The Footnotes of Mad Men.

Mmmmm look at those tasty apricot-colored pillows! Most homes...

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:15:00 -0500

Mmmmm look at those tasty apricot-colored pillows!

Most homes built in the early 1900’s, like the Drapers, were relatively stripped down and lacked 18th century flourishes of the older homes. To achieve the traditional Colonial style during the mid-century, designers and homemakers were instructed to “paint the walls a soft tint such as ivory, parchment, green, or apricot.” Additional touches such as small period details, fabric, lighting, and small Colonial style furniture including tilt-top tables, the rush seated chairs, were encouraged.

image via this really great interview.

We’re one of the Best New Blogs of 2009: This year, one...

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:05:00 -0500

We’re one of the Best New Blogs of 2009:

This year, one new site embodied the larger-than-it-seems Tumblr zeitgeist better than others: Mad Men Footnotes.

TV recaps had become a moribund genre. Thousand-word recaps of things you already saw, recaps were the downtrodden hookers of internet discourse: felicitous with their views, but leaving behind the emptiness of sloppy seconds. Mad Men Footnotes flipped the genre around. It wasn’t about the telling you what you just watched — it was about exploring the entire universe that it created. Through short posts that allude to passing show references (Rothko, Ann-Marget, salted ice cream), the site made history feel like the present.

Just as Mad Men uses the ’60s as a prism through which to understand contemporary advertising and desire, Mad Men Footnotes is shorthand for understanding blog culture. It is the quintessential use of the platform: a reblog of a reblog designed for reblogging.

Well, we accept this recognition with ~~quite dignity and grace~~ a burst your chiseled cheeks grin.

[image via AMC]

“I’ve never seen one that game!” Sal says to...

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:51:05 -0500

“I’ve never seen one that game!” Sal says to Don about particularly gregarious stewardess?

“Really?” Don replies with a knowing glance.

Behold!

“The six of us rented a hosue together out there. The pilots called us the ‘sexy six.’ They always looked at you in a sexual way. You know, you’d walk into the cockpit on your first day and they’d say, “This is a test to find out if you’re a virgin,” and they’d have a gyro and they’d make it spin, and then they’d say “Aha, you’re not a virgin.”“

These skies are prettttyyy friendly, fellas.

(via ”The Fifties: A Women’s Oral History.” Brett Harvey. Harper Collins. 1977. New York)

Grin and Bare It: Performers love party food! The Utz...

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:38:21 -0500

Grin and Bare It: Performers love party food!

The Utz television campaign that featured the trash talking comedian Jimmy Barrett as the spokesman was likely inspired by the Lay’s and Cracker Jack ads.

Young & Rubicam built a campaign for Lay’s around beloved comedian Bert Lahr a.k.a. the Cowardly Lion from the wizard of Oz. Lahr appears on a soundstage when the devil (Bahr dressed up in a Halloween-y red costume) says to him‘: Betcha can’t eat just one.’ Bahr tells Beelzebub not to be absurd and then crunch, crunch, crunch, Bahr can’t stop digging into the bag. The voiceover says “You can eat a million of them. But nobody can eat just one.” The campaign was a big success and carried on for years.

Doyle Dane Bernach’s most popular commercials featured Broadway actor Jack Gifford doing inspired bits nonsense bits that won the affection of kids and adults. In possibly the most famous spot, Gifford is a priggish school teacher who admonishes his student for eating Cracker Jacks in class and snatches the candied corn away from him. Moments later, Gifford is palming the snack into his mouth. “When it comes to Cracker Jacks,” the voice over says, “some kids never grow up.” Their comic appeal combined with sturdy production of gave the spots an endearing quality rather than a patronizing one.

Though Utz didn’t use comedians in any television campaigns, their logo of a plump cheeked girl smiling while elbow deep in bag of potato chips has the same effect: child like indulgence in snack food. Who care if it’s bad for you! It’s fun! In both these ads the performer doesn’t sacrifice his identity for the product: Gifford and Bahr’s whimsical personas enhanced the appeal of the product.

Mad Men Playlist: “In the Hall of the Mountain...

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:56:00 -0500

Mad Men Playlist:

“In the Hall of the Mountain King”, composed by Edward Grieg, performed by the Sussex Symphony Orchestra

You guys know this one. That soft beginning ramping up to a cacophony of stomping brass! This is a truly awesome composition, by which I mean it evokes total fear. It was composed by Grieg for Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, and this particular opus accompanies Peer’s escape from the Mountain King’s castle, pursued by his many minions. The theme begins softly to describe Peer’s soft and careful footsteps, and is then contrasted with the theme of the King’s trolls looking for him. When the two themes collide, the music hits its loud peak as the chase begins. Timpani rolls conclude the piece as the mountain collapses, and Peer has successfully escaped.

WHO is the Mountain King in Mad Men, you ask? And WHO is Peer? This little opus gets a whole episode named after it in season 2, the episode where Don visits Anna and decides to return to Betty. Is Don Peer, trying to escape from the frightening Mountain King’s castle in Ossining? Or is Don the Mountain King, a member of a race depicted in the play to be concerned primarily with self-interest? Or is Don the Boyg, a creature who, when asked, “Who are you?”, responds with “Myself.”?

All very interesting!

• footnote - by Natasha Simons

One of the things that grabs Ladies of a Certain Age about Mad...

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 15:14:00 -0500

One of the things that grabs Ladies of a Certain Age about Mad Men is the authenticity of the seriously fraught gender dynamic of the era.

Take Peggy for instance, through each season we watch her get squeezed between her two desires to be liked by men and respected by them. Given the setting, it seems she can only pick one.

Well, here’s a fantastic post by art critic Carol Diehl about the sexuality of the era, featuring appearances by Brigitte Bardot, Ann Margret and Mad Men:

“Last night, after the turkey, we watched two films from 1963-64 back-to-back: Brigitte Bardot in Jean Luc Godard’s “Contempt,” and “VivaLas Vegas” with Elvis and Ann-Margret. To my male friends it was high camp, but for me, watching them produced flashbacks of what it was like to grow up in that era: wanting men, wanting them to like you, wanting them to want you, but at the same time having to fend them off on a daily basis, the frustration of having your strengths ignored while being valued for your sexual potential…”

If Marlboros are for Cowboys then Lucky Strike is For Magical...

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:57:00 -0500

If Marlboros are for Cowboys then Lucky Strike is For Magical Men.

Leo Burnett, creator of the Marlboro man, was once asked why he smoked Marlboro cigarettes. Burnett responded: “ I guess my feeling is pretty well summed up in the remarks of the vice-president of a competitive agency. When asked why he was smoking a not-too-popular brand of cigarette: ‘In my book there is no taste or aroma quite like bread and butter.’ “

This ad is from the 1936 Lucky Strike print campaign.

Merry Christmas, everybody. Hope you have something tasty in...

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 02:54:00 -0500

Merry Christmas, everybody. Hope you have something tasty in your tumblers.

Image via the pretty men at Ivy Style.

Mad Men Playlist: Sukiyaki — Kyu Sakamato In “Flight...

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:02:42 -0500

Mad Men Playlist:

Sukiyaki — Kyu Sakamato

In “Flight 1”, Don totally negs this Japanese lady in the restaurant after he has to break it off with Mohawk Airlines (this is the episode where Pete’s dad dies in the AA crash). She’s into him, and usually when Don suffers a work setback, he likes to make it up in personal lady time, but he says “Not tonight” and bravely soldiers on.

Anyways, this song “Sukiyaki” is what’s delightfully playing over this exchange. The original title of the song translates to “I look up when I walk”, which the singer does so his tears won’t fall.

Making the whole thing just that more Weiner-loves-his-details-esque? Sakamato died in a plane crash.

• footnote - by Natasha Simons

You guys, let’s be honest: in our heart of hearts,...

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:43:00 -0500

You guys, let’s be honest: in our heart of hearts, don’t we all just want the Don Drapers of our lives to take us out to LUTECE?

Lutece opened in 1961 to great acclaim, so it’s no wonder Don and Roger try to go there so often. It was founded by early celeb chef Andre Soltner who remained head chef and owner until closing. From their now defunct website: “The restaurant offers a variety of settings including Le Jardin, which is the main dining room, and two unique private rooms on the second floor of a townhouse appointed with hand-gilded suede walls and crystal chandeliers to create the perfect intimate setting for guest’s enjoyment.”

Sample Menu (so delish):

Appetizers
Pheasant Soup & Poached Quenelle
with green lentils, endive & arugula

Caviar Soup
with Madeleine Island bay scallops, cauliflower mousseline & poached quail egg

Chestnuts & Porcini Mushrooms
cooked en cocotte with grilled pancetta & roasted chicken jus

Artichoke Salad
with ruby red grapefruit vinaigrette, thai basil

Brittany Langoustines
watercress civet, gold beets & shaved winter black truffle

Yukon Gold Potato & Winter Black Truffle Pie
sabayon

Entrees
Pan Seared Lacquered Monkfish
with nicoise olive sauce, baby bok choy, chick pea puree & lemon confit

Roasted Turbot on the Bone
with ginger & parmesan, tarbais beans with fresh tomato concasse & arugula

Sauteed Black Sea Bass
with baby spinach, vanilla jus

Sauteed Lobster
with sauteed foie gras wrapped in a chard leaf,
braised savoy cabbage, grapes & fennel

Sauteed Partridge
poached foie gras wrapped in a chard leaf,
braised savoy cabbage, grapes & fennel

Roasted Farm Raised Chicken
pommes macaires, black truffle jus

It had three main dining rooms, called Le Jardin, Le Petit Salon, and Le Grand Salon. The Drapers and such did not eat in Le Jardin, because there didn’t seem to be any green and yellow accents.

In the 60s, Julia Child called Lutece the greatest restaurant in the United States.

Here’s the NY Times article on its closing which discusses how Lutece always got most of its business from business lunches and dinners.

• footnote - by Natasha Simons

“Bras are for men. Women want to see themselves the way...

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:15:38 -0500

“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

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

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 04:12:07 -0500

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 14^th Street are to be preferred to the ones on 53^rd 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.

You can see why ad execs for Playtex might have gotten a bit...

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:22:00 -0500

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

Have you guys been enjoying the music? Particularly the opera...

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:44:00 -0500

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)!

Mad Men Playlist: Get cultural! Way back in season one, the...

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:34:00 -0500

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

Mad Men Playlist: Don’t Think Twice (It’s All Right)...

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:59:00 -0500

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

Servants! What an emotionally fraught and ambiguous place they...

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:22:00 -0500

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.

Given her modeling background, it’s no wonder Betty is big...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:42:46 -0500

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!

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

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:54:05 -0500

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

Bert puts some socio-economic theory into practice when he hands...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:50:26 -0500

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?!