Mad Men accuracy..

Jonathan

Jonathan

VFG Member
I have been hearing so much about Mad Men over the past 6 months I decided to start watching it. However, there was too much back story so I ended up buying season 1 and 2 because it was always out at the library.

It is wonderfully written, and I like how the main characters are flawed - like real people. I also enjoy how accurate their history is -- usually...

So I thought it would be fun to note historical errors about Mad Men as I go along... If you have noticed any, write them down here.

Joan refers to Marshall McLuhan's 'The Medium is the Message' in 1960, but that phrase didn't appear until his 1964 book Understanding Media.

The Beat in the coffee bar reads a poem that refers to a King Size bed. I have looked it up and haven't found a specific date, other than wikipedia saying king beds were introduced in the '50s' but I don't think so. Double beds were scandalous enough in the 1950s that I really don't think King beds (two twins pushed together essentially) were introduced until the late 1960s. If anybody finds an exact date when they were introduced, I would like to know...

As for clothing.... I have noticed the occasional pair of shoes that shouldn't be there, but that might be because the director decided on a full shot when the script called for a close-up, so I will forgive those...

I really think Joan should have more pointed breasts. Her breasts seem to round and confined, rather than pointed torpedos which was still the shape until the late 1960s.

I also don't always like the choice of wardrobe for Peggy. I know she is supposed to be a little dumpy, but sometimes they put her in an old lady suit from the 50s or alternatively some teenyboppers circle skirt. I prefer the white button-up blouses and tweed skirts and I would rather see her in flat or low heeled shoes over spikes, but that's more a judgement call than an error per se.

So, anyone else want to add things they have noticed?
 
Oh yes, I have. Peggy is seen putting on a pair of pantyhose in season 2 and in season 3 we clearly see a pair of pantyhose on a drying rack in her kitchen. In the next episode, Peggy talks about her pantyhose. BIG mistake, as pantyhose weren't commonly worn until the early 70's. I blogged about it here.
 
Jonathan, I can vouch for the King sized bed in the early 60s. My parents had one and still have it in their house. I remember jumping on it. It was fun for bouncing on because it was so big you were unlikely to bounce off.
 
Oh, and as far as date of that King bed, I can't say for sure, but the house was completed in 1958 and I think the bed was bought when they moved in. So, late 50s could very well be accurate, but I was just a baby at the time so my earliest memory of it was early 60s.
 
Jonathan, same here, we're just getting into it, and completely sucked into the vortex. Did you know that the writers are primarily women?
Den is able to get anything off a certain site (for free, he has his ways), so we are catching up, and he is way ahead of me in Season 1 and 2. (I can watch anything from any point; it doesn't bother me, so I'm watching the new episodes, while watching Season 2 episodes with him.)

I too, have noticed the occasional wrong shoe from a distance.

Maybe Peggy wears hand-me-downs, due to her slightly lower economic status, and her character has those conflicted / schizoid elements, so perhaps her wardrobe is trying to reflect those aspects? Maybe.

Lots of interesting details, in the wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Men
 
I've read on another site that the office typewriters (IBM Selectrics) weren't out in the early 1960's.
 
Originally posted by Pinky-A-GoGo
ive never seen the show :BAGUSE:
Click to expand...

OK, I hadn't either, so I decided to watch the first few episodes on-line and frankly, I don't like ANY of the characters. I really don't see what all the hubbub is about?

Am I the only one? Does it get better after episode 3?

At first I was interested in all the office politics and differences from today but now I'm over it, I'm even bored with the costuming :clueless:
 
Originally posted by joules


Maybe Peggy wears hand-me-downs, due to her slightly lower economic status, and her character has those conflicted / schizoid elements, so perhaps her wardrobe is trying to reflect those aspects? Maybe.
Click to expand...

I think that is the deal with Peggy.
In the 1st season it is her 1st job and she is still wearing close from high school and probably hand-me downs. I don't think she has ever been interested in "fashion" so she wears, good sturdy clothes. She is very frugal and conservative and even this season she is dressing better, but never flashy or fashionably.
(which I think is the way you would dress then if wanted to be taken seriously by the guys)
 
Gracious ... I seem to disagree with several things. I worked as a legal secretary from 1964 to 1968 for Fulbright & Jaworski, a large firm in Houston.

During the first year our typewriters were changed from the old models to selectrics. My typing speed increased from 80 to over 90 wpm. I loved them for their touch.

I wore pantyhose (a beautiful shade of brown) at least by 1966/67. I was thrilled to not have to wear garter belts anymore. I did have a problem with the early ones. I was thin with long legs and the legs were shaped for curvy legs - not mine. No way to adjust with the garter snaps by pulling up tighter. I left my job in 1968 to work for the U.S. State Dept. and worked overseas. I still wore my pantyhose by using the personal shoppers available at that time at most dept. stores. They would put together what I needed and mail my items to me.

In 1964 my roommate and I decided to buy our own furniture and no longer rent furnished apts. We leased a townhome with a large master bedroom and a small bedroom. Joy, my roommate, bought the bedroom furniture and we shared the large bedroom. The bed was kingsize (pull apart mattresses.) We used the small bedroom as a little den.

Pointy bras were more 50s. In the 60s we wore underwire/uplifting bras with matching panties - mostly in pastels.

I actually bought one season of Mad Men and haven't watched it yet! I'll have to make time to watch it. Maybe I'll come up with some mistakes.
 
I also think Peggy is wearing clothes that will best reflect the 'period' in her story during the first series and the transition into her new image int he 2nd third of the second series....er if you follow my driftin drift!!
 
Good to know that King size beds were around, but it sounds like they were just barely around in 1960.
I have only seen season one so far, which takes place in 1960, so I haven't seen the pantyhose issue yet, but I thought they were around by about 1964/65 - to permit the shorter hemlines. It will be interesting to see how they progress the costuming as time passes. Tomorrow I will start to watch season 2 - 1961!
 
I bought Season 1 but, as I mentioned, I haven't watched it. It's loaned out but I can ask for it back. I confess I didn't recall it was supposed to be 1960.

Take everything I said above and apply to later years. I had in my mind that this season is 1969 and wasn't aware they skipped years?

Jonathan, you are such a gentleman for pointing this out to me in such a nice manner. Thanks. Joan2
 
1963 - LOL - I apparently have no idea. Why would I post on Mad Men just because I bought the DVD (unwatched :duh2: )? I know I read in our paper that it moved to 1969 because I thought - they've passed me by. I consider my years at the lawfirm as "Mad Men" years.

The information I posted was correct. However, apparently it has nothing to do with the TV series timeframe.

What a day .... Joan2
 
Season 1 was 1960, Season 2 was 1962, and Season 3 is 1963. Kennedy is still alive, but his assassination is supposed to play into the drama of this season. The references to the Cuban missile crisis were very interesting in the first two episodes.
 
I did a little reading and found out where I got "1969." The show will jump ahead two years at a time for the next three seasons and end in 1969. That's my feeble excuse for remembering 1969. J2
 
I haven't watched the show yet (fie on me!), but fully plan to... There was a great interview I read with some ad exec guy who was climbing the ladder in the 60s, and he says the show is very realistic. Based on what I remember hearing in my pre-teens back in the mid 60s, it sounds like it is!

And I am sure pantyhose did not appear until around I was in about 8th grade--which would have been 1967 or so. I remember still wearing garter belts and sagging-at-the-knee stockings ('cuz my legs were so skinny) when I was in 7th grade. We had to roll them up at the tops and shove them into the garter hooks. I remember my mom and I grabbing them as soon as they appeared in the stores. If they were invented before then, they must not have been widely available right away, at least in my little backwater town.....
 
I think our own perceptions of when something was popular was when we became aware of it. On the Oprah show she referred to 8 track tapes as 60s which I thought she was wrong about because I remember them from the 70s, the 60s were about reel to reel or cassettes. Anyway, it turns out I was wrong and 8 tracks were indeed introduced commercially in about 1964 - like television was introduced in 1939 but nobody thinks of TV until I Love Lucy or the Queen's Coronation in the early 50s. I certainly don't remember King size beds until the late 60s but that doesn't mean they didn't exist before then. Dancer's tights are essentially pantyhose, so in a sense they have been around since the turn of the century, but when they took off was, I believe, when skirts became so short that you could see the garter clips, which were considered too salacious or ugly.

However, we started watching series 2 tonight and there was a HUGE mistake in the ad campaign for American Airlines. They show a stewardess in a mini-skirt and there is NO way a mini skirt was around in 1962. Hemlines above the knees were introduced in 1964 and they didn't get really short (mid thigh) until 66, so that is definately a Mad Men Mistake.

I have to admit I am finding some of the characters a little too one dimensional and tedious... the men are all predators and the women are all victims. I am bored of Don Draper and would like to see some more interesting stories from some of the other employees.
 
Anne, I know we are the same age, and my memories of pantyhose are the same as yours. I started wearing them in 7th grade, about 67/68.

But I grew up in the back of beyond. We were always 2-3 years behind the rest of the civilized world, or so we thought!

Being a good Carolina girl, I've got to point out that pantyhose were developed by an NC company, Glen Raven, starting in the mid 50s. By 1959, they had developed a sellable product.

Another little bit, they did not use the term Pantyhose because when Glen Raven applied for the patent or trade mark, the term had already been claimed by another hosery maker. Later, it was determined that the term was generic, and could be used by any maker.

Could Peggy have worn pantyhose?

Yes, but from what we know about the character, it is highly unlikely. She was a lower income working gal, and Panti-Legs were $2.50 a pair, or $3 for seamless. And this was a new and radical product that was very slow to catch on. As Jonathan said, it was the mini skirt that made pantyhose popular.

Here is an ad from 1960, in Harper's Bazaar:

<img src=http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e270/fuzzylizzie/pantyhose.jpg>

I don't see this so much as an historical mistake as it is a lapse in characterization.
 
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