Jayne Mansfield’s Pink Palace: 14 Rare Photos of the Fabulously Campy Mansion Where the ’50s Star Raised Baby Mariska Hargitay

The legendary home had a heart-shaped swimming pool and a heart-shaped bathtub!

By Abbey Bender July 29, 2025

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’50s star Jayne Mansfield was well-known for her blonde hair, curvaceous figure and over-the-top style. While the actress, who starred in movies like The Girl Can’t Help It, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and Kiss Them for Me, and died in a tragic car crash at 34 in 1967, had long been written off as a Marilyn Monroe wannabe, the recent HBO documentary My Mom Jayne, directed by her daughter, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay, has brought her back into the cultural conversation in a big way.

My Mom Jayne makes a compelling case for the gone-too-soon star’s talent and intelligence while wrestling with the trauma of growing up with a famous mother you never knew. One of Mansfield’s more surprising legacies was not in movies but in real estate, as the extravagantly decorated house she lived in with her second husband, Mickey Hargitay, came to embody late-’50s glamour.

Read on to learn more about the L.A. mansion known as the Pink Palace and take a look behind the doors of Mansfield’s characteristically fabulous home.

1. Gilded gates

Everett Collection

The opulent gates to the Pink Palace were inlaid with Jayne Mansfield’s initials. Mansfield bought the 40-room house in 1957, shortly before marrying Hargitay, and quickly went about making it her own.
2. Pre-pink

Everett Collection

The Pink Palace originally looked surprisingly low-key, as seen in this shot of Mansfield and Hargitay in the house before they furnished it. The actress was said to have furnished the mansion at a discount by requesting samples from furniture and building suppliers in exchange for the publicity she would offer.
3. Pool in progress

Hulton Archive/Getty

Here, Mansfield lounges in a bikini as she waits for the Pink Palace’s signature heart-shaped swimming pool to be built.
4. Proud of the pool

Bettmann/Getty

In this 1961 shot, Mansfield shows off the Pink Palace’s heart-shaped swimming pool. Hargitay built the pool himself and included a mosaic message reading “I love you, Jayne” at the bottom of it. The pool area also featured fountains and 10 statues representing different aspects of the four seasons.
5. Bathing in style

Richard C. Miller/Donaldson Collection/Getty

In addition to the heart-shaped pool, the Pink Palace also had a heart-shaped bathtub with gold fixtures surrounded by soft pink carpeting. In this 1957 photo, Mansfield strikes a pin-up pose as she bathes. When she wasn't hanging out around her pink fluorescent lights and pink champagne fountain, the star drove a pink Cadillac.
6. Wall of fame

Bettmann/Getty

Mansfield struggled to be taken seriously as an actress and longed for more complex roles, but she still enjoyed her fame and soaked up the spotlight however she could. In a 1961 photo from the Pink Palace, she smiles as she stands by a wall covered entirely in magazine covers featuring her iconic image.
7. Proud mama

Bettmann/Getty

In addition to Mariska, Mansfield had four other children, and in this sweet 1958 photo, she looks every bit the proud mom in the Pink Palace’s nursery.
8. A storybook mural

Silver Screen Collection/Getty

In this 1960 family portrait, Mansfield holds her new baby, Zoltan, while sitting with Hargitay and her other children, Miklos and Jayne Marie. Here, you can see the fantastical pink unicorn mural covering the nursery’s walls.
9. Baby Mariska

Courtesy of Hargitay Family/HBO

Shortly after Mariska’s birth in 1964, Mansfield embraces her adorable baby girl while enjoying the Pink Palace’s shag-carpeted splendor.
10. Keeping busy

Bettmann/Getty

In this 1961 photo, Mansfield winks as she sits at her home office. The office served as a tribute to Hargitay, as evidenced by the “Jayne & Mickey” sign and desk covered with pictures of the couple.
11. Pets at the pool

Keystone Features/Getty

Mansfield was a devoted dog mom, and in this 1966 candid, she hangs out with three of her chihuahuas by the pool.
12. Dinner is served

Bettmann Archive/Getty

In this 1959 shot, Mansfield and Hargitay cook dinner in the Pink Palace’s kitchen, which boasted very ’50s granite walls.
13. An exotic fireplace

Everett Collection

No midcentury home was complete without a stylish fireplace, and in 1958, Mansfield holds baby Miklos by one of the Pink Palace’s many fireplaces as Hargitay and Jayne Marie look on.
14. A last look

Paul Harris/Getty

Mansfield lived in the Pink Palace until her death. After her passing, the home had a number of high-profile owners, including musicians Ringo Starr, Cass Elliot of the Mamas & the Papas and Engelbert Humperdinck. Humperdinck was the final owner of the mansion, and in 2002, he sold it to developers, who sadly demolished it. Here, the exterior of the Pink Palace can be seen in 1989. Now, if only the historic house was made into a Jayne Mansfield museum . . .

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