Jayne Mansfield's Pink Palace

Jayne Mansfield's Pink Palace

Gate and partial view of Mansfield's former mansion, the Pink Palace (photographed 1997)
General information
Address 10100 Sunset Boulevard
Town or city Holmby Hills, Los Angeles
Coordinates 34°4′49.26″N 118°25′34.71″W / 34.0803500°N 118.4263083°WCoordinates: 34°4′49.26″N 118°25′34.71″W / 34.0803500°N 118.4263083°W
Demolished 2002

Jayne Mansfield's Pink Palace was a mansion built by the actress as a "pink landmark".[1]

History

In November 1957, shortly before her marriage to Mickey Hargitay, Mansfield bought a 40-room Mediterranean-style mansion formerly owned by Rudy Vallée at 10100 Sunset Boulevard in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles.[2] Much of the investment to buy the house came from the $81,340 ($683,005 in 2015 dollars[3]) she inherited from her maternal grandfather Elmer Palmer.[4][5] Mansfield had the house painted pink, with cupids surrounded by pink fluorescent lights, pink furs in the bathrooms, a pink heart-shaped bathtub, and a fountain spurting pink champagne, and then dubbed it the "Pink Palace". Hargitay, a plumber and carpenter before getting into bodybuilding, built a pink heart-shaped swimming pool. Mansfield decorated the Pink Palace by writing to furniture and building suppliers requesting free samples. She received over $150,000 ($1,259,538 in 2015 dollars[3]) in free merchandise, paying only $76,000 ($638,166 in 2015 dollars[3]) for the mansion itself[6] It was still a large sum, when the average cost of a house at the time was under $7,500 ($62,977 in 2015 dollars[3]).[7]

The Pink Palace was sold and its subsequent owners have included Ringo Starr, Cass Elliot and Engelbert Humperdinck.[8] In 2002, Humperdinck sold it to developers, and the house was demolished in November of that year.

References

Notes

  1. Strait 1992, p. 93
  2. Marc Wanamaker, Westwood, Arcadia Publishing, 2010 , p. 55
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2014. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved February 27, 2014.
  4. Faris 1994, p. 7
  5. Michael Mundy, "Limit: The Game is Back with Warring Realtors", Los Angeles Magazine, January 1998
  6. The Pink Palace
  7. Census of Housing, U.S. Census Bureau.
  8. Web bio from fansite.