.....why do i have the feeling this is going to be the biggest thread of all time?

hope the cast are enjoying their vacations!

STORY LINE
Theme; The Silent Spring Of Betty
This spring Betty's garden has bloomed with brilliancy thanks to the miracles of DDT. In fact DDT is so safe that they even spray it down her street to control the mosquitoes.
Betty has so much more time to enjoy her garden now thanks to the chemical revolution of perma press fabrics her life is wrinkle free. And just like her brilliant garden modern science has created new fantastic color dyes so rich, so vibrant her whole families wardrobe is blooming!
Betty has been busy inside the home as well, making way for all the fabulous new innovations the marketplace has provided. Household living has improved so much with science and technology that Betty has much more free time that before. Right now, however there has been quite a bee hive of activity as the motto is "out with the old and in with the new". If in doubt....throw it out! Every week in Betty's driveway trash cans are full to the brim and bear witness to her welcoming this new future and her new attitude. New toys, new clothes, new appliances, new furniture its all new, new new!
Modern science has also been busy in Betty's kitchen cooking up bold exciting food colors, dazzling new tastes and food that stays fresh for weeks on end.
Thanks to the wonders of 1960's technology we really do live in a marvelous new world.

BACKGROUND OF STORY
"Rachel Carsons Silent Spring 1962 exposed the hazards of the pesticide DDT and eloquently questioned humanities faith in technological progress and helped set the stage for the environmental movement. The most important legacy of Silent Spring, though, was a new public awareness that nature was vulnerable to human intervention. Rachel Carson had made a radical proposal: that, at times, technological progress is so fundamentally at odds with natural processes that it must be curtailed. Conservation had never raised much broad public interest, for few people really worried about the disappearance of wilderness. But the threats Carson had outlined -- the contamination of the food chain, cancer, genetic damage, the deaths of entire species -- were too frightening to ignore. For the first time, the need to regulate industry in order to protect the environment became widely accepted, and environmentalism was born."
source. Natural Resources Defence Council
http://www.nrdc.org/health/pesticides/hcarson.asp

New and Improved........In the 50's, my sisters and I ran behind the DDT vehicle as it drove down the street ... Anyone else remember doing that or even being outside as the truck went by? I'm not meaning to change the thread...just curious.
Betty is definitely going to become a shop-aholic as she tries to fill the emptiness. Last seasin when her hands were getting numb I wondered if she might be acquiring a rare disease that has since gone into remission. So I am watching and thinking that her psychiatrist is a waste of time. MINE TALKS TO ME!

THEME:
My idea centers on Don’s comment that he doesn’t golf but likes to watch. Perhaps Sterling-Cooper signs a golf account and Don has to learn to golf, so he signs up for the club he and Betty were at on the Fourth of July. I don’t know much about the industry but found some 60’s clubs for sale on EBay:

(See: http://atlanta.craigslist.org/spo/840087463.html).

I particularly like the manufacturer’s comment from the site which states, "There are no shortcuts in the quest for perfection"-These are the words of Ben Hogan, founder of Ben Hogan Company, one of the most legendary figures in the history of the game, and a man well known for his commitment to performance excellence.” Perhaps Ben could be “resurrected” for the show. I don’t know what his age would be relative to Don’s at the time, but I was thinking he could become “Don’s new daddy” and a surrogate grandfather to his son. Don, in turn, might begin to teach his son to golf. I know this is getting too linear, but I think it fits well with the manufacturer’s statement, “The vision has become a reality.” Betty’s and Don’s visions of family are detached and both are only able to recall painful memories from their own family backgrounds. Betty is hurt by her father’s quick remarriage, angry at her dead mother, and knows Don doesn’t want to make her family his family. Don doesn’t acknowledge his family because it resurrects images he’d rather not see. Both seem to see right through the falseness of the family he and Betty have created for themselves. Because of this, their family is isolated and disconnected, not extended and connected. The extension of the family might serve to cauterize some of Don and Betty’s gaping familial wounds, which would put them in a better position to make their vision of a family a reality. I think most fans want to see Betty and Don make it work and this might help do the trick.

I also thought it would also be cool to use a golf slang term (taken from Golfinity.com) to drive the theme or title the show. Right now I am thinking something like “Grocery Money” which is, “the winnings from a golf bet that the winner pledges to spend on food and drink, or groceries, usually at the nineteenth hole.” Or, “Bail Out” which is, “what many golfers do to avoid trouble on the course." “Albatross” also got my attention because of its symbolic meaning and connection to one of my favorite poems, “The Seafarer.” While it might be too obvious, or overused, I think many parallels can be drawn between the seafarer and Don. They’ve both made stupid mistakes, suffered for them, done penance and earned redemption. This works nicely with the shows religious themes too.

nmkay: I remember running behind the vehicle spraying that stuff, also. It was at the Jersey Shore & we thought it would keep the mosquitos off US!

S4T: From the craigslist reference, you must be in Atlanta, as I am.

NAI: I worked in a large NY ad agency in the 60s and have lots of stories, but I'm a bit shy to put them here. It was, however, a lot more fun than what we've seen in the office so far. I love the show, though & can relate to alot of what is being depicted.

Possible client pitches: Wisk (ring around the collar), Pepsi (for those who think young), Tarryton cigarettes with the cork filter (I'd rather fight than switch) They also need to add an automotive account. I'm still thinking....

Dear Pattypoo;
Your comments from working in the actual industry would be facinating...nothing would be more interesting than to hear real life trench stories. I wish thoes that worked in the industry during this golden age would write about their experiences. So please share with us.
Your are right about the seriousness of the show. I have read other comments from thoes in the industry and they say the same....they had a lot of fun at work....and it would be great if the show displayed some comical relief.

Speaking of The Beatles, I was attending a cocktail party at a new New York restaurant that was housed in the hotel The Beatles were staying at when they first arrived in the U.S. (Manhattan) to perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. Some people at the party casually mentioned, "Oh there's those Beatles everyone is talking about." As I was still very much into jazz from my Beatnik days (and still am) I said "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" as their song went. I was not impressed. It wasn't long before I began to appreciate their genius.

Since there is no MM tonight, I will love to post.
The next season 1965-66.
I grew up in the 60's. But it was on the west coast.

The Beatles, Carnaby Street.
Women: Mini Dresses, go go boots (Correges). Hip-hugger pants, bell-bottoms, and streamlined, longer hair; more flat flips, light lipstick. Major black eyeliner. Mary Quant. Thicker heels called "stacked heels. Lighter stockings, and opaque stockings in white and colors.
Men wore "Beatle boots" (we called them 'fag boots), longer hair.
In the more intellectual East, the war was on a lot of college kid's minds.
The sexual revolution. Noxema Shave Cream. "Take it off, take it all off." Airlines tag lines: "Hi, I'm Katy, fly me."
"The Pill."
Cassius Clay, Lew Alcindor, and the whole "Black Pride". Martin Luther King. (Birmingham has occurred).
Drugs: LSD, pot.
Op Art, Gelstalt, Warhol. Advertising art became popular. Push Pin Studios. Milton Glaser, Seymore Chwast. Typography as art.
Don grows his hair. Relishes even more in the sexual revolution. Perhaps Betty and Don have an "open marriage". Betty is going to poetry readings, and furthering her education. Don is still at SC. he will continue to work his way into Roger's partnership job. Afterall, he has finally seen that creating a new life is harder than it seems.
Their neighborhood is changing. More divorced women. Their children are going off to the Vietnam War. More political meetings for the moms.
More foreign cars in the garage. More European food, style, and design are apparent.
A black guy is hired at SC. He is the voice of the 'blacks'. This could be many episodes worth of good stuff.
Poor Sally escalates into being the counterculture. She is hooked on heroin, Bobby is wanting to go to the Army, or he wants to be part of the intellectual group of the upper east side.
Cooper is going to Marharesshi. Roger is getting a divorce and living in Soho, not because he is a bohemian, but because that is where the ass is.
Pete is trying his damnest to ascent to the higher eschalon of SC. He won't give up. He still wears suits and keeps his hair short. His is still child-less.
Oh and Peggy, she is my favorite. She Will get the corner office. Don's office and Don's position. She will remain single. Afterall, she is hoplessely damaged.
Joan will be married again, and again, still being an angry and bitter secretary.
Sorry Joan.

Great question. My guess: the season starts in 1964. The enormity of JFK's assassination on November 1963 would be too enormous an exogenous event to fit into a show, so they will skip over to the time just after it. What would be curious, however, is the marketing of 'Camelot' post-JFK. If I recall my history books, Camelot was never coined to refer to the JFK-Jackie White House until after his death.

February 1964, when the Beatles hit. I wasn't alive then, but I sometimes wonder if the collective euphoria over the Beatles was heightened by the need for a distraction from the death of the president. This need to escape reality after a tragedy, even if it doesn't hold off the events to come, avoidingseems pretty apt for the poor delusional souls at Sterling Cooper and at the Draper house. But 1964 would be a rich year:

* Beatles invade. Mop tops! I wonder which of the SC bunch would actually grow their hair long?

* Racial tensions become a televised event, and people as far away as the environs of Manhattan can't avoid it. Lots of significant stuff here to mine: Mississippi murders. Cassius Clay. MLK one year after I have a dream and Malcolm X, who leaves Nation of Islam. Race riots in Harlem. I wonder how this will play out at Sterling Cooper. Any ad folks from the 1960s have insights? My father was an accountant in those days and he hired the first black accountant in his office; some co-workers wouldn't allow the guy to interface with clients. Was ad world more or less progressive? So far, I think the show has been pretty honest in its depiction of race relations, and I would think it will have to come to the fore more in Season Three -- I wonder how all these characters will react.

* World's Fair. New York held one in 1964. Will Emmy wins finally let AMC/Lion's Gate have the money for location scenes outdoors in NYC?

* 1964 Mustang. Great cars, introduced this year. Would be cool to see that discussed, but I'm guessing poor Ford Motor Co. as it teeters on bankruptcy wouldn't be able to pay for prominent product placement.

So much more that year. Probably too early to delve into Vietnam.

I don't see Don/Betty changing their looks much. My maternal grandparents were both born in 1921, not much older than those two, and they look the same in all the photos through the 1960s.

* James Bond -- for my money, Goldfinger's the best of them and it was released in 1964.

Boop, great stuff. Especially the ads!

....pattypoo, i agree with new and improved....

people like you are exactly who the writers want to hear from....you shouldn't hold back, and don't leave out any juicy details.

matt weiner is younger than the people in these stories, so is relying on first-hand accounts to infuse it with authenticity.

this is probably the one place long-winded people get to let loose without censure {:) so please, wax forth!

also, things are likely to get slow here in the next week, so thoughtful intelligent posts with lots of colorful details would probably be very welcome.

as to the running behind the DDT trucks, i know someone in whose neighborhood all the kids ran behind the trucks and thought it was the best .... i didn't believe the stories until i read it here!

Maybe a few dry martinis will loosen me up...I'll think about it.

I am a fan of the book The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio wherein the mother wins many contests for inventing advertising slogans. I believe that this was still going on in the early sixties (the mother won the big Pepsi jingle contest). and that it would make an interesting story idea.
In the same vein I think that since Salvatore is an excellent cook he could submit a recipe for the Pillsbury Bake-Off which was another big event of that time (less so now). Betty could also submit a recipe in a different category and they could both win.
I remember that my mother would buy Ayds diet candy in the early sixties as a way to eat something sweet without gaining calories. It was not great tasting and you were supposed to eat it with coffee or something hot. I noticed that TAB was presented as a new soft drink in 1964.
Although Barbie dolls came out in the late 50's there were various campaigns to get girls to turn in their old dolls for a new doll. I remember looking for an old doll to turn in in order to receive a new Barbie doll. I had the IDEAL dolls that were life sized that I had received for birthdays (the same company that made the Shirley Temple dolls) but they were not portable in the same way as Barbie dolls.
I remember that it was ok for kids to get spanked at school and that our teachers would use a wooden paddle. It was very common to be spanked and I remember feeling that the teacher would take her negative day out on the students. Many teachers were much older (the incentives for early retirement were not available) and because there were fewer jobs for women most of them did not seem to enjoy teaching but they had no other choices. The teachers often thought nothing of making inappropriate value judgements or humiliating students.School playground equipment was not safe and I can remember falling inside the merry go round while I was pushing it for others. The seats of the swings were wooden and I was always surprised that I did not get hit in the head with one. This was a time when many innoculations happened at school (at least in Ohio) and I can remember waiting to get shots in line and judging everyone on how well they took the pain.

My mother started taking the "Pill" in the early to mid sixties but she refused to take the prescription to our local small town pharmacist because he and his wife would share such information with others. This was fairly common in small towns as health privacy acts were not in place.
There were not many books available on female heroines in the early sixties. Laura Ingalls Wilder and Nancy Drew were the series that I enjoyed. I read Tom Corbett Space Cadet which had been my brother's book series as well as the Hardy Boys. I could imagine Ken creating a series of stories for young females related to space or everyday life.

My mother was an English teacher at a college for engineers in the sixties. She had taught at various levels in primary and secondary schools and then found a job which then required a Master degree. She received a Sabbatical to get her Ph.D since it was becoming a requirement for college professors to acquire a doctorate. She was the only female teacher and was friends with the female librarian at the college.

We loved the movie Mary Poppins and we were always thinking that we could fly with the right magic formula.
My father was a minister and had a small parish in Ohio. Parish members thought nothing of showing up at church and falling asleep during the service and snoring loudly. My mom would always explain that they were farmers and had worked hard the night before.

There are some fantastic ideas here! I remember my mom taking thoes Ayds as well. Remembering my mom has brought up some ideas.

Theme; "Education and the Office Girl."
My mothers father didn't want to send her to college as he felt that it wouldn't be worth it. In his mind she was destined to be a homemaker. So when she finally had a successful position she was constantly trying to "catch up" with her education at night school. .
Another Theme; "Advertising the Perfect Woman."
The mentioning of Aydes for dieting makes me also think of the current trends we have in society today that young girls and women trying so hard to match media images. In the early sixties there would be a great advancement in photographic and publishing techniques that made it even more possible to present an unrealistic idealized woman. It was simply profitable for the fashion and diet industries. No one knew, not even the advertisers, the effects it would have. The average consumer back then were just begining to sense this distorted reality.
Final Theme. "The Rise of Consumer Power"
Ralph Nader hadn't written his famous book Unsafe at Any Speed" untill 1965 and he did not join the Consumers Union Board untill 1967. But there was definately a growing trend of consumer awareness. We were begining to become savy and gain a voice against manufacturers and advertisers.

If we have the same time differance between S2 and S3 as we had from 1-2, then we can expect S3 to be set in 1964.

What was going on in 1964 ?

Beatles and the beginning of the British Invasion. Ford Mustang. Pop Art- Andy Warhol/Factory. Shorter skirts and brighter colors/patterns for women. Men will dress about the same. Racial tensions becoming more of an issue- Newark and Philadelphia Riots and Civil Rights Act of 1964. MLK wins Nobel Peace Prize. Beginning of Vietnam escalation- and first major student demonstration occurs in Times Square. Gulf of Tonken Resolution. Another Presidential election featuring the infamous "Daisy Commerical". Surgeon General's statement that smoking is hazardous to one's health. Muhamed Ali/Cassious Clay. Publication of the Warren Commission Report.

What will impact MM ?

Women's fashion- secretaries will start to wear shorter skirts and bolder colors. Less constructed foundation garments. Men will look the same.

Surgeon General's statement on smoking will impact the Lucky Strike Account.

With Civil Rights Riots occuring in NJ and PA, and MLK winning the Nobel Prize, we may see more accomidation of minorities. However it is still too early for a black secretary or AE.

Vietnam becomes an issue- with Cooper's ties to Repb party, do they work for Goldwater ?

Beatles and British Invasion- with the Ed Sullivan appearance, securing tickets to the event may be a secondary story line in an early season episode. Beatles could also be used as metaphor for creating more youth oriented ad copy.

Ford Mustang- would be nice if they get this account- but probably not. Mustang represents the beginning of a youth oriented car segement. SC could get another youth car account

Warhol and Pop Art begin to have an impact in the Advertising and Graphic Design worlds. How will SC and Salvatore address the new trends ?

Character development-

Don and Betty continue to have a rocky marriage, but are together at the end of the season. Don continues to cheat but is even more carefull. Betty suspects, but also sees Don as a better husband around the house. Sally is entering adolescence and begins to verbalise some of what she has witnessed in her home. Early indications that she is troubled. We find out more about Don/Dick's background. He also faces more proffessional challenges to the extent that his position at SC may be questioned. We get closer to seeing Don's past come out into the open.

Pete and Trudy stay together but are childless with continued tensions. We may see them discuss adoption. Pete continues to try to move up at SC, hopeing that his Clearsil success can be leveraged into a promotion. He brings in a few other account, but is tolerated rather than embraced at SC.

Roger and Mona get divorced. Charlotte is out of the house- no reason to stay to together, allowing Roger more leeeway to indulge his libido. Roger has more responsibilities in running SC.

Bert Cooper- less of a role in SC and thus in MM. Less protection for Don Draper.

Harry and his wife have a todler and are happy parents. Harry's TV department continues to gain recognition and stature at SC.

Salvatore will remain married to Kitty, but we will see an increasing amount of internal conflict as he edges closer to recognizing his true feelings.

Paul and Sheila will have broken up because at his core, Paul wants the perception of being a progressive bohemian, but doesn't want to comit to the cause.

Duck Phillips has moved on to another firm.

Joan is unmarried and may be back with Roger since his divorce. She will be working with Harry in the TV department.

Peggy has continued to rise at SC and is now a full Copywriter. Grudgingly she has been accepted as a proffessional equal, but still struggles on a personal and emotional level. About time for a new man in her life ? She wont go into a relationship because it is what's expected, but rather out of emotional lonliness. She and her new man may end up living together. She may become interested in the Civil Rights movement.

I wanted to add a few more story ideas/ social commentary etc.
I think that Don's mother could have been from an educated family in the south and resorted to a life of prostitution after being shunned by her family. I wonder about a possible story line wherein someone from Don's paternal family sees Don and recognizes a family resemblance. Betty could also hire a private investigator to follow Don (look into his past) and discovers the connection with his mother etc..

I know that the Manchurian Candidate was pulled from distribution after the Kennedy assasination. Perhaps the distributor is a client of Sterling Cooper and Joan recognizes that the movie would be poorly timed and is returned to her old job of reading scripts and advising.

Since the civil rights movement was evolving in the early sixties it would be significant to have Betty volunteer to care for her maid's niece or children and realize how she is discriminated against during her care of the child.

Pete's wife could become a docent at a local museum (perhaps the folk history museum mentioned in connection with Don) and happens upon some unexpected geneology connected to Pete's family (something he would want to hide).

In early TV the local news reporter became almost as famous as an actor or actress because they often did the afternoon and the evening news. The reporters were called upon to attend fairs do commercials etc. Reporters still perform these functions but because it was early TV they had more mystique! My grandfather had a hard time adjusting to live versus pre-recorded television. He would comment when a tv add would show the same man shaving several times a day since this would not happen during a live television show.
As kids we would alway be very excited about cereal boxtop offers and S&H greenstamps. In the era before credit cards were more common it was exciting to save boxtops and stamps in anticipation of something. It was probably the last years before immediate gratification became so prevalent.

The books that were popular during that time period (those that analyzed society) were The Looking Glass Self (other directed) and The Lonely Crowd by David Riesman. I studied these sociologists in college and Don is a case study of some of the attributes mentioned in the Lonely Crowd as is Peggy and Pete.

I meant to say Don's maternal family above, sorry.

My hope for Season 3 is that they don't get into the polyester leisure suits too quickly. I'm enjoying this time period. I wasn't very crazy about the bell bottoms and sideburns that will soon be upon the cast. I like this period because it's much gentler (on the surface) than the mid to late sixities with the protests and the crazy drug use etc... I mean can any of us picture Peggy at Woodstock (which I know is much later in the decade)?

I also hope they don't get into the "swinging" stuff (I can picture Roger swinging for some reason and Pete too pressuring his wife to get into it). I like this post upheavel period best.

Speaking of swinging, Kate Norby (who played Carol, Joan's roommate) has been in several episodes of Swingtown.

I think we'll see Nehru coats and long hair before we see polyester suits (which as I recall were a 70's thing).

I think it would be neat for Don to find out that his mother wasn't a whore at all. That was just the way his father referred to her after Don got dumped onto him. His stepmother just picked up the phrase from his father. Remember Don referred to them as "those sorry people."

That his mother was a "prostitute" has formed a lot of his thinking. I suspect most prostitutes don't know who was the father of a "trick child" which implies Don's mother either had a very small or loyal clientele if she was.

Another idea:
Trudy starts being suspicious about how important Pete is to the company. According to Pete, he's a vital cog but at a company party she may overhear other opinions.

Kitty wants to find out what Sal finds so attractive about Ken Cosgrove. Closer to her age, she begins to find him very attractive.

Customers begin demanding a tie-in to the Beatles to get part of the youth/boomer market.

We find that Bert Cooper had a childhood much like Don's. Moreover, he'd already had Don/Dick investigated before promoting him to Creative Director. Knew the story before Pete told him.

At one of the tuxedo events Don meets yet another slim, dark-haired woman whose blond, handsome husband is attracted to Betty. Betty asks them to visit for dinner and Don's uncomfortable with the amount of interest Betty has in the husband as well as the woman's seeing it and not caring.

Rachel re-enters his life after Tilden has been a very bad boy and she wants a little revenge. Or she's bored to tears.

Duck leaves and Ken Cosgrove is promoted to his job.

Jump to 1965. I agree. Get away from the Kennedy assassination.
The Viet Nam war was beginng to heat up around 1965 and Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique was a bombshell. Young men were definietly woriied about the draft and staying in school or joining the National Guard. However, if you were married and had children you avoided the draft. If the story advances to say,1965, some of the younger, unmarried guys in the office could be drafted. As others have mentioned, the fight for racial equality was big news for years.
We don't seem to be seeing a lot of Jacklie Kennedy inspired clothes in the current series. Her Oleg Cassini wardrobe was widely copied. Polyester leisure suits were a 70s creation for the most part.
The mini skirt was very big in the mid 60s as was the whole British influence on fashion and style i.e.. Carnaby Street, Mary Quant, Twiggie, and The British shop Biba were all great trend setters in the mid to later 60s.

Jump to 1965. I agree. Get away from the Kennedy assassination.
The Viet Nam war was beginng to heat up around 1965 and Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique was a bombshell. Young men were definietly woriied about the draft and staying in school or joining the National Guard. However, if you were married and had children you avoided the draft. If the story advances to say,1965, some of the younger, unmarried guys in the office could be drafted. As others have mentioned, the fight for racial equality was big news for years.
We don't seem to be seeing a lot of Jacklie Kennedy inspired clothes in the current series. Her Oleg Cassini wardrobe was widely copied. Polyester leisure suits were a 70s creation for the most part.
The mini skirt was very big in the mid 60s as was the whole British influence on fashion and style i.e.. Carnaby Street, Mary Quant, Twiggie, and The British shop Biba were all great trend setters in the mid to later 60s.

Theme: School Prayer.
I think setting up father Gill is an excellent character to explore some spiritual issues. Such as his more relaxed comfortable ways of saying grace vs the more rigid formal ways. This characterization could be expanded into many different areas. There was also great debate about school prayer. It wasn't until the early 1960's that prayer in public school was "outlawed" by a new interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.
Theme: Blackmail.
Sals slips up and his feelings and emotions lead him into doing something that has great consequences. It may be as small as attenting a bar thats known for certain types of men...he may of innocently overheard about this place from his barber sharing a story one saturday morning and decided to check it out just out of curiosity. However he bumps into someone he knows and this could lead him into a blackmail type of situation. His career and marriage are threatened.

Theme How Cosmo Changed the World Early 60's

There has got to be some good material in this idea...maby Sterling Cooper has to develope some bold changes in their attitudes. The company has re focus on the emerging womens market. I have reprinted the following partially from
the Cosmo's website for fun.

The story of how a '60s babe named Helen Gurley Brown (you've probably heard of her) transformed an antiquated general-interest mag called Cosmopolitan into the must-read for young, sexy single chicks is pretty damn amazing — and so is the effect her creation has had on the world. Over the years, Cosmo has not only become the number-one-selling monthly magazine on the newsstand, but it has also served as an agent for social change, encouraging women everywhere to go after what they want (whether it be in the boardroom or the bedroom).

Birth of the Cosmo Girl

Back in the '60s, young, single women were enjoying a new level of freedom. For the first time, they were beginning to bust their butts in formerly male-dominated fields and explore premarital sex. But the phenomenon was still so new that nobody was really talking about it — at least not in public. Although these forward-thinking women were definitely enjoying themselves, there was a small part of them that needed to know they weren't alone.

Enter Helen Gurley Brown. In 1962, the just-married copywriter penned Sex and the Single Girl, a fictional book about a swinging singleton who was leading this new kind of life. Not only did the book tell women they didn't need a man to be happy, but it also encouraged them to enjoy sex with whomever they damn well pleased — without guilt. Those two messages struck a chord: Helen's book was an instant best-seller, and unattached girls everywhere were so psyched that someone had finally spoken to them, they flooded her with thank-you notes — and begged her for personal advice.

Helen realized that if she had her own magazine, she could answer all of these women at once, so she mapped out a proposal that explored her book's main messages. "I knew that women were having sex and loving it," she says. "I wanted my magazine to be their best friend, a platform from which I could tell them what I'd learned and talk about all the things that hadn't been discussed before. I wanted to tell the truth: that sex is one of the three best things out there, and I don't even know what the other two are."

As soon as the mock-up was finished, she started shopping it around New York publishing companies. Rejection followed rejection, until Helen met with people at the Hearst company. "Cosmopolitan — their old general-interest publication for men and women — was hemorrhaging money," she says. "They had been planning to just close it down but instead agreed to give it to me and let me try out my new format."

Breaking New Ground

The first issue to totally reflect Helen's vision was September 1965, but the July '65 issue was the first she edited. "It had a piece about the Pill, which was still new and hadn't really been written about before," she says. "To me, the most important thing about it was that if you weren't worried about getting pregnant, you could enjoy yourself more in bed. So we wrote a cover line to that effect." When women saw the line — "The new pill that makes women more responsive" — they knew exactly what Cosmo was talking about and snatched the issue off newsstands in droves.

From then on, the magazine continued to push the envelope with articles on provocative (and often taboo) topics like man-meeting vacations and extramarital affairs. Soon it had a huge — and fiercely loyal — readership.

"Cosmo was so popular, libraries couldn't keep it around — women kept stealing the issues," says Laurie Ouellette, PhD, assistant professor of media studies at Queens College and author of "Inventing the Cosmo Girl," a 1999 article that looked at the cultural impact of the magazine in the '60s and '70s. "What made it so desirable is that it outlined an American dream for single, working women. It provided them with a vision and detailed advice on how to live a better life — on their own terms."

"Cosmopolitan put female sexuality right out there on the front page, where everyone could see it at the grocery store," adds Janna L. Kim, PhD, postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality at San Francisco State University. "People could no longer pretend that it didn't exist."

From the www.cosmo.com website

NandI: You are good. You are VERY good. Helen Gurley Brown/Sex & the Single Girl/Cosmo. For me, the book was my awakening, after having lived such a sheltered life, then moving into NYC in 1965. After that, for many early-20 girls in the ad agency, no guy was off limits and no guy was unavailable. Sooo many men spent at least 1 night in the City, away from their homes in the suburbs and wined & dined us in the fanciest places, trying to "score." (Where the heck did their wives think they were??) For many girls, living in NY on the meager salaries they were paid in the agency (because it was considered a glamor job--like working in TV), it was the only good meal they ate that week. Did we take advantage? Yes. But these guys wanted to be taken advantage of.

Because SC has started using and valuing the contributions of young people and women, the next step is a racial minority in the office. Probably a black woman as a secretary who enjoys rhythm & blues (before it became "soul.") Or is a gospel singer in her church.

On the other hand, it could be a Latina secretary whose family is from Puerto Rico. (I just took the Quiz and West Side Story was one of the answers.)

Several of the older secretaries could have moved on in response to Joan being replaced by a younger woman who hasn't put in the five to ten years they have. Like Hildy. This would make for openings in those ranks.

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Don develops a gambling addiction. (Remembering Don's visit to the floating gambling house in the coming episode.)

The book Subliminal Seduction talks about the use of subliminal suggestion in magazine ads etc by the advertising agency. It might be interesting to explore this via Sterling Cooper.

I was just thinking of the same idea as "midwayfarm" .....about subliminal seduction. This was a new unproven science back then but was worth the try. The idea that one could sneak in a word such as "sex" softly written numerous times in the background of a commercial for products like toothpaste has a comic flare to it as well as a feeling of sinister manipulation.
I can recall one real example from an ad for cigarettes that posed two couples in such a fashion to suggest that they were swingers. You definitely didn't see this on first viewing but after really looking at the ad it was so obvious. My first reaction found this humorous but then I felt a little shocked because the double meaning hit you on the subconscious level. This has the makings for a good show because there are so many other examples of subliminal advertising.

Congratulations to MAD MEN writers, cast, and Matt for winning their Emmys - way to go!

I grew up in the 60s – it was a complex, fast-changing, sometimes confusing era. But wonderful. I would not have traded it for anything. I remember lying in bed at night with my new orange transistor radio up against my ear, listening to WKBW in Buffalo. I attended Woodstock as a 17-year-old, and I will never forget the sights and sounds. I remember having arguments with my parents about the length of my skirts, my makeup (heavy black eyeliner with swirls around the edges like Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra), politics, rock music, and mostly everything. We felt we had surpassed the "cool" of the 1950s = we were hip. Some ideas for Matt Weiner:

The JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations – an earlier post suggested this would be too large a topic to tackle, but these really were seminal events in the country that deeply affected Americans and their sense of security in the world.

The Feminine Mystique – it's what's ailing Betty!

The Mod look, bright colors, bright clothing, flower power, go-go boots, long hair, polyester, Nehru's for men

Drugs – a no-brainer, and some did not come back from the bad trips

The "Youth Movement" – youth introducing idealization of practically everything – Woodstock Nation, communes, free love, mysticism, Berkeley Barb (newspaper), the natural food movement (Diet for a Small Planet), Mad Magazine, the Whole Earth Catalog (I know, that's more 70s) – young people wanted CHANGE and rebelled against all established institutions

Viet Nam – the beginning of a polarized nation. The sleepy Eisenhower years were over

THE PILL!!!!! My God, this was so liberating for women

The Civil Rights movement

Cuban Missile Crisis

Technology – moon landing, calculator, the birth of "gadgets" - precursors to the PC.

Rock & Roll – the British invasion, Bob Dylan went electric

I LOVE THIS SHOW!!!

Frank Lloyd Wright did not agree with Ayn Rand's philosophy. It is my understanding that she used Wright as a model for one of her fictional characters. It would be an unusual story line to explore the Robert Morse character meeting Ayn Rand in his youth (she did live in NYC and other major cities) and Morse falling in love with her philosophy of objectivism. Perhaps Morse studied under Wright at Taliesin and learned of her through her interest in Wright or the Arts and Crafts movement. Perhaps he was an art director using his drafting skills before he became involved with advertising. The Madison Avenue world certainly represents laissez-faire capitalism. Could Morse be the source of one of her characters in Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead? Is this why he wants others to read the books?

The 'car guy' in me would like an automotive tie-in. Since this is a show about advertising, the GTO would be perfect. It debuted in 1964, amid much corporate resistance. Unlike anything prior, it was groundbreaking in what it delivered, and so were the ads. McManus, John and Adams were the agency for Pontiac, and were incredibly innovative for the time. Boy would that be a gas....

My mother had a confidant who had an affair in our very small town. I learned of the affair many years later. Her friend became pregnant by her lover. She did go horse back riding and suffered an intentional miscarriage. I know that this was a way of having an abortion before abortion was legal. Most of the time it was not supposed to "work" but it did in this case. Each time I see Betty's female horse riding friend I imagine her in a similar predicament since she has a penchant for younger men.

A few predictions --
* Betty can't handle the pressure of being a single mom and takes pills to cope. She struggles with a pill addiction and uses whatever is left of Don's money to stay afloat. She faces the fact she has to support the kids - so she cleans up her act and works at the agency as a talent director/art buyer. She discovers the art world (through Midge or Peggy) and becomes a dealer (like a Peggy Guggenheim) and falls in love with a handsome, put together, rich, loving creative man.
* Ken explores his sexuality with the new young man who came out and cut Peggy's hair (can't remember his name)... and gets hit on by Salvatore.
* Duck hits rock bottom and attempts suicide.
* Paul joins some civil rights organization and becomes an activist. He becomes too vocal about his opinions and loses his job.
* Don empties a hidden bank account and gets taken by his new friends. Meanwhile, since Betty had the rest of the money, Don becomes flat broke. He digs deep to find himself. He returns - long hair and all - to try and save the agency and his marriage, but is it too late?

I barely watch TV but can't miss Mad Men. What a fantastic series. Oh, and the book Mirror Makers is a good read for anyone interested in the history of the ad business.