Jayne was anguished with Warner's dropping her, but in light of her situation another offer would come along, and would prove to be her ticket to success. George Axelrod was holding tryouts on Broadway for his new production of Hunter (renamed to Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter). He had originally written the part for Mamie Van Doren who turned it down. Jayne was not thrilled with the prospect of being in New York. She considered it to be "Iceland" as Hollywood was "IT". Her advertisers had to beg her to take the offer.

Jayne immediately fell into the part. Saying of her character Rita Marlowe, "She is brassy and extroverted, refreshing and direct and not entirely oblivious of her bombshell of a body. The role gives me a chance to act on stage the way I would like to behave offstage."

The show opened on October 12, 1955 to rave reviews. About Jayne, not necessarily the play. "Sex on the rocks!" and "Broadway's Biggest Towelful!" and one other tantalizing element that was pointed out by Axelrod himself, that Jayne would never deliver two shows alike.

Meanwhile Jayne launched her round-the-clock, no-holds-barred media onslaught on New York. New York was completely bowled over, and across the country, Hollywood was finally paying attention. Her publicity saturation reached the point where one New York daily posted a bulletin that there would be no more pictures published of Jayne until further notice.

She attended store and restaurant openings, regardless of their size, which would become a Mansfield specialty until the 1960's. She was often paid in several hundred dollars and merchandise, which supplemented her Broadway income. Every appearance she made contributed to the theater's regularly packed houses.

On May 26, 1956 she attended Mae Wests' show, and it was there she met Mickey Hargitay, a member of the legendary Mae West "stable" of men. When Jayne was asked what she would like for dinner, she responded with "the beefsteak on the end" looking directly at Mickey. Mickey came over to Jayne's table after dinner, and the next day accompanied her to Brooklyn for Jayne crowning of "Blossom Queen". The notoriously possessive Mae would not take this lying down and held a press conference demanding that Mickey should make the statement that he and Jayne were together only for publicity purposes. Rather Mickey would make a proclamation of his love for Jayne. After a brief silence, one of Mae's bodyguards would knock Hargitay off his chair with a surprise blow, and the reporters scrambled. True love reigned supreme, and Jayne had yet another publicity feather in her cap.

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