Although many people have never seen her movies, Jayne Mansfield remains, long after her death, one of the most recognizable icons of 1950s celebrity culture. More so than for her acting ability, Mansfield is remembered as a glamorous, big-busted sex kitten in competition with Hollywood rivals such as Marilyn Monroe and Mamie Van Doren. Because of her hour-glass figure, newspapers in the 1950s routinely published her body measurements, which led evangelist Billy Graham to once exclaim, "This country knows more about Jayne Mansfield's statistics than the Second Commandment."

The peculiar aspect of Mansfield's life is that although she symbolized sex appeal, perhaps more than any other American actress in the 1950s, she was never a major box office attraction. Still, she kept in the limelight because she was skilled at the art of publicity. Mansfield knew the importance of name and face recognition in...