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Q&A - Gay Perello (Property Master)
Gay Perello joined Mad Men with Season 2 and talks to AMCtv.com about the props that drove her nuts and how important ice cubes are.
Q: What prop changes did you bring to Season 2?
A: Jon Hamm's watch was something that Matt [Weiner] wasn't that crazy about, and it had been established quite a bit in Season 1. So I showed Matt a couple different styles, and we loved this one particular company called Jaeger LeCoultre. They make some fabulous timepieces that are very classic and have been around for two centuries. There's this one watch that I really love. It's called a Reverso, with a rectangular face, and you're able to flip the dial to a case on the back, where we thought this would be really great to have it engraved with Don's initials at one point. Showing it to Jon on the first day... he said, "I'm kind of a round watch face guy." And I said, "Well, we talked about that, but let's look at this cool little feature that you can play with." Then he said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, this will work," and he started to really like it... And then Matt had wrote in an episode that Betty takes his watch to have it engraved, so it got to have a little more play than we thought it would.
Q: What unique challenges does this show present?
A: You do find these things in so many different places. In a 2008 current day show or anything from ten years ago, you can still go to the malls and get stuff, or you can order online. With this, it could be anywhere, and so you have to research what was around then... First you have to find out, did it exist? Who made it and then, what did it look like? Once you do that, you either find it online, or what we do -- order advertising pictures of it... We'll get that in, and then we're able to hire a graphics person to recreate the label. I go and find either the bottle, the box or whatever that is similar to that shape and then we basically recreate the things. That's probably the toughest.
The other big challenge is on set where my crew is constantly lighting cigarettes and pouring drinks and resetting ice cubes. For a tight shot of an ice cube, we got the old vintage ice trays and we froze those. We definitely want our ice to look good, so it's that maintenance of being right there and not having a break, especially when you have all six or seven characters there smoking and drinking.
Q: What's the most difficult prop you've had to find?
A: The hardest prop was diapers from the '60s. In "The Gold Violin,"
Paul is doing a Pampers demonstration in the conference room. He pours
his drink on an open diaper, it holds, then he rolls it up and throws
it away. We found a few from the '70s and made them from that pattern,
and with sponges, diaper rags, plastic etc. I was resetting them after
they got soiled, over and over. Plus we recovered a detergent box with
the original graphic of 1962 Pampers.
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Please add Don's watch to the scrapbook so we can get a closer look at it. Love the show and love the fabulous props. Really takes me back.
Gay,
You do a great job!
The curtains in the Draper bedroom are exactly like the ones my Mom had in our living and dining room. Since they smoked incessantly, the curtains were always a litttle yellow. And the lamp shades had a bit of yellow,too.
Gay, I thought it was fabulous that the show used the original 1950-60's glass tumblers with the gold leaf decoration on them. Then later I noticed wine glasses, sherberts and an ice bucket. I have been collecting these "SwankySwig" glassware for years!
@Peg4Prez
You can see the latest Mad Men scrapbook on this blog at this link:
http://blogs.amctv.com/mad-men/2008/09/mad-men-scrapbook.php
Thanks for reading!
Zerelda-
Scrapbook? Is this real, and can you please tell me how I can look at it? Tks. :O)
.....Peg4Prez.....The Scrapbook was recently updated and posted last week in the Blog.
Love it, and love Gay's work.
Hey Gay! What a class A job you've done on this show - bravo! I was a Private Secretary in the late Fifties (on Fifth not Madison) and it's deja vu all over again; the props, clothes, all the other eye candy that brings me right back into this era. I have only one question; where are the steno pads? We never went into the boss's office without one, along with two sharpened pencils. That pad was our lifeline to the boss; everything was steno'd, usually first thing in the morning. And we shopped at Ohrback's at lunch - or Macy's on the Square - 'cause both had more classy clothes for the gals and wonderful sales. S. Klein's was too far downtown. And our Starbucks was Chock Full O Nuts coffee; we'd walk a mile for a cup or go on a coffee run for the boss. I'm a late-comer to this show so I bought the first season CD and now I'm hooked! I can only imagine how hard you had to work to make this show so real. You captured everything. Many thanks and many congrats!
Gay,
I really enjoyed the 1st season, of course, it was the DVD series since, you know that I work on a ship. I could not wait to see the difference that you made to the 2nd season. I just got home 1 week ago from Europe for vacation and was glad to see the final episode tonight. It was excellent. I even had Dad turn the TV off of sports at his house so, we may by chance catch you at the wrap party. I will be going out of LA, starting the last day of November to first of March. Hope to catch up with you at that time. Mom and Kris will be cruising in January with their spouses, also. Hope to see you soon. Stacy
I loved the little clown doll that was in the children's wagon in one scene. I have the same doll- different suit! I'd never seen another one before- it was quite a jolt!
LOVE the prop dept and the whole look of the show. xox
You know that you have more than a few watch forums noting the vintages on the show.
It was pointed out that at the time JLC Reverso was available only overseas. It was not sold in the US yet.
Nice choice for using the Hamilton Ventura for the Hamilton Electric. The iconic Hamilton.
You might enjoy this thread:
http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=310817
Watch geeks love this stuff
Still trying to figure out Don's wife's watch.
I have a mint condition 1956 Thermador stainless steel wall oven that I'd gladly donate if the show is interested and thinks it's worth shipping from Baltimore. I just left a similar comment on the Amy Wells Q&A page.
I think you are doing a wonderful job except for one thing. People like that did not have phonographs. They had stereo systems and nice ones at that.
This is set in the golden age of audio when the best equipment was built right here in NYC. Mr Draper should have a Marantz stereo at least as old as Dustin Hoffman's in The Graduate. It was a symbol of class and style that persists to this day.