A billboard on New York City’s Time Square at W. 43 St. and Broadway announces the death of Marilyn Monroe today in 1962. The billboard speculates suicide, and the Los Angeles medical examiner, after finding fatal amounts of barbiturates in Monroe’s body, called that the probable cause, but alternative theories about her death persist today.  

Above are two photos of the Buick Electra 225 actress Jayne Mansfield was riding in when it slammed into the back of a semi on a stretch of road between Biloxi and New Orleans. Visibility was low that night due to a combination of ocean mist and insecticide from a mosquito fogging truck. Mansfield’s driver Ronnie Harrison probably never had a chance to avoid the collision, especially while speeding on a dark, curving road. He and lawyer Sam Brody were killed along with Mansfield. Her children in the back seat survived, but two of her cherished chihuahuas famously didn’t.

In the second photo a sheet-covered Mansfield lies in the foreground after being removed from the wreckage by emergency workers. Virtually any website you visit will debunk the myth of Mansfield’s decapitation. They will tell you her blonde wig flew off and either fooled reporters on the scene or inspired them to create malicious urban folklore. Well, we don’t think so. The debunkers should look up the word “avulsion” in a dictionary. It’s when one part of the body is torn away from another. Mansfield’s death certificate attributes her demise to a “crushed skull and avulsion of the cranium and brain.” So she lost the top of her head, including brain matter. Does that count as decapitation? Perhaps not. Whatever you call it, it happened today in 1967. 

Above is the front page of New York’s Daily News, from today 1937, with a headline about the death the previous day of starlet Jean Harlow. Harlow was world famous, and her passing, which came suddenly, or at least seemed to, triggered wild speculation in the tabloid press because of confusion over what had killed her. Left to fill the fact vacuum, the tabs claimed she had died variously of alcoholism, complications from an abortion, over-dieting, sunstroke, poisoning due to her platinum hair dye, and VD. Eventually doctors realized she had died of kidney failure, and had actually been ill for a long time. She had been fatigued for weeks, and the previous year had suffered a bout of septicemia and sustained a bad sunburn—both indicators of kidney dysfunction. But a correct early diagnosis probably would have made little difference, since there was no treatment for kidney related illnesses in 1937—penicillin wasn’t in commercial usage yet, and dialysis was a decade away. Harlow was twenty-six when she died. Below is a selection of publicity photos of the woman nicknamed the Blonde Bombshell. She was one of the first sex symbols in American cinema, and remains one of the most revered. 

Above are three images of musician Gil Scott-Heron, whose incendiary and confrontational compositions "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," "Winter in America," "(You Can't Depend on) The Train from Washington," "A Sign of the Ages," and "Johannesburg," were part spoken word and part conventional singing, and were the primary stylistic inspiration for scores of rappers. Because of this Scott-Heron eventually earned the nickname "The Godfather of Rap." He never charted a hit, and remains unknown to the vast majority of modern music listeners, yet without doubt can be numbered among the most original and influential American musicians ever. Gil Scott-Heron is dead at age 62.

Linda Darnell, once named one of the four most beautiful actresses in Hollywood, died in April 1965 after being critically burned in a fire. A few weeks later National Enquirer splashed a prescient quote they attributed to her across their front page. Did Darnell actually say this? Perhaps—an actress is interviewed quite a bit during her career and out of the thousands of answers she gave, a phrase like this could probably be plucked. In any case, part of being “the world’s liveliest paper” is exploiting death, and here Enquirer shows how to become top of the tabloid heap. See a stunning image of Darnell in her prime here, and read about her best movie here. 

Above, a promo shot of legendary beauty and two-time Academy Award-winning actress Elizabeth Taylor. She was one of the last stars to emerge from Hollywood’s old studio system, and one of the first true modern celebrities in terms of her relationship with the press and the public’s obsession with her. Famously frail throughout her life, she died today at age seventy-nine. 

Below are three photos representing three of the many sides of American screen legend Jane Russell’s personality. She had a wild youth that included excessive drink and a low-rent abortion, and in later life she swung the opposite way and became an arch-conservative Christian. Russell died yesterday in Santa Monica, California, aged 89. 

As long as we’re on the subject of promo materials (see next post), here’s another rare find. It’s a publicity still of German boxer Max Schmeling from late 1929, a time when he was being touted as a contender for the world heavyweight boxing title. The photo was shot in New York City, and was used as a press handout for newspapers and magazines writing features on the fast-rising fighter. Schmeling soon won the heavyweight belt, albeit in controversial fashion, and held it until 1932, when he lost to Jack Sharkey, also controversially.

Actually, controversy followed Schmeling his entire career, peaking around the time of his second bout against Joe Louis, in 1938 at Yankee Stadium. The bout was billed “The Fight of the Century” because by then Schmeling had been anointed a hero of the Nazi Party (though reluctantly, biographers tend to agree), which made his first round destruction by Louis a cause for celebration (though it should be pointed out that many Americans, particularly some wealthy and prominent ones, were openly pro-Hitler).

In 1939 the winds of war began to sweep across the world, and Schmeling fought for the German army in Crete. After the war he became an exec at Coca Cola in Germany, and  amassed considerable wealth. Time passed, and he and Joe Louis became friends. When Louis died impoverished in 1981 Schmeling paid for a funeral with full military honors.

Max Schmeling lived fourteen more years, finally dying this week in 2005 at the age of ninety-nine. He is yet another of those complex characters from history, which means we may revisit his story sometime down the road. In the meantime, if you’re inclined, you can read a bit more about the great Joe Louis here. 

Promo shot of American actors Leslie Nielsen and Anne Francis from the 1956 sci-fi film Forbidden Planet. Nielsen died yesterday at age eighty-four. 

Polish-born actress Ingrid Pitt as a child survived a Nazi concentration camp to star as an adult in a score of films, including several horror movies produced during the early 1970s by Hammer Studios. Some of those titles are The House that Dripped Blood, The Wicker Man, Countess Dracula and The Vampire Lovers, and her portrayals made her a favorite among fans of macabre cinema. Pitt died this morning in a London hospital aged 73.