Mickey Hargitay: muscle man who married a sex bomb – Hungarians in Hollywood 8.
From acrobat apprentice to immigrant, he became a widely recognized legend of bodybuilding. Mickey Hargitay, from a poor family in Kőbánya, was an exemplary sportsman who fought his way up to the title of Mr. Universe and then to Hollywood. Yet the world remembers him mainly for his brief but tumultuous marriage to the blonde sex symbol of the 1950s, Jayne Mansfield.
The sport was in his blood
Miklós Hargitay was born on 6 January 1926 in Kőbánya to a family living in difficult circumstances. He inherited his love of physical exercise from his athlete father, who also took the upbringing of his four offspring very seriously in the field of sport. The Hargitay brothers performed a joint acrobatic act at the “Fényes” Circus troupe, and their success was reflected in the fact that the show toured the country.
Later, at his brother's urging, Miklós also tried speed skating, winning three Central European titles. "I still remember (...) that there was a skating rink near Szabadság Square, where I used to go. Not only because I loved the sport and was preparing for the '48 Olympics, but also because I could only take a hot shower there, because at home we only had cold water in the tap," he recalled. He also was a professional football player for Fradi and probably studied architecture at the University of Technology in Budapest.
With a big smile on the streets of America
The circumstances of his emigration are still unclear. According to some sources, he left the country as early as 1945 to test his knowledge and skills overseas, while others say he left only in 1947. His own memoirs confirm the version that he arrived in the United States in 1947.
With his boat docked off the coast of Brooklyn, young Hargitay set off on the American Dream with only $10 in his pocket and endless optimism. He started working in a fruit market for $2 a day and then headed west.
He supported himself for a while with temporary jobs - plumbing, carpentry - and then married an American acrobat, Mary Birge. Mickey's experience in Hungary came in handy, as he and his wife worked on a performance together, which they performed nightly in Indianapolis nightclubs. They had one child, Tina, but he and Mary parted ways after a few years.
Fame from muscles
The turning point in Mickey Hargitay's life came with a magazine cover. It depicted one of the highest-paid male actors of his time, Steve Reeves, who with his elaborate body, had created masculine characters on screens such as Hercules, Sandokan, and the muscular colossus Goliath. At the time, building muscle for aesthetic purposes was far from being a widely accepted sport, but Hargitay was ahead of his time in his pursuit of bodybuilding.
So much so that in 1955 he was awarded the prestigious Mr. Universe award in London.
The bodybuilder -turned- actor Arnold Schwarzenegger looked up to him as a role model, and later played Hargitay in the biographical drama The Jayne Mansfield Story (1980).
The victory set the young Hungarian sporting talent on a whole new path. He got a contract in the New York revue of the world-famous actress Mae West, which, in a somewhat bizarre way for the time, was especially based on men with sculpted bodies. The aging sex symbol also had a bit of a crush on Mickey Hargitay, which caused quite a stir within the company. Ironically, the Hungarian bodybuilder didn't end up with Mae West, but it was in this place that he found all-consuming, passionate love.
Flown to Hollywood by love
The story goes that one night, the 1950s sex symbol Jayne Mansfield, a Marilyn Monroe-type blonde entered a New York nightclub.
She sat down and when ordering, all she asked for was "I'd like a steak and the tall man on the left side of the stage".
Passion drew the two beautiful people together with an elemental force, and they were married on January 1, 1958. They were a dream couple, constantly on each other's lips, who were frequently written about in the magazines of the time, and Mickey had their Beverly Hills luxury home, the Pink Palace, completely renovated with 10 baths and a heart-shaped pool.
The beauty, also known as the "second Marilyn Monroe", didn’t hesitate to bring her beloved husband to Hollywood. The 20th Century Fox studios, under contract to Mansfield, were not pleased, as they wanted to convey the official message to the male public that their sex bombs were single and therefore available. The actress, however, persisted until Mickey Hargitay finally appeared on her side, in a 1957 comedy, "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?” They later paired up in the historical romance The Loves of Hercules, on the shooting of which Mansfield was pregnant with their first child. This was followed in 1963 by Promises... Promises!, which made Jayne Mansfield the first American star to be seen completely naked on screen. As a result, the production was banned in several cities.
By his own admission, Mickey Hargitay had as much to do with acting as a taxi driver.
But this and the scathing reviews did not discourage him from continuing acting: he also appeared in Bloody Pit of Horror (1965), inspired by the writings of the Marquis de Sade, and in the terribly weak Lady Frankenstein (1971). He also signed five film contracts in Italy and appeared in a television physical exercise show.
Did the Hungarian spirit crush the dream couple?
During married life, the differences between the two became more and more pronounced. Although Mansfield was fond of playing the 'dumb blonde' to the cameras, in reality, she was a woman of outstanding intelligence, widely educated, and fluent in five languages. Her intellectual needs did not necessarily match those of her beautifully built husband, even whose humor she found less than sparkling.
But the real breaking point was the arrival of the children - Miklós, Zoltán, and Mariska - and the personality differences that emerged in their upbringing. "We are different. I'm adaptable and avoid conflict, I can't stand discord. And Mickey is really wonderful, devoted, a great husband, but Hungarian! He's quick-tempered, prone to tantrums, and very strict with the children, whereas I'm permissive with them. Yes, it all started with the children," Mansfield confessed about the breakdown in the relationship.
Mickey Hargitay visited Hungary on several occasions, first in 1961 with Jayne Mansfield.
The bodybuilder was such a star at home that the road from the airport to the city was closed, and the Minister of the Interior Affaires offered his own staff car, a Volga to drive them.
He was reluctant to visit the places of his childhood, but he was always proud of his roots - it is no coincidence that all three of his children were given Hungarian names and learned Hungarian. He confessed his love of his homeland at the 2005 Hungarian American Foundation Gala when he remembered his parents. They taught him to "remember to include the name of your sweet homeland in your evening prayers".
The dream couple finally divorced in Mexico in 1963, but the divorce was later annulled. They were together for a few months after the birth of Mariska, who would go on to have an acting career before the divorce was finalized at Mansfield's urging. A few years later, the actress died in a tragic car accident in which her beautiful body was mangled beyond recognition. Her lover and all three of her children were traveling in the car with her, but they escaped the tragedy with minor injuries and were raised from then on by their father. Of her three husbands, Mickey Hargitay was the only one to attend Jayne Mansfield's funeral.
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