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One of show business's most alluring – and infamous – images, the 1957 photo of Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield contains more than meets the eye. While it remains one of the most iconic photographs in Hollywood history, the story behind it reveals ambition, media rivalry and wildly different career paths for the two icons.
The fateful evening at Romanoff's
On the night of Sophia Loren's "Welcome to Hollywood" dinner in April 1957, Jayne Mansfield walked into the exclusive Romanoff's restaurant in Beverly Hills with a plan. The lavish party, hosted by Paramount Studios, was packed with some of the biggest Hollywood stars of the era. But it was a candid photo of Mansfield and Loren that would secure the evening an indelible place in history.
According to Eve Golden, author of “Jayne Mansfield: The Girl Couldn't Help It,” Mansfield, considered a rival to Marilyn Monroe, wanted to make sure all eyes were on her. She entered wearing a “huge fur coat,” which she removed to reveal a backless satin dress with a very low cut, intended to attract everyone's attention, especially the photographers. “She wandered over and sat next to Sophia Loren,” says Golden. “It was definitely planned. Jayne knew exactly what she was doing.”
Photographers Delmar Watson and Joe Shere captured the moment when Loren gave a notorious sidelong glance at Mansfield's cleavage while she stared directly into the camera. This photograph, 68 years later, remains one of the most famous, symbolizing elegance versus extravagance, Europe versus America, and brunette versus blonde.
Sophia Loren, Italian elegance in Hollywood
Sophia Loren was only 22 when she arrived in Hollywood. Raised in Italy under the fascist regime, she entered the world of film through beauty pageants and meeting her future husband, producer Carlo Ponti. Post-World War II Italy was a key hub for Hollywood productions because of its lower costs. After her successes in Italy, Paramount signed Loren, hoping she would follow in the footsteps of European stars such as Leslie Caron and Ingrid Bergman.
The complicated legacy of the photo
The prevalence of this image highlights the media’s tendency to exaggerate female rivalry, reinforcing the harmful stereotype of competition between women. In reality, Loren and Mansfield had only just met, and Loren explained in a 2014 interview with Entertainment Weekly that her fear was that Mansfield would have a “dress failure.” “Yeah, I would stare at her nipples because I was afraid they would fall on my plate,” Loren recalls.
Mansfield’s daughter, Mariska Hargitay, who was three years old when her mother died, explores the actress’s career in her new documentary, “My Mom Jayne.” Hargitay admits that photography was torturous for her as a child and that she decided to build a different image from her mother’s. The documentary aims to reveal the true story of Mansfield, a woman who could play the violin and piano, spoke three languages and was “the smartest, dumbest blonde on Broadway.”
Divergent career paths
This moment at Romanoff's was the only time the two women's careers intersected. While Loren's star was on the rise, Mansfield's was about to fall. In 1960, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the film "Two Women," becoming the first performer to win an Academy Award for a foreign-language role.
On the other hand, Mansfield's performance in Loren's Party was met with a backlash from 20th Century Fox, who stopped pursuing her career. In 1962, Fox dropped Mansfield after three years of poor box office performances. Suddenly, with a large house to pay for and three children, Mansfield began opening supermarkets and gas stations to support her family. Golden believes that Mansfield's career ambitions were thwarted because, while she "knew where she wanted to go, she had no idea how to get there."
Meanwhile, Loren was able to turn to Oscar-winning producer Ponti for advice. She was “sharp at navigating her film career” and managed to combine Hollywood and Italian films, remaining popular for nearly 70 years.
Mansfield's fame faded and her life ended in tragedy. She died in a car accident on June 29, 1967, at the age of 34. However, Carolan acknowledges that Mansfield helped "pave the way for actresses like Sophia Loren, Brigitte Bardot and Claudia Cardinale," breaking barriers in the male-dominated industry and proudly embracing her beauty and sexuality.
Even today, Loren is constantly asked to sign the famous photograph, but she always refuses. “I don’t want anything to do with it. And also out of respect for Jayne Mansfield because she’s no longer with us,” she says.
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