PEN ARGYL, Pa. — In an HBO documentary about her famous mother, actress Jayne Mansfield, Mariska Hargitay is seen sitting at a desk in a darkly lit room inside Sigal Museum.
Last September, Hargitay, known for her role as inquisitive Det. Olivia Benson on "Law and Order: SVU," spent a day in Easton and Pen Argyl for her self-directed movie, "My Mom Jayne."
Staff and volunteers from the Sigal Museum were invited Tuesday to a private screening of the film, now streaming on HBO Max — four days after it was released on the streaming service.
The small group cheered and clapped midway through the film when the words "Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania," where Mansfield is buried, appeared onscreen.
Mansfield, a screen legend and once known as the most photographed woman in the world, was laid to rest in Fairview Cemetery in 1967, following her death in a car crash en route from Mississippi to New Orleans.
Hargitay, who was in the car with her two half-brothers, Mickey Jr. and Zoltan, was just 3 years old.
The applause at the film viewing continued when the group recognized the room Hargitay filmed during her nearly 12-hour shoot at the Sigal Museum on Northampton Street in Easton.
"Mariska really loved Easton," museum Executive Director Megan Van Ravenswaay said.
"She was curious about Easton and our area, and she was just so lovely."
Howard McGinn, Sigal's volunteer researcher and expert genealogist, wiped away tears as he posed for a photo next to his name in the "thank you" portion of the end credits.
McGinn, Sigal Museum and Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society all were listed in the film's end credits.
McGinn did not appear in "My Mom Jayne," but a photo of him and Hargitay was posted on June 28 on the museum's social media.
"It was so moving and well done," McGinn said. "I think it should be nominated for an Oscar, that is how much I enjoyed it."
Tragic accident
A few months before Hargitay and the crew began filming the documentary, McGinn was contacted by producers who wanted to track down Mansfield's ancestry.
It turns out Hargitay and her three siblings, who appear in "My Mom Jayne," knew very little about their mother's early days in the Slate Belt.
With the help of McGinn's research, Hargitay learned that her grandfather, Herbert Palmer, also died in a motor vehicle accident.
Palmer, a prominent attorney whose resting place is next to Mansfield's, had suffered a heart attack while driving his vehicle on Morris Street in Phillipsburg, New Jersey.
Coincidentally, Mansfield, just as Hargitay, was 3 when her parent died and also was in the automobile when the incident occurred.
In the film, Mansfield's oldest child, Jayne Marie Mansfield, said their mother spoke very little of their grandfather.
"She never talked about her childhood, but I do know that losing her dad, that's something that she carried around with her," she said.
"I saw her crying, looking at his pictures several times."
According to McGinn, Mansfield and her mother, Vera Peers, moved to Pen Argyl from Phillipsburg after her father's death.
They lived there until they relocated to Dallas, Texas, after Peers remarried.
Peers died in 2000 and also is buried at Fairview Cemetery.
Revealing a family secret
As Hargitay, her siblings, and Mansfield's second husband, late actor Mickey Hargitay, did during her funeral services in 1967, fans often visit Mansfield's resting place in Pen Argyl on the anniversary of her death.
Mansfield, a sex symbol with hourglass curves, appeared in multiple films and posed for Playboy magazine five times.
Hargitay's film spends less time on her mother's physical features; it instead humanizes her.
"It was interesting to see Mariska gain that understanding for her mother at an age where she's a grown adult," Jamie Ettinger, outreach and events coordinator for Sigal Museum, said.
"I know that is something I still yearn for, and I think a lot of women my age do."
Her mother was a person, Hargitay said, who experienced loss at a young age and kept a secret from the public.
In "My Mom Jayne," Hargitay also reveals that her biological father is not Mickey Hargitay, but Italian singer Nelson Sardelli.
Father and daughter appear on camera with Sardelli's other children, Giovanna and Pietra.
"I feel like Mariska did a good job creating and telling the story so that no one came off looking like the bad person," Ettinger said of the family's dynamic.
"It showed people who make mistakes, but can come together in the end."
'I see myself'
While Mansfield was alive, she was known to escape the glam of Hollywood and visit her aunt, Helen Milheim, who owned a home on Schanck Avenue in Pen Argyl.
Milheim died in 2005, and also is buried near her famous niece's final resting place.
While in the Slate Belt, Mansfield would sign autographs for local fans, including those smitten with her bleach blonde locks and sultry, albeit squeaky, voice.
Or perhaps, just as Hargitay reveals in "My Mom Jayne," the fans caught another side of the late actress, who, before her untimely death, had tried to separate herself from a Marilyn Monroe-esque image.
"I spent most of my life ashamed of my mother," Hargitay said, "a person whose career made me want to do it differently.
"But at 60 years old, I feel different. I see myself in you for the first time."
