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JUNE 13,1955: Actress Jayne Mansfield, actor Lance Fuller, actor John Smith, actress Natalie Wood, and actor Bob Fuller get Coca Cola's as they pose at a drive-in restaurant in Los Angeles.

Photo by Earl Leaf (1905-1980).

#jayne mansfield #Lance Fuller #john smith #natalie wood #Bob Fuller #1950s

Jayne Mansfield, Natalie Wood, Lance Fuller, John Smith, and Bob Fuller at a drive-in restaurant in Los Angeles, California, photos by Earl Leaf, June 13th, 1955. All of the young aspiring thespians were then under contract with Warner Bros. Studios, and Natalie, who'd been acting since childhood, had just completed filming her star-making role in Rebel Without a Cause at the time and would soon after attain A-list status, becoming a respected star and an important Hollywood player. The young men achieved minor careers, attaining success in supporting roles in films and television but never becoming household names like Wood and Mansfield did after these photos were taken. It's of interest to note that though Jayne auditioned for the role of Judy which Natalie ultimately played to great effect in Rebel Without a Cause, director Nicholas Ray (who humored her, but knew from the get-go she was completely wrong for) cast her in a small part as a car-hop at a drive-in restaurant in the movie instead. The brief scene was unfortunately cut from the finished film with only a couple of on-set production stills existing of Jayne's association with Rebel. Dropped by Warner Bros. soon after, she quickly scored a starring role in the Broadway play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? which she eventually starred in on-screen after 20th Century Fox bought the rights to the play and signed Mansfield to a long-term contract, partially as a threat to Marilyn Monroe, who 20th greatly under-appreciated and believed was "difficult" and "uncooperative" in her quest to appear in movies worthy of both her talent and status as the studio's top box office star. While signing with 20th paved the way for Jayne to finally achieve her lifelong dream of becoming a movie star, the studio treated her even worse than they treated MM and Jayne's high-octane blonde bombshell image, ravenous, often short-sighted ambition, her trusting nature, and her misguided penchant for staging publicity stunts (which grew increasingly more desperate and outrageous) resulted in an endless stream of scandalous headlines which eventually, and rather sadly, relegated her to being cast in second-rate movies and becoming a tabloid/gossip-mag celebrity, never allowing her an opportunity to actually prove her talent and intelligence or to be taken seriously by Hollywood prior to her tragic passing at the age of 34 in a horrific car accident in 1967. It's worth noting that 20th Century Fox terminated Mansfield's long-term contract in April of 1962, three months before they fired Marilyn Monroe and canceled production on her final, prophetically titled movie Something's Got to Give. Marilyn sadly took her own life at the age of 36 two months later. Despite her great success as an Oscar-nominated screen star, Natalie Wood also met a tragic end, dying under mysterious circumstances in the deep, dark waters off the coast of Catalina Island in 1981 at the age of 43. The investigation into her sad and untimely passing remains an open police case, officially classified as "unsolved" to this very day.

On April 19, 1996, Mystery Science Theater 3000 the Movie was released in theaters based on the TV series of the same name. The movie featured Trace Beaulieu as a solo mad scientist Dr Clayton Forrester with test subject Mike Nelson and his bots Crow (Beaulieu), Tom Servo (Kevin Murphy) and Gypsy/GPC (Jim Mallon). The movie chosen was an abbreviated cut of "This Island Earth", which did cause some conspiracy as it has been considered a sci-fi classic, so some people defended it not being a bad movie. Making the movie was a negative experience for the actors and writers who were in conflict with the studio on how to translate the show into a movie. The experience was said to be one of the reasons Beaulieu decided to leave the show. They even wrote into later episodes digs at their experience in making the movie (specifically in the episode "The Incredible Melting Man). It was also said that this increased the tension with original producer Jim Mallon, who insisted on being the director. The tension had already saw the departure of show creator and first test subject Joel Hodgson/Robinson. It has also been said Universal struggled with getting a grip on how to market the movie. Universal tried showing the film in limited release in college towns, but a lot of people weren't aware of the film's release in their area. They also launched mst3000.com website that would later be taken over by the sci-fi channel. The movie continues to be devisive among fans as some enjoyed it or give it as the reason they were introduced to MST3K and others responded negative to it. ("Mystery Science Theater 3000 the Movie" Movie Event)

A publicity photo of Lance Fuller, Jayne Mansfield, John Smith, Natalie Wood, and Robert Fuller in Jayne Mansfield's pink 1954 Jaguar XK120 - June 13, 1955