Jocelyn Lane Recap: 1954 - 1959

Note:  This is a post that will likely be updated and revised on a regular basis as new images and information become available to me, so you might want to check back in on it from time to time.  I'll note the latest update date here, once I start making updates.  10/2015:  Updated to include in each year a listing of magazines featuring Jocelyn for which I do not yet have any images.  Added a photo to the 1954 section.

1954

I have not yet been able to determine exactly when Jocelyn's modeling and acting career started, but it was under way by the spring of 1954.  Here she is on the April 1954 cover of a British publication called 208 and View.

Jocelyn may have also been working on the British film For Better, For Worse (see blog post dated June 21, 2015) in the spring of 1954.  In the late spring and early summer of 1954 she appears to have been working on the British film The Men of Sherwood Forest. 

In the summer of 1954, Jocelyn was signed to a film contract by Warwick Film Productions.  On July 28, 1954, Jocelyn received her first publicity in the U.S. in Variety:  "Jackie Lane, Mara's 16-year-old sister, signed by Warwick."  

For Better, For Worse premiered in London on September 27, 1954.  Indications are that Jocelyn had a small role in the film, but the currently available DVD does not have any scenes that can be identified as her.  Perhaps her scene(s) ended up on the cutting room floor.

By the fall, Warwick got Jocelyn some press in the UK with a cover on the October 2 edition of Picturegoer, along with a feature inside.  The feature talks about how she works hard everyday preparing to be a star:  studying with acting coach Molly Terraine, taking ballet lessons, studying French (a suggestion from her mother), and going to as many movie premieres as possible.  This article says that her contract was for seven years.

The Men of Sherwood Forest premiered in the UK in November of 1954.

Here is a photo of Jocelyn included in the first issue of a British publication called Pin-Up.  I am not sure of the date of publication, but this picture looks to me like it is probably from 1954:

1955

Presumably Jocelyn started 1955 still working as a starlet for Warwick, waiting on her big break.

Jocelyn received a small photo in the January 1, 1955 edition of Picturegoer, accompanying an article in which one of the writers made a new year's resolution "to TRY to take starlets such as Sheree North, Jackie and Mara Lane, Lisa Gastoni and company more seriously.  I will give the gals a break - if they'll take themselves a little less seriously!"

Jocelyn got some publicity in the UK in February with a cover on the February 26, 1955 Picture Post, along with a full page color photo inside.  The caption to the photo states that she has already had small parts in For Better, For Worse, Men of Sherwood Forest, and A Prize of Gold (Note:  I have watched A Prize of Gold, a British heist film produced by Warwick Productions and starring Richard Widmark.  It's a pretty good movie, but I did not see Jocelyn in the print that I viewed.  If she had a small role, it may have been cut.) 

In the spring of 1955, Jocelyn received her first publicity in France, gracing the cover of the April 22, 1955 issue of Jourse de France.  Inside is merely a note that "Jackie Lane, the hope of the English producers in their competition against Italian filmmakers, has signed a contract for her next film."

Also in the spring, Warwick finally put Jocelyn to work in the documentary short April in Portugal (see the June 23, 2015 blog post), although she had no lines.  The short was completed by May (as reported in the May 24, 1955 issue of Variety).

In May, Jocelyn scored her first publicity in Italy, gracing the cover of Settimo Giorno.

Between July 25, 1955 and October of 1955, Warwick was shooting The Gamma People (see the June 24, 2015 blog post), in which Jocelyn had a small role.

Warwick started shooting Zarak (see the June 25, 2015 blog post) in Morocco in November of 1955 (completed by February 1956), and Jocelyn was included in a very fleeting appearance as a dancer. 

Jocelyn made international headlines because of the dress that she wore to the premiere of the film Cockleshell Heroes at the Empire Theater in London in mid-November 1955, which was attended by the Duke of Edinburgh.  The London Daily Mirror was not pleased with her attire, and the November 21, 1955 story was picked up on the UPI wire around the world:

"The Daily Mirror today delivers a frontal attack on pretty film stars who sport plunging necklines before the royal family.  'The bare fact is,' says the paper, 'that film stars' necklines at these royal functions are sagging, daringly below the Plimsoll line of modesty.

(The Plimsoll line is a mark prominently painted on a vessel's hull to show how deeply she may be loaded.)

The Mirror, usually not adverse to publishing pictures of a shapely figure, 'pointed an editorial finger at two of the country's cuties, blonde Diana Dors - Britain's answer to Marilyn Monroe - and pert-nosed Jackie Lane, both of whom recently appeared before members of the royal family in extremely low cut evening gowns.

Jackie showed up before the Duke of Edinburgh at a movie premiere last week wearing the most daring dress of the season - one that opened down the front from neck to her trim waist.

'The loose-laced bodice of her dress gaped open and downwards into a startling revelation of the bosom,' says the mirror.  It published a picture of Jackie in her dress.

...

The Mirror adds:  'Royal premieres are now occasions for highly competitive double exposures, where a deep breach is dangerous, a curtsy a disaster.  What may look appealing at a cocktail party may look appalling to the Queen.  The royal film premiere is not the Venice Film Festival.  It is one of those rare events where people dress, rather than undress for the occasion.  It shouldn't be the signal for big bosomy spree, the stars craning, straining...and unveiling to be noticed."

It appears that April in Portugal was rolled out in the fall of 1955.  Jocelyn scored the cover of the December 17, 1955 issue of Picturegoer, in which it expressed a hint of snarkiness that, after a lot of build-up about Jocelyn, Warwick debuted her without any lines in the documentary April in Portugal.

Here is a press photo for which I have no information.  For now, I'm going to post it here:

1955 Publications in which Jocelyn appeared, but for which I do not yet have images available:

Life - December 5, 1955

1956

The fallout continued from Jocelyn's daring dress at the royal premiere of Cockleshell Heroes.  In the January 14, 1956 issue of Picturegoer, an article continues the criticism that Jocelyn's dress was inappropriate.

The Men of Sherwood Forest (see the June 22, 2015 blog post) was released in the U.S. at some point in 1956.

The Gamma People (see the June 24, 2015 blog post) was released in the UK in January of 1956.

April in Portugal (see the June 23, 2015 blog post) began running the U.S. in April of 1956 as a bonus short with feature length films.

Jocelyn adorned the May 1956 cover of Photoplay in the UK.

At some point during 1956 (probably), Jocelyn shot an episode of the British TV show Sailor of Fortune, called Angelina's Adventure, which likely aired later in 1956 in the UK.

The Gamma People (see the June 24, 2015 blog post) was released in the U.S. in September of 1956.

Jocelyn was featured on, and in, a free mini-mag called Beauty Off-duty, which accompanied the August 1956 issue of the U.K. magazine Lilliput.

Probably because of the lack of work from Warwick Pictures (and perhaps having been released from her contract), it appears that Jocelyn joined Mara in Italy in 1956, looking for film work, without much success (see the post below concerning the Picturegoer articles in April 1957).

Jocelyn was featured in the September 1956 edition of the British publication Lilliput:

Jocelyn and sister Mara posed together on the cover of the September 22, 1956 issue of the German publication Revue.

Zarak (see the June 25, 2015 blog post) premiered in the U.K. and the U.S. in December of 1956 with a wider release the following month.

Jocelyn on the cover of a Turkish magazine in 1956:

Here is a brief article about Jocelyn that is in part a toothpaste advertisement in a publication called True Life (No. 55).  I'm not sure about the date on this publication but it seems like 1956 is the most likely year of publication.

Here are some early photos of Jocelyn for which I do not yet know the exact year.  For now, I am including them here.  They were probably from the first couple of years of her career.

Here is a postcard of a photo from this era:

Here is a photo that I have seen represented as being of Jocelyn, and it looks like it is probably her:

Here is a link to what appears to be an early-career photo:

Jackie Lane early-career photo

1956 Publications in which Jocelyn appeared, but for which I do not yet have any images available:

Blighty - September 1, 1956
L'Europeo - Sophia Loren cover
Lilliput - January 1956
Picture Week - February 28, 1956
Settimo Giorno - Maria Luisa Rolando cover
Tempo - Grace Kelly cover

1957

It appears that Warwick had given up on Jocelyn and released her from her contract (or perhaps decided to contract her out to other producers), because she apparently had spent time in Italy in 1956 unsuccessfully looking for work before returning to England and starting work on These Dangerous Years (see the June 26, 2015 blog post) in Liverpool in the first week of January 1957.  Filming was completed by the spring.

Jocelyn can be seen on the Winter 1957 cover of a quarterly British publication called Beautiful Britons Extra:

Jocelyn was featured on the cover of the February 6, 1957 Settimo Giorno in Italy.

In a Russ Meyer photo shoot in the March 1957 edition of Male magazine, Jocelyn got her first print exposure in the U.S.  On the third page, it looks like she is wearing the dress that caused such a stir at the Cockleshell Heroes premiere (only now with one side of it hiked up to make it even more daring).

Jocelyn was also featured on the March 1957 cover of Picture Scope, as well as inside the publication (though I do not have an image yet of the inside):

Here is Jocelyn on the cover of the March 30, 1957 edition of a British publication called Tit-Bits, where she is called "Britain's Wiggle Queen":

Jocelyn was on the cover and interviewed in the April 20, 1957 Picturegoer in the U.K.  The interview continued the following week in the April 27, 1957 issue.

Here is a modeling photo that appears to be from the same session that produced the above cover:

Interesting excerpts from the articles:

• "Jackie Lane blinked her carefully mascaraed eyes and explained about the prince and the count.  'I was engaged to both-at different times-when I was in Italy.  But I finally turned them down.  They were jealous of my career."
• "Those stories of all the glamour of the Italian film world are just nonsense," she stormed.
• "When she and elder sister Mara hit Italy, these doll-like dazzlers caused a few mild explosions along the Appian Way.  Cameramen adored them.  Of course, they're both used to smart-set publicity.  They present the right picture of high living and low cleavage.
• "Mara had already been [in Rome] for two years.  She already had a prince of her own.  He's Prince Dado Ruspoli, a wealthy Italian playboy.  They plan to get married this year."
• "Jackie found the door [to Continental films] firmly shut.  She tested for a role written for Brigitte Bardot and got the part.  But the company ran out of cash and the film was scrapped."
• "Jackie wiggled her 35-19-35 inside her tight black dress and put me in the picture.  'Snobbery in Rome is fantastic.  Unless you're a big name, like Lollobrigida or Loren, you're snubbed.'"
• "There's hardly any night life and in Roman society actresses are considered worse than dirt.  Of course Mara and I were acceptable because of Prince Dado...and because we're foreigners.  But I'd hate to be in the position of some Italian starlets."
• "Competition there is terrifying.  When I left, there was only one film being made at the Cinecitta Studios in Rome.  There used to be fifteen.  With so many starlets and so few jobs, some girls will do anything to get a part.  And producers and agents take advantage.  It's different here.  All the producers I've met are decent types.  If you're not good enough, you won't get the part."
• "Wow!  Rome is wonderful for the ego.  Men!  They just can't leave you alone.  I just had to walk a few blocks and a bunch of men and boys would form a ring around me and refuse to let me pass.  They just stand and stare.  Imagine that happening on London.  Why, I've sometimes dressed to kill, gone out and hardly anybody has given me a second look." 
• "I had gone [to a Rome lingerie shop] to buy some...things.  The street was narrow.  Two cars pulled up outside and the drivers leaned forward to stare.  A crowd of boys pressed against the shop window and the road became jammed.  Hooters screeched.  The noise was terrific.  Someone sent for the police.  It was just like a movie.  You never know what is going to happen next."
• Jocelyn (and Mara) had really gotten into astrology. 
• She was being interviewed in "her Hyde Park flat."
• "'I'll never go to another premiere-unless I'm the star.' ...It's good news for picturegoers, tired of seeing too much of Jackie Lane too often at film first nights.  Bad news for the West End showmen of two hit revues who have been making a pretty penny at the box office, taking the mickey out of starlets like Jackie Lane."
• "A lot of lies have been written about me.  They make me out to be just a dumb sexpot, greedy for publicity and having no ambition.  I haven't been to a premiere for eight months.  And I've never been to a film festival.  I think they're just a waste of time.
• "I've read that 10,000[pounds] was spent by Warwick films on me.  Nonsense.  All I had were two drama lessons.  The glamour is my own."
• "I wored [that dress] for the premiere of Cockleshell Heroes.  It was Grecian-so modest you couldn't really see a thing.  But some papers faked the picture the next day to make it look more revealing."
• "I love night clubs and I've lots of boy friends.  But I go out because I enjoy it, not just to be seen.  Newspapers keep ringing me up, asking me to pose for cheesecake pictures.  But I'm turning them all down.  What good do they do, anyway?"
• "I've learned my lesson.  From now on, I'm concentrating everything on my career.  I'm wasting no more time being tied down to a film contract, although my last one did bring me in 20 - 40 [pounds] a week and publicity."
• "'I want to be taken seriously.  That's why I was so excited when Anna Neagle chose me for a big part in Those Dangerous Years.  It's my first real chance.'  Was she disappointed that the central role went to blonde Carole Lesley?  'No.  They didn't know which of us to pick for the role.  My part is specially built up for me.'"
• "In her lush London flat, the stuffed heads of two cheetah skin rugs glared balefully at each other across the room.  Calypso music spilled out from a record player."
• Her next target:  "Hollywood.  You can't say you're a star unless you've worked there.  But I'm not going there as an unknown."

Jocelyn graced the cover of the May 25, 1957 edition of Blighty in the U.K.

Jocelyn is on the cover of the June 1957 edition of Photoplay in the U.K.

The Truth About Women (see the June 28, 2015 blog post) was filmed between May and August of 1957, so Jocelyn spent some time working on the film between those dates.

These Dangerous Years had its premiere in Liverpool on June 24, 1957 before opening its London run on July 3.

Jocelyn joined Mara on the cover of the July 1957 edition of 66.

Between September 16, 1957 and the end of the year, Jocelyn was working on Wonderful Things! in Gibraltar. 

The Truth About Women had a premiere in the U.K. in October 1957.

Here is press/publicity photo of Jocelyn from November 1957:

Here is a picture of Jocelyn in a 1957 edition of a publication called De Lach:

Over the course of 1957, Jocelyn appeared in several Turkish magazines:

1957 Publications in which Jocelyn appeared, but for which I do not yet have any images available:

Funk Und Film - December 14, 1957
Sidemton Verlag Koln - Vol. 1 Iss. 1

1958

In the March 15, 1958 issue of Picturegoer in the U.K., Jocelyn was featured in a mascara advertisement:

These Dangerous Years was released in the U.S. in May 1958 under the title Dangerous Youth.

Jocelyn was featured on the cover of the May 30, 1958 of Hayat in Turkey:

A photograph of Jocelyn with Jeremy Spencer is included in the May 31, 1958 issue of Picturegoer:

Wonderful Things! premiered in the U.K on June 10, 1958.

This picture of Jocelyn appeared in the U.K. in Foto (No. 36):

Between mid-June and mid-September of 1958, Jocelyn was working on The Angry Hills in Greece and England.

Here's Jocelyn in the September 20, 1958 edition of Munich Illustrated:

The Truth About Women was released in the U.S. in August 1958.

I have seen a wikipedia entry showing an Italian film called La congiura dei Borgia (aka Conspiracy of the Borgias) on Jocelyn's filmography.  This appears to be an extremely difficult film to find, and I have seen no other indication that Jocelyn appeared in it.  The film premiered in Italy in January of 1959, so it would have probably been filmed in the summer or early fall of 1958.  I have seen no indication that Jocelyn was spending time in Italy during that period, and she was busy to some extent on The Angry Hills during that time.  Until I can view the film, or get some other confirmation of an appearance by Jocelyn, I have serious doubts as to whether that information is accurate.

Here is a photo of Jocelyn in a Turkish magazine at some point in 1958:

Here is some cool footage on youtube that includes Jocelyn at a "twenties party" in London in 1958 (exact date not known):

Here a couple of press photos, presumably from 1958, because they note that Jocelyn is 19.  They also note on the back that she has a "35-19-35" figure and that she "recently finished a television series in Italy."  I do not know anything about that TV appearance.  The second one is labeled as being with her "favorite love," her black poodle.

1958 Publications in which Jocelyn appeared, but for which I do not yet have any images available:

Cinemonde - April 17, 1958
Domenica Del Corriere - December 21, 1958
Follies - July 1958
Novella Film - #138
Picturegoer - August 23, 1958
Picture Show - September 13, 1958

1959

The Angry Hills premiered in the U.K. in February of 1959.  That same month, the U.S. press was reporting that Jocelyn had been dating American actor Hugh O'Brian.

• Harrison Carroll's syndicated Hollywood column, on February 5, 1959, reported:  "I hear Hugh's most frequent date in England has been starlet Jackie Lane." 

• Walter Winchell's column on February 10, 1959 reported:  "Hugh ('Wyatt Earp') O'Brian's big date in Britain was actress Jackie Lane."

• Harrison Carroll's syndicated Hollywood column, on February 12, 1959, reported:  "Don't write off the romance between Hugh O'Brian and English starlet Jackie Lane.  'She is the most beautiful gal that I have ever known' Hugh tells me, 'and I admit I am very much interested in her.  She's a starlet but I don't think she is a dedicated career girl.  She might be willing to give it up.' Jackie may come to Hollywood and if not, Hugh hopes to return to England.  It's almost sure that he will appear in 'Guns of Navarone' which will be filmed in Europe."

• Harrison Carroll's syndicated Hollywood column, on February 28, 1959, reported:  "When Hugh O'Brian arrives in Cairo for the opening of the new Cairo Hilton, English starlet Jackie Lane will fly there to meet him."

Here is a photo of Jocelyn with Hugh at the London premiere of the Tennessee Williams Play, The Rose Tattoo:

Jocelyn received some publicity in West Germany on the cover of the February 28, 1959 issue of Der Stern.

 
As shown in this April 7, 1959 photo and caption, Jocelyn was getting some publicity in U.S. newspapers in regard to her appearance in The Angry Hills.  As is typical, the narrative on Jocelyn is part fact and part fiction.  I have seen no other information to indicate that Jocelyn's "home" was in Hollywood during this time.

A project called Dark as the Night went into production on April 14, 1959 in London at MGM Studios, Elstree, with Variety reporting that "Jackie Lane" was part of the cast.  With a budget of 200,000 (financed largely by CBS), it was the first film in a project by producer Nicole Milinair intended to capture TV audiences in the U.S. and theater audiences elsewhere.  It was scheduled to be shot in five weeks.  The April 22, 1959 Variety reported that a cocktail party was held for the cast and that the plan was for CBS to air the film in the U.S., with a theater exhibition in the UK.  A follow-up report by Variety on May 29 did not include Jocelyn as being among the cast.  In the U.S., it was presented by CBS on TV as an entry in Playhouse 90 on June 18, 1959.  Variety gave the film a terrible review in the June 22, 1959 edition, and Jocelyn is not listed as being among the cast.

Instead, in the spring of 1959, Jocelyn was working on filming Jet Storm.

Jocelyn was featured in the May 1959 edition of a pinup/humor magazine called TV Girls and Gags:

The Angry Hills was rolled out to U.S. theaters in June of 1959.

By the summer of 1959, the romance with Hugh O'Brian had tapered off, and Jocelyn was once again in Rome, spending time with Mara, and presumably looking for film work.  Press around the world that summer were reporting that she and famed (or infamous) Brazilian playboy Baby Pignatari were an item.  By the end of the summer, however, that romance, too, had apparently cooled off.

• Reporting from Rome on June 29, 1959, Variety noted "Mara and Jackie Lane" among a list of people "[s]een on the Via Veneto."

• Cholly Knickerbocker's column, on July 24, 1959, reported:  "If we didn't know 'Baby' Pignatari, Playboy of the western world, a little better, we might almost bet that his romance with beautiful English starlet Jackie Lane is serious.  The hot summer weather hasn't deterred them in their attempt to 'do' Rome up brown and 'Baby' recently took over a complete bathing beach just to be alone on the sand with Jackie."

• Lee Mortimer's New York Confidential column on August 18, 1959 reported:  "'Baby' Pignatari (and whatever became of him?) is credited by informers with a new love:  Jackie Lane the English starlet who prefers royalty."

• Cholly Knickerbocker's column, on August 21, 1959, reported:  "Look out girls.  It should come as no surprise but the 'Baby' Pignatari and Jackie Lane romance seems to have hit the cooling off process, and the fickle, hard-working Brazilian millionaire's new interest is beautiful Italian movie starlet Rosanna Schiaffino.  'Baby' gets around."

• September 4, 1959 Kingsport News:  "Hammy Ted Howard, the press agent who built up so many glamour gals, hopped off to Monte Carlo for a rendezvous with Jackie Lane, the British film beaut.  So what happened to Baby Pignatari?"

Here are pictures of Jocelyn with Pignatari:

Here is a link to a photo of Jocelyn with Pignatari:

Jocelyn in bikini with Pignatari

Jocelyn made the cover of the August 30, 1959 edition of Mascotte in Italy:

 
Despite a seeming lack of work, Jocelyn still got some publicity from the October 31, 1959 issue of Picturegoer in the U.K. (and she's still into astrology).

  
In late 1959 (or perhaps the very start of 1960), it appears that Jocelyn was working in Italy on Urlatori alla sbarra (aka Howlers of the Dock).

Jocelyn was featured on the cover of a book called Film Review (for 1958-1959).

1959 Publications in which Jocelyn appeared, but for which I do not yet have any images available:

Bravo - Carlos Thompson cover
Joy - June 1959

Finally, here is an autograph that Jocelyn did sometime in the 1950's: