English Version | To be continued: Welcome to Hollywood

It's important to start by making it clear that Michael Romanoff has nothing to do with Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, also Romanoff, the last of the tsars, the tsar for a day. Not only are they not the same person, they weren't even remotely related, no matter how much this Michael Romanoff we're talking about here claims to have connections to the Russian imperial family. That's right, the Romanoffs. The Hollywood press at the time always treated these allegations kindly, giving them the importance they deserved, which was none, and squeezing the juice out of them, which was anecdotal. Michael Romanoff wasn't even called Michael Romanoff. Born Hershel Geguzin in 1890 in Lithuania, he adopted the stage name by which he became known when he moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in search of fame and stardom. He was an actor, playing almost 20 roles on the big screen, although he wasn't credited in all of them. Michael Romanoff's success came from the movies, yes, but by another route. In 1941, he opened Romanoff's, a restaurant in Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, where all the movie stars liked to meet and be seen.

Understanding who Michael Romanoff was is not fundamental to this story, but it is a curiosity that helps to set the scene. It was precisely in this restaurant where movie stars paraded that Paramount Pictures decided to give an official welcome dinner to Sophia Loren (1934). The beautiful Italian actress was at her peak in Europe - for example, she had been the most photographed figure at the Cannes Film Festival - which led Hollywood studios to want her. The famous welcome dinner was attended, of course, by some of the hottest, flashiest and most prominent celebrities in the Hollywood star system. One of the most glittering stars of the cinematic firmament was the voluptuous and very blonde Jayne Mansfield (1933-1967), possibly the greatest figure of the time. Mansfield was 20th Century Fox’s darling, which presented her as the new blonde bombshell, the natural successor to Marylin Monroe. The previous year, Jayne Mansfield had been seen as the lead in the musical comedy The Girl Can't Help It - she won the Golden Globe for Breakthrough Actress - where she showed off some of her attributes. A little earlier, in February 1955, she had already shown these same attributes in a more ample and unrestrained way, when she was Playmate of the Month in Playboy magazine.

This is the photo that has become the most famous of a sequence in which more detail can be seen and which provides some more accurate context for what happened. What the picture doesn't tell you, we'll add in words. The pompous event was intended to welcome Sophia Loren, but the blonde bombshell wasn't in the mood and agreed to take part in this sort of tribute to the new brunette bombshell, yes, but on her own terms. First of all, she would sit next to the central figure of the party, who was, until Mansfield's arrival, the Italian actress. The pin-up, sex symbol of the 1950s, was obviously late to the celebration. Jayne Mansfield made a star entrance at Romanoff's: well after the hour, as she should, and when everyone was already seated, she immediately went to her seat, where she greeted the honoree. Sophia Loren, surprised and possibly impressed, took the famous playmate's measurements like a good Latina. The exercise wasn't difficult, as Mansfield was wearing a very light, ultra-low-cut, backless dress, which, to top it off, she wore without a bra - which means that, in some of the photos in the sequence, it looks as if there's an indiscreet nipple peeking back at Sophia Loren.

This image, without context or explanation, might suggest that the Italian diva was looking sideways at the American bombshell with a hint of envy. But anyone who knows Sophia Loren will know that, in terms of physical attributes, she is second to none, not even to Jayne Mansfield. Loren's look could perhaps be more accurately translated as "but what is this? So that's how people dress around here?". Or, with an even more conservative and sharp critical spirit, "well, look at this slut, coming here to my dinner half-naked". We'll never really know what thoughts crossed Sophia Loren's mind behind that surprised, deadly and judgmental gaze. For history and posterity, there's that sure look at Jayne Mansfield's cleavage.

*Originally translated from The Fame Issue, published October 2023. Full credits and stories in the print issue.