Jayne Mansfield's Pink Palace
Jayne Mansfield's Pink Palace was a mansion bought and refurbished with pink paint and fixtures by American actress Jayne Mansfield in 1957. The mansion was demolished in 2002.
| 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 |
| Demolished | 2002 |
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.[1] Much of the investment to buy the house came from the $81,340 ($847,517 in 2022 dollars)[2] she inherited from her maternal grandfather Elmer Palmer.[3][4] 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". It was, according to her, a "pink landmark."[5] 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 ($1,562,915 in 2022 dollars)[2] in free merchandise, paying only $76,000 ($791,877 in 2022 dollars)[2] 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 ($78,146 in 2022 dollars[2]).[7]
The Pink Palace was sold after her death and its subsequent owners have included Ringo Starr and Engelbert Humperdinck.[8] In 2002, Humperdinck sold it to developers, and the house was demolished in November of that year.
Citations
- Marc Wanamaker, Westwood, Arcadia Publishing, 2010 , p. 55
- 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved May 28, 2023.
- Faris 1994, p. 7
- Michael Mundy, "Limit: The Game is Back with Warring Realtors", Los Angeles Magazine, January 1998
- Strait 1992, p. 93
- "The Pink Palace". Archived from the original on 2012-03-15. Retrieved 2012-05-07.
- Census of Housing, U.S. Census Bureau.
- Web bio Archived 2012-03-15 at the Wayback Machine from fansite.
References
- Strait, Raymond (1992). Here They Are Jayne Mansfield. New York: S.P.I. Books. ISBN 978-1-56171-146-8.
- Faris, Jocelyn (November 1994). Jayne Mansfield: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-28544-8.