Jackie was praised for her writing as a schoolgirl, and in fifth grade she scored the highest on her class's IQ test, a 140, though she was one of the laziest students. Her mother would often tell her that she was born to write and in response Jackie declared, "Acting is glamour but writing is hard work, so I'm going to be an actress."
By high school she was a dope-smoking, pill-popping party girl. Her mother wanted her to be a teacher, but after graduation from West Philadelphia High in '36 she moved to New York to work as an actress. Though she exuded confidence, her talent impressed no one and she only got bit parts and commercials. Her first decent theatrical job was playing a lingerie model in The Women -- her first performance was June 23, 1937, which was over a year after arriving in New York. She was paid $25 per week.
Her new husband, press-agent Irving Mansfield, helped her get in the papers, and when he became a TV producer in '46 he got her a job as a wacky supporting player on The Morey Amsterdam Show. In '46 her play The Temporary Mrs. Smith, later retitled Lovely Me, was produced on Broadway by one of her ex-lovers. It closed after only 37 performances. In the early '50s she wrote her romance/science fiction novel Yargo.
In '55 she acquired her pet poodle Josephine and a contract to be the fashion commentator for Schiffli Lace on an all-night show called Night Time, New York which ran from one to seven a.m. weeknights. She wrote, starred and produced in two live commercials every night. She would be the "Schiffli Girl" until '61. She tried writing a show-biz/drug expose which she was going to call The Pink Dolls, but instead she wrote her first successful book, Every Night, Josephine!, which was based on her experiences with her poodle, whom she sometimes dressed up in outfits to match hers. "The Elizabeth Taylor of poodles," she called her dog.
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