December 14, 2009
“Bras are for men. Women want to see themselves the way men see them.” — Paul Kinsey Looks like Maidenform went ahead and took Paul’s campaign! After all, it wasn’t doing much good wasting away in Playtex’s archives. The (real) 1960s ad on left bears a striking resemblance to the Jackie/Marilyn dynamic theme from the episode “Maidenform”. Paul’s brilliant campaign resulted in a bit of a downer for Pegs — she realized she’s not a Jackie or a Marilyn. Someone meanly snickers she’s more of a Gertrude Stein, and Don compares her to Irene Dunne, but really what the girl is, is Katharine Hepburn. You know? The Jackie/Marilyn (Madonna/whore) dichotomy has been around for much longer than the two women. I don’t know how Paul came up with such a thing (it’s Paul for God’s sake) but it plays very deeply into a part of the female psyche that has struggled with these two perceptions ever since we began talking about sex openly. • footnote - by Natasha Simons

“Bras are for men. Women want to see themselves the way men see them.” — Paul Kinsey

Looks like Maidenform went ahead and took Paul’s campaign! After all, it wasn’t doing much good wasting away in Playtex’s archives. The (real) 1960s ad on left bears a striking resemblance to the Jackie/Marilyn dynamic theme from the episode “Maidenform”.

Paul’s brilliant campaign resulted in a bit of a downer for Pegs — she realized she’s not a Jackie or a Marilyn. Someone meanly snickers she’s more of a Gertrude Stein, and Don compares her to Irene Dunne, but really what the girl is, is Katharine Hepburn. You know?

The Jackie/Marilyn (Madonna/whore) dichotomy has been around for much longer than the two women. I don’t know how Paul came up with such a thing (it’s Paul for God’s sake) but it plays very deeply into a part of the female psyche that has struggled with these two perceptions ever since we began talking about sex openly.

• footnote - by Natasha Simons

11:15am
(No. OF NOTES: 32)
  
This is an essential O’Hara primer/love letter: “In his hands, mundane details of city life are magically amplified. In O’Hara’s New York there is a “Heaven on Earth Bldg / near the Williamsburg Bridge” where the young of America can repair with “pleasant strangers” after a night at the movies…In O’Hara’s New York, the “drunken and credulous” latrines on 14th Street are to be preferred to the ones on 53rd Street for furtive trysts; the neon sign at the Cedar Tavern is good luck to rub ; and there is a “Paradise Bar” on St Marks Place.” - by Ryan Ruby, it’s a worthy read, for sure.

This is an essential O’Hara primer/love letter:

“In his hands, mundane details of city life are magically amplified. In O’Hara’s New York there is a “Heaven on Earth Bldg / near the Williamsburg Bridge” where the young of America can repair with “pleasant strangers” after a night at the movies…
In O’Hara’s New York, the “drunken and credulous” latrines on 14th Street are to be preferred to the ones on 53rd Street for furtive trysts; the neon sign at the Cedar Tavern is good luck to rub ; and there is a “Paradise Bar” on St Marks Place.”

- by Ryan Ruby, it’s a worthy read, for sure.

4:12am
(No. OF NOTES: 30)
  

You can see why ad execs for Playtex might have gotten a bit nervous at Maidenform’s vibrant ad campaign, but, much like in the Mad Men episode “Maidenform”, they continued (and continue to this day!) making ads that emphasized the fit and make, rather than any sort of fancy show.

Just take a look at this gallery of 1960s ads from Maidenform/Playtex. It’s not hard to see that yes, definitely — Maidenform played into a much sexier ad slant. Check out the girl’s parted lips in the third pic! Playtex stuck to a much more informational stance, with women who were rather prim and proper, even with the not wearing many clothes thing.

• footnote - by Natasha Simons

12:22am
(No. OF NOTES: 6)
  
December 13, 2009
Have you guys been enjoying the music? Particularly the opera selections from the show? Well, ELEKTRA, the 1967 opera is playing in NY right now and we are feeling nostalgic for a time we never a part of.  Like, we had pangs of recongition when we read what literary treasure, Matthew Gallaway, recently jotted down about Elektra: I can say is that if the performance in certain respects didn’t exactly match or exceed the furious displays of talent and vengeance represented by some of the great sopranos who in the past have owned the various roles (such as Hildegarde Behrens or Birgit Nilsson or Gwyneth Jones or Leonie Rysanek or Inge Borkh to name just a few you can visit on YouTube if you’re so inclined), it was still awesome to be immersed in such a monumental piece of music, and if it felt a little smaller than what has existed, isn’t that very much in keeping with so much the present, which like a shattered diamond appears to us in fleeting glints of broken light and inevitably pales in comparison to the mythological giants who haunt our past? The 1960s featured some of the greatest voices of the modern era; scrape beneath the surface of Mad Men and you can almost hear them singing. The above photo is taken from the original production of Elektra which is about ladies and their exquisite vengeance (antiquity style!). Here’s a video of the 1994 production. PS. This entire book is being scored by operas/ and do-woop. ELEKTRA! SAY IT OUTLOUD (it’s so much fun to say)!

Have you guys been enjoying the music? Particularly the opera selections from the show? Well, ELEKTRA, the 1967 opera is playing in NY right now and we are feeling nostalgic for a time we never a part of.  Like, we had pangs of recongition when we read what literary treasure, Matthew Gallaway, recently jotted down about Elektra:

I can say is that if the performance in certain respects didn’t exactly match or exceed the furious displays of talent and vengeance represented by some of the great sopranos who in the past have owned the various roles (such as Hildegarde Behrens or Birgit Nilsson or Gwyneth Jones or Leonie Rysanek or Inge Borkh to name just a few you can visit on YouTube if you’re so inclined), it was still awesome to be immersed in such a monumental piece of music, and if it felt a little smaller than what has existed, isn’t that very much in keeping with so much the present, which like a shattered diamond appears to us in fleeting glints of broken light and inevitably pales in comparison to the mythological giants who haunt our past? The 1960s featured some of the greatest voices of the modern era; scrape beneath the surface of Mad Men and you can almost hear them singing.

The above photo is taken from the original production of Elektra which is about ladies and their exquisite vengeance (antiquity style!). Here’s a video of the 1994 production.

PS. This entire book is being scored by operas/ and do-woop. ELEKTRA! SAY IT OUTLOUD (it’s so much fun to say)!

9:44pm
(No. OF NOTES: 4)
  
December 12, 2009
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Mad Men Playlist:

Get cultural! Way back in season one, the episode “Marriage of Figaro” is named after the Mozart opera, natch. The comedic opera, subtitled “Day of Madness”, isn’t hugely supportive of marriage, aptly enough for our burgeoning Pete and Don characters.

This aria, played during Sally’s birthday party (you know, the one where Don peaces out on his fam and comes back with a dog?), is called “Voi Che Sapete”, and it plays during the second act of Mozart’s opera, sung by a young pageboy falling in love.

The lyrics, translated, go:

You who know what love is,
Ladies, see if I have it in my heart.
I’ll tell you what I’m feeling,
It’s new for me, and I understand nothing.
I have a feeling, full of desire,
Which is by turns delightful and miserable.

I freeze and then feel my soul go up in flames,
Then in a moment I turn to ice.
I’m searching for affection outside of myself,
I don’t know how to hold it, nor even what it is!
I sigh and lament without wanting to,
I twitter and tremble without knowing why,
I find peace neither night nor day,
But still I rather enjoy languishing this way.
You who know what love is,
Ladies, see if I have it in my heart.

P.S. Matthew Weiner loves this aria! He also used it in an episode of The Sopranos.

• footnote - by Natasha Simons

3:34pm
(No. OF NOTES: 21)
  
December 4, 2009
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Mad Men Playlist:

Don’t Think Twice (It’s All Right) — Bob Dylan

Hmm! This song. It’s so undeniably personal. Can it really be applied to Don Draper when it speaks to so many things and so many people? Bob Dylan’s mournful little break up song was released in 1963, and it was featured in the finale of season one “The Wheel”, which ends in 1960.

I don’t think it was a good choice! The sound works, for sure, but the lyrics just don’t match up. Dylan’s song is sad, certainly, but it’s not regretful. He’s a traveling gypsy, just like Don wishes he could be sometimes, but he certainly doesn’t wish it in the season one finale. He comes home to reunite with his family, not to walk down that “long, lonesome road.”

For a show that usually matches mood with song so well, and tries so hard to be chronistic, this song choice is jarring.

• footnote - by Natasha Simons

10:59pm
(No. OF NOTES: 22)
  
Servants! What an emotionally fraught and ambiguous place they hold in American life! Once the Victorian live-in maid was replaced by the once-a-week cleaning girl of the 1950’s things got even more complicated. Consider Carla’s role in the Draper household. Betty never refers to her as a nanny — but as a  housekeeper.  Not that Betty carries any maternal burden about it, after all, she was raised with a live-in nanny and turned out just fine. She’s just being historically accurate about the role of The Help. Betty, as was common, had no consternation about what bond or influnce Carla was building with the children.  Even though Carla just came by in the afternoons, it was she who stepped in multiple times to serve surrogate mother to Sally and Bobby when Betty was striken with (rightly filled) parania and melancholy about Don. It is Carla who enables Betty is able to 6 ‘divorcation’ in Reno. “To make an omelette you need not only broken eggs ” Joan Didion wrote  in her essay on the Women’s Movement, “but someone ‘oppressed’ to break them.” Though she may be one of the unintentional forbearers of the Woman’s movement, it would have been impossible for a woman like Betty leap into emancipation if she didn’t have Carla’s back to do it off of. The nanny-mommy relationship would grow increasingly tense as black women, after centuries of servitude, were leaving domestic work en masse during the late Sixties. Luckily for Betty —and Henry Francis— that’s still years away.

Servants!

What an emotionally fraught and ambiguous place they hold in American life! Once the Victorian live-in maid was replaced by the once-a-week cleaning girl of the 1950’s things got even more complicated.

Consider Carla’s role in the Draper household.

Betty never refers to her as a nanny — but as a  housekeeper.  Not that Betty carries any maternal burden about it, after all, she was raised with a live-in nanny and turned out just fine. She’s just being historically accurate about the role of The Help. Betty, as was common, had no consternation about what bond or influnce Carla was building with the children.  Even though Carla just came by in the afternoons, it was she who stepped in multiple times to serve surrogate mother to Sally and Bobby when Betty was striken with (rightly filled) parania and melancholy about Don.

It is Carla who enables Betty is able to 6 ‘divorcation’ in Reno. “To make an omelette you need not only broken eggs ” Joan Didion wrote  in her essay on the Women’s Movement, “but someone ‘oppressed’ to break them.” Though she may be one of the unintentional forbearers of the Woman’s movement, it would have been impossible for a woman like Betty leap into emancipation if she didn’t have Carla’s back to do it off of.

The nanny-mommy relationship would grow increasingly tense as black women, after centuries of servitude, were leaving domestic work en masse during the late Sixties.

Luckily for Betty —and Henry Francis— that’s still years away.

4:22am
(No. OF NOTES: 20)
  
December 3, 2009
Given her modeling background, it’s no wonder Betty is big on appearances. Before modeling was a awash with coke-addled tanoerxic teenagers it was industry for ‘nice girls’. Plucky, pretty young ladies who wanted swish around department stores, a local 4H club, and even a small run way show for the newest manufactured styles. If you were lucky enough to be immortalized in advertisement, say for a national soda pop brand, There were some guidelines outlined by a 1958 modeling pamphlet: What to include in your model-bag: half slip strapless bra dress shields extra hose (seamless) black opera pumps clean, short white gloves (fabric and string) strand of pearls pearl choker two pairs of earrings (plain pearl and simple gold) clean comb, spray net scarf to protect hair Further, the pamphlet echoes Betty’s philosophy that “You’re painting a masterpiece; be sure and hide the strokes.”: ’ Beautiful models and beautiful diamonds are not unlike. Both evolve by perfecting each and every facet so that the whole product or being will shine with brilliance. By giving all the phases of modeling the attention they deserve, you’ll polish every facet of the diamond - and the diamond is, of course, you!’ You better work, Betts!

Given her modeling background, it’s no wonder Betty is big on appearances. Before modeling was a awash with coke-addled tanoerxic teenagers it was industry for ‘nice girls’. Plucky, pretty young ladies who wanted swish around department stores, a local 4H club, and even a small run way show for the newest manufactured styles. If you were lucky enough to be immortalized in advertisement, say for a national soda pop brand, There were some guidelines outlined by a 1958 modeling pamphlet:

What to include in your model-bag:

  • half slip
  • strapless bra
  • dress shields
  • extra hose (seamless) black opera pumps
  • clean, short white gloves (fabric and string)
  • strand of pearls
  • pearl choker
  • two pairs of earrings 
    (plain pearl and simple gold)
  • clean comb, spray net
  • scarf to protect hair

Further, the pamphlet echoes Betty’s philosophy that “You’re painting a masterpiece; be sure and hide the strokes.”:


’ Beautiful models and beautiful diamonds are not unlike. Both evolve by perfecting each and every facet so that the whole product or being will shine with brilliance. By giving all the phases of modeling the attention they deserve, you’ll polish every facet of the diamond - and the diamond is, of course, you!’

You better work, Betts!

4:42am
(No. OF NOTES: 13)
  
Bert Cooper’s 1,000 page hyper Libertarian stocking stuffer.

Bert Cooper’s 1,000 page hyper Libertarian stocking stuffer.

3:54am
(No. OF NOTES: 10)
  
Bert puts some socio-economic theory into practice when he hands Don an unexpected bonus. Befuddled and slightly alarmed, Don begins to stammer in lieu of gratitude Bert explains that he gave Don an extra $2,500 because of Ayn Rand. He explains: ‘When you hit 40, you realize you’ve met or seen every kind of person there is. And I know what kind you are, because I believe we are alike. By that I mean you are a productive and reasonable man and in the end completely self -interested. It’s strength. We are different. Unsentimental about all the people who depend on our hard work.’ Bert encourages Don to take two bucks out of his mondo bonus and pick up a copy of Rand’s 1957 best selling novel Atlas Shrugged. For the uninitiated, the primary lesson of Atlas is the  individual must be put first, else a society will collapse. In Rand’s dyspeptic future, parasitic autocrats and businessmen are able to horde a nation’s wealth by collectivizing land and industry. In protest to the nation-wide swindle, the country’s best innovators go on a ‘strike of the mind’ , refusing to contribute to the economy.  Society then quickly disintegrates with oil fields set ablaze and trains derailed by striking industrialists. Rand’s intention was to champion the ethos of unfettered ‘rational self interest’: ‘I work for nothing but my own profit—which I make by selling a product they need to men who are willing and able to buy it’ This was the mantra of the mind mindstrikers, who’s creativity, according to Rand, was more important to society than physical labor if their creativity was not rewarded our progress would decay. So what else would the grease the Sterling Cooper gears of a big fat check for the Head of Creative?!

Bert puts some socio-economic theory into practice when he hands Don an unexpected bonus. Befuddled and slightly alarmed, Don begins to stammer in lieu of gratitude Bert explains that he gave Don an extra $2,500 because of Ayn Rand. He explains:

‘When you hit 40, you realize you’ve met or seen every kind of person there is. And I know what kind you are, because I believe we are alike. By that I mean you are a productive and reasonable man and in the end completely self -interested. It’s strength. We are different. Unsentimental about all the people who depend on our hard work.’

Bert encourages Don to take two bucks out of his mondo bonus and pick up a copy of Rand’s 1957 best selling novel Atlas Shrugged. For the uninitiated, the primary lesson of Atlas is the  individual must be put first, else a society will collapse.

In Rand’s dyspeptic future, parasitic autocrats and businessmen are able to horde a nation’s wealth by collectivizing land and industry. In protest to the nation-wide swindle, the country’s best innovators go on a ‘strike of the mind’ , refusing to contribute to the economy.  Society then quickly disintegrates with oil fields set ablaze and trains derailed by striking industrialists.

Rand’s intention was to champion the ethos of unfettered ‘rational self interest’:

‘I work for nothing but my own profit—which I make by selling a product they need to men who are willing and able to buy it’

This was the mantra of the mind mindstrikers, who’s creativity, according to Rand, was more important to society than physical labor if their creativity was not rewarded our progress would decay.

So what else would the grease the Sterling Cooper gears of a big fat check for the Head of Creative?!

3:50am
(No. OF NOTES: 18)