One of my favorite blog categories is nostalgia, and within that category, one of my favorite blogs is «The Daily Mirror». It’s basically a blog which looks back over the years at what was in the LA Times at the time.

Occasionally, there are priceless nuggets of mainly Hollywood history which are dug up. «This bit about Jayne Mansfield» is a perfect and hilarious example:

‘First-Nighters Gasp
‘Jayne’s Gown Drives Vegas Nudes to Hide
‘Las Vegas, 14-May-59:
‘Jayne Mansfield opened her act at the Tropicana Hotel in a gown so shocking that even the Las Vegas nudes ran for cover.
‘It best could be compared with a barbed-wire fence—it protects the property but doesn’t obstruct the view.
‘Her opening entrance last night brought a gasp from first-nighters who had been watching bare-breasted French and German beauties for months on the other side of the Strip.
‘On paper the gown is not extreme. It covers practically every part of Jayne’s famous anatomy—even has a half dozen petticoats.
‘But somehow poured over her ample figure, it sort of dissolves. The petticoats are worn from the knee down. The rest of the gown is sheer nylon. Only a few strategic spangles block the view.
‘”I designed it myself,” said Jayne. “I wanted to be completely covered. If I had tried to compete with the nudes on their own grounds, it would have been bad taste. And besides those girls are not as healthy as I. They have been through a war and all that hardship.”‘

The barbed-wire fence bit is absolutely priceless, not to mention her quote at the end.