Hyperboliz: Yes, I remember the Drinking Man's Diet; we had that book around the house, too. My parents tried every cockamamie diet known to man. There was also "Dr. Stillman's Quick Weight Loss Diet." This was a precursor of Atkins; all the protein you could eat plus 8 glasses of water a day.

It wasn't until my mother joined the original Weight Watchers, founded by Jean Neiditch, in 1968 that they really lost weight the sensible way. My mother was totally into all the WW recipes and lost 35 pounds. She looked fantastic! My father lost weight just by proxy; so did I. It was great.

....that is a great piece of trivia - i would love to see that, and i bet i'm not the only one who finds that interesting. that's a great story also Gail.

did you see the scrapbook in the Blog section this week? here's the link -

http://blogs.amctv.com/mad-men/2008/09/mad-men-scrapbook.php

i wish they would make that a running feature. i want to see ALL those things up close, in every episode.

I think there was also something called "The Royal Canadian Air Force Diet" or some such thing.

My father had all sorts of diet pamphlets around the house.

Drink&Smoke, Gail and DryM: You'd like this. Go to Google and type in Modern Drunkard Magazine. It's real! And hysterical. There's also a book of the same title. Check it out.

Gail - Yeah, Jean Nidetch was very cool back in the day. My mom also went to those early WW meetings and she used to adhere to the original plan. As I recall it was quite strict with refined carbs and heavy on the protein (too heavy in fact, for anyone with less than optimal renal function). I remember watching Jean on Merv Griffin and LOVED the way she 'tawked' since it's how we all sounded, too! People lost massive amounts of weight on that first WW plan and as I recall there were tons of 100-200 lbs losers mom's Asbury Park chapter alone! No one really cared about cholesterol then and the average portion of hot dogs for a grown woman's dinner was SIX OUNCES - that came to FOUR hot dogs (no bun, of course)! There are few members of the MM cast who need to lose weight. In fact, most of them look remarkably lush and filled out even with the endless puffing and booze swilling. Major cardiac events came and went with no too much medical intervention back then and most of the MDs smoked! I do have an eye on Don's hypertension and given the fact that he's on reserpine (which is rarely RXd today given suidcidal ideation being a major SFX) I am non too sanguine about his longevity. But for now he looks good enough to eat! On ANY diet!!!!

I love to dig through junk/antique stores and thrift shops, and while never a smoker myself, I have slowly begun collecting cigarette memorabilia. Items from the MM time period are quite interesting and popular with collectors. I have a tiny gold box with a red lipstick kiss design on the top that opens up into an ashtray - I assume it was meant to be carried in a purse and used when no ashtrays were available. I can see Joan carrying one of these or Betty.

Remember how every coffee table had a matched set of cigarette lighter, cigarette box, and ashtray? My mother had such a set, and although the cigarette box was always full, the lighter never worked - ever - drove my Dad crazy!

I was at an antique store recently with my mother-in-law and there were so many cool mid-century lighters, ashtrays, and cigarette cases/boxes that I commented to her that I'd almost take up smoking just to have that cool stuff. She agreed. I live in a mid-century ranch and there is a great magazine called Atomic Ranch which highlights these houses and their furnishings. A lot of people buy them and restore them as much as possible to original and furnish them with mid-century or reproduction furnishings. It is great fun just to look at the magazines. You can check out their website at atomic-ranch.com

And let us not forget the longest running fitness show on television (1951-1985) hosted by Jack Lalanne, still with us 94 on the 26th this week. I remember my mom using a straight-back kitchen chair to do leg lifts along with Jack and various stomach crunches and curls after whichever of my latest siblings she had just given birth to, to get back her "girlish figure."

And let us not forget the longest running fitness show on television (1951-1985) hosted by Jack Lalanne, still with us and turnign 94 on the 26th of this week.

I remember my mom using a straight-back kitchen chair to do leg lifts along with Jack and various stomach crunches and curls after whichever of my latest siblings she had just given birth to, to get back her "girlish figure."