.....http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/zontv/2009/07/mad_men_amc_season_three_don_d.html

.....I guess it become clickable only if there is a space before the link.....

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/zontv/2009/07/mad_men_amc_season_three_don_d.html

Here's some background info on the London Fog company and brand:

A Clothing Manufacturer: 1922--53

Israel Myers was 16 years old in 1923 when he went to work as a part-time stenographer at the Londontown Clothing Company. Londontown, which had been founded in Baltimore, Maryland, a year earlier, made finely tailored men's clothing and topcoats. The relationship between Myers and Londontown would last more than 40 years, but it almost did not survive the Depression.

Londontown failed in 1930, but Myers bought the name and the physical assets in 1931, and kept the company making men's clothing. In the process he become president and chairman. As he told the Baltimore News American in 1971, "If I [had] had a good job offer, I probably would have taken it. But there were no jobs available, [and] I had worked hard and saved my money."

When the United States entered World War II, Myers accepted a Navy contract to make rubber-based waterproof coats for enlisted men, even though he knew nothing about the procedure for doing so. When the war ended, Myers changed the name of his company to Londontown Manufacturing Company and continued to make raincoats. At that time, raincoats were considered by manufacturers and consumers as anything that would keep the water off, and Myers obviously saw possibilities.

He wanted to make the raincoats a fashionable part of the wardrobe, and to do that, he had to find a material that would be both waterproof and comfortable. When that proved impossible with conventional fabrics, he tried a new synthetic polyester developed by E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. The friction from his sewing machines, however, melted the fibers. Finally, Du Pont and Reeves Brothers, Inc., a fabric maker, created a cotton and Dacron material that did not melt during the sewing process, was water-repellent, and remained so even when put through a washing machine.

Raincoat Innovations: 1954--65

The company designed its new line of men's raincoats after the World War I "trench coats," with epaulets, sleeve straps, and a belt. Myers reluctantly agreed to use the name London Fog, having originally rejected it because he did not think it sellable. Saks Fifth Avenue was the first store to offer the raincoats, introducing London Fog in a New York Times ad on March 7, 1954. The ad described the coat as "The perfect answer to everything a man can ask for in a raincoat. Remarkably lightweight and wrinkle-free ... it actually resists creasing even after packing." The 100 coats sold out immediately, even though the $29.75 price was more than double that of other men's raincoats.

The following week, the New York Times called London Fog the perfect name. The "Advertising and Marketing Fields" column in the March 13, 1954 edition stated: "Every once in a while a name comes along for a product that is exactly right. It describes the product exactly and does a selling job that even the legendary 10,000 words cannot do. Such a one is London Fog."

Londontown quickly followed up this first wash-and-wear raincoat for men with a second innovation. After watching women customers buy London Fog coats for themselves, John Wanamaker's, the leading Philadelphia department store, asked Londontown to make a raincoat for women. Using the same design but adding two darts at the chest and moving the buttons to the left side, Londontown introduced the first line of women's raincoats in 1955, and Wanamaker's quickly sold all 90 produced.

During the 1950s and mid-1960s, Londontown appeared particularly attuned to what customers needed. It designed the first full, removable liner. With a simple zip, what had been winter raincoats could be used year-round. Londontown patented a process to keep buttons from falling off and an inner barrier to keep shoulders drier. Several of its innovations became commonplace, such as including replacement buttons and sewing washing instructions to the inside of its coats.

In 1961 Myers took Londontown public and soon began signing foreign licensing agreements. In 1966 the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/London-Fog-Industries-Inc-Company-History.html

Neat info, thanks, guys.....

That's My Town! I use to frequent The Belvedere, they have this cool spot call the 13th Floor. Live piano music, dim lights, large bay windows to look over the city. Excellent place for a MM scene.
Charm City USA!

That's My Town! I use to frequent The Belvedere, they have this cool spot call the 13th Floor. Live piano music, dim lights, large bay windows to look over the city. Excellent place for a MM scene.
Charm City USA! Had several Misty Harbour & London Fog coats.

Sorry about the double dip!

OMG I cant wait to see what shenanigans Salvatore will get up to in Baltimore. I know Batt said that there are two critical episode out of the first six that revolve around Sal. I'm guessing the pilot is one of them. XD

Isn't Baltimore where Salvatore (and his wife) grew up? Maybe he'll run into an old flame!

Mambo - You're right! I think you may be on to something!

I can't wait! The 2nd season is uploaded on OnDemand and I've been re-watching, getting ready for Aug. 16th.

.....Here are a couple of paragraphs left out of the original Baltimore Sun article from yesterday.

No idea why they don't appear there, but the extra hint about Sal is interesting.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/bal-ae.zontv28jul28,0,7557600.story

(Typical of the show's attention to detail, a researcher for the show called Sun restaurant critic Elizabeth Large in April to check on the kind of uniforms waitresses at Haussner's wore in the early 1960s. The answer was found in Sun archive photos.)

On their flight to Baltimore, Draper and Romano meet another New Yorker who is staying over in Charm City for the night and asks if they want to meet for dinner at Haussner's.

"You should have been in line two hours ago if you want to eat by 8," says Romano, suggesting the long lines and wonderful food of this late, great Highlandtown restaurant. Romano, a Baltimore native whose wife, Kitty, is also from Baltimore, offers a corrected "Bawlmer" pronunciation to the person inviting them to dinner in the city.

.....I get the feeling this is going to be a "Love Connection" for Sal, and maybe this is where he comes out to Don Draper.

.....It also seems pretty obvious some people at Sterling Cooper are going to be laid off in the first episode.

I don't see Sal coming out at this point, but Don may pick up some vibes he might have otherwise missed in New York and file it away for future reference. Maybe an old neighbor will run into them and ask Sal how come no kids yet?

.....Well, either that, or Draper cheats again.

Now, that would be just plain shocking.

Not.

.....As you said, I could picture it as an implicit, unspoken understanding between them, if that is the scenario we are talking about.

Does anyone think the BIG shocker could be Sal and Don "hooking up"!?

THAT would be too much!

.....Looks like maybe Sal's love interest is Joel Lambert, the flight attendant pictured at the hotel dinner table in Baltimore.....that makes sense!

I don't think Sal and Don will hook up, but I think it might be something subtle like Don stepping into the hotel hallway the morning after dinner, and seeing Joel's character coming out of Sal's room.

Don will freeze, raise his eyebrows very high, the way he does, he and Sal will exchange a long look, and Sal might say something like, "Don......"

And Don will of course brush it off by saying something like, "Your life is your business," or something similarly brief.

The way he does.

Just a guess.

Makes sense to me, Dry!

I don't know why, but I've always had the feeling that Don has figured Sal was gay all along....he's just felt, like you say, that it's Sal's personal business and none of anyone elses....but, I'd like to see a scene like you described above....subtle and typical "Don"....

CAN"TWAITFORAUGUST16! GOINGNUTSWAITING.....HELPHELPHELP!!!!

.....But that also means, one would assume, if they only spend the one night as indicated, that Joel's character would be the person that Don and Sal ran into (on the plane?), who was a prior acquaintance.....did I get that right?

Draper doesn't seem like the "stewardess" type (more like Roger's type), so that photo was a little surprising, but the prior acquaintance explains that.....

I thought Joel's lobster bib was pretty funny.

Here is the Hotel Belvedere photo gallery now..... http://www.belvederehotelnyc.com/default.aspx?pg=gallery&rp=dining

They really don't show much of the dining room, except here..... http://www.belvederehotelnyc.com/default.aspx?pg=gallery&hid=40&vl=211244dc-5249-4edd-9b0d-111454bf7b92&rp=dates

I checked out the rooms, to compare, and chose the King Executive Rooms for Don and Sal.

At first I balked that a realistic corporate budget would actually allow the guys to stay in such a pricey hotel, but then checked the rates, which are a little on the high side, but aren't all that bad (by today's standards) for a luxury boutique hotel.

It will be interesting to see the 60s recreation of the Belvedere.

.....Here is an enlarged screen shot of Joan's ring in the picture.

http://i474.photobucket.com/albums/rr105/PublicPhotoBank/JoansRing.jpg

It looks like two distinct rings to me, but isn't the engagement ring normally BEHIND the wedding band??

No, the wedding ring is closest to the heart, then the engagement ring, if you continue to wear it. Some women do, others just the wedding band. At least that's the way it was when I married in 1980.

By the way I noticed no wedding ring on Roger Sterling's left hand in this bunch of Season 3 photos (#14 I think, getting a shoe shine with Burt Cooper - great argyle socks, lol.)

http://www.zap2it.com/news/custom/photogallery/tv/zap-mad-men-s3-pictures,0,4164904.photogallery

Jane hasn't corralled him yet.

.....Oh, thanks.....For some reason, I thought the wedding band was the "keeper?" or something that kept the really big rock from falling off.....or is that a third piece.....

Good news about Roger's non-ring.....didn't think to check for one when he was/is married to Mona.

.....Oh, thanks.....For some reason, I thought the wedding band was the "keeper?" or something that kept the really big rock from falling off.....or is that a third piece.....

Good news about Roger's non-ring.....didn't think to check for one when he was/is married to Mona.

I want Mona back for Season 3. She was great.

.....There is something funny going on with the site right now I think.....

I thought it looked like she had two rings on! Yes, the wedding ring goes first, then the engagement ring, and some women wear another ring, like you said Dry. Is it called a ring guard? Not sure. Usually it's a set designed all together. I think it's kind of an old-fashioned design, you don't see it on younger women.

.....Yeah, that's it.....Looks like some jewelers still make the ring guard sets, and in some, the two ring guard pieces, which look weird without the engagement ring in the middle, actually represent the wedding band. I don't think I like that much!

I didn't dig far enough back to find out when that started to come into fashion, but guesses are they weren't doing that in 1963.....

I just thought of something *sort of* related, and that was a thing that Matt put out there recently, talking about Roger and Don, and how Roger's "love for Jane jeopardized the office," or something close to that, and how Don and Roger had a breach in their relationship to work on.

To my eyes, their relationship was hanging by a slender thread, based on their widening ethical views, but the fact that Matt mentioned Jane seemed like an anti-clue.

I might be way out there, but I checked IMDb (which really doesn't mean much), and Peyton List is NOT listed in the first episode, Out of Town.

Most of the other actors are there, but not Jane. The second episode, Love Among the Ruins, has a shorter list, but Jane is not there either.

What if "Red" really IS married to Roger? Him not wearing a ring might not be uncommon in 1963, mightn't it??

ALSO, while I was surfing around, I came across this 1975 TV movie with Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier, directed by George Cukor, called Love Among the Ruins. It won several prime time Emmys.

I don't know much about it, and can't see the entire plot unless registered as an IMDb Pro, but thought it would be interesting to see if anyone here remembers it, and what they think.

Just one more thing to add to the list of possible connections to THAT episode's title!

Here's the wikipedia entry for it. I remember seeing it at the time (two great old warhorses in the lead):

Love Among the Ruins is a 1975 television film (1975) directed by George Cukor and starring Katharine Hepburn and Sir Laurence Olivier.

Set in Edwardian England, Love Among the Ruins tells the story of Jessica Medlicott (Hepburn), an aging grande dame of the London theater. When Medlicott is accused by a young man of seducing and then abandoning him, she retains the services of the greatest barrister in Britain (Olivier), who turns out to be a former suitor still in love with her.

The show took home several Emmy Awards, including Hepburn and Olivier for Outstanding Performance, and Cukor for Outstanding Directing.

----------------------------------------------
Maybe Mona sues Jane for alienation of affection? Or Jane sues Roger when he tires of her?

I agree that the wedding band goes on first (closest to the heart, as AA says up there)...my wedding ring is possibly a bit different (maybe even for 1976 when I was married) in that the engagement ring slips down inside the wedding ring, which is like a "jacket" (ring 'guard'?) with two side diamonds framing the engagement stone..after the wedding, I had the rings welded together to form one unit....anyway, it looks a lot like those "3-stone" wedding sets that were popular recently. That ring closeup of Joan's looks like it might be two rings, like Dry says....hard to tell, but, it does look as if she has a good size rock there and that more of her finger is covered than when she was showing just her engagement ring off that time....I would love it if she and Roger were married in S3....

I seem to recall a thread ages ago where we were all discussing why Don, Roger, and several other husbands on MM didn't wear their wedding rings, so evidently it's been that way since S1....anyone recall that thread?

.....Some more stuff is leaking out, and since it's Matt, I don't mind posting.....

From this one, it looks like both Jan and Jon are IRL smokers, they are starting in 1963? and the way it's worded, the stewardess at the table (he WAS giving her a "look" in those recent photos) will be Don's next conquest.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/waiting-for-the-third-season-of-mad-men/article1235286/

The storyline is now about to enter the year 1963 – a very big year in American life. What can be revealed: Sterling Cooper has been taken over by savvy Brits intent on making agency veterans scrap for executive positions. Don and Betty are seemingly back to their happy home life with the kids. Then comes another business trip. And a stewardess.

“Well, Don is out of town,” says Weiner. “So, in his mind that might not really be considered cheating.”

Here is another one..... http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/jonathan_storm/20090730_Jonathan_Storm__AMC_s__Mad_Men__to_fill_out_Sal_s_portrait.html

When we left Mad Men, the false life that lead character Don Draper (Jon Hamm) had woven for himself was starting to unravel. "The theme of the show has always been, people change," says Weiner. "The season opens with a shot of Don's bare feet. He's going to have to deal with who he really is, and we're going to have to deal with how that person continues to live in the world of the show."

They keep saying they don't want to give much away, but it seems like they are giving away a LOT about the first episode.....

So far we have Betty pregnant, it's 1963, Sal is going to reveal more of his secret, possibly have a love encounter, Don is going to cheat and Joan is married!!

The stewardess angle is interesting (if a little cheesy), because of the travel element. Don might suddenly be taking a lot of intercontinential flights, complete with clandestine rendezvouses!!

I'm trying to read between the lines, of what they ARE saying, because I'll bet dollars to doughnuts they will try to mislead us, so we are extra shocked.

.....Judging by the way my heart speeds up when I look at it, I think I want Joan's rings!!

Maybe men didn't wear their rings because women weren't emancipated yet. Men didn't feel obligated to "tell the world" they were "taken."

.....As Matt and several others here have said, his original intent was to skip between 1.5 and 2 years between seasons.

I haven't analyzed the exact time period COVERED (about the same?) by each season but, as we've seen, a LOT can change in a short time with these people......a whole lot could happen, and the characters will definitely not be in the same places we left them at the end of S2.....(not to state the obvious.....)

I'm expecting just about anything, but mostly, to be surprised.

Major events that may play out in the background during this season (other than the Kennedy assassination):

1963
Birmingham sit-ins
Civil rights march on Washington "I Have a Dream"
Kennedy visits Berlin: "Ich Bin Ein Berliner"
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
Gideon v Wainwright (poor get access to lawyers)
Publication of Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique"
New measles vaccine
Coca Cola debuts TAB, first diet soda
Buddhist monk sel-immolates in protest
ZIP codes introduced
James Meredith graduates
16th Street Baptist Church bombing
USS Thresher sinks (I remember this)
Medgar Evers slain
"Happiness is a Warm Puppy" top nonfiction
Warren Commission established

1964
China explodes an atomic bomb
Gulf of Tonkin resolution
Civil Rights Act signed
Beatles
Surgeon General's Report of Smoking
Olympics: summer in Tokyo/winter in Innsbruck
Plans to build NY World Trade Center announced
School boycotts
Ali-Liston fight
NY Times vs Sullivan (free speech)
Kitty Genovese stabbed to death in Queens
Good Friday earthquake in Alaska
New York World's Fair
Mississippi murder of civil rights workers
Vatican condemns the pill
Beginnings of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement
Khrushchev deposed
1st airing of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"

And this skims the surface.

.....That is a very timely post, in light of this thing I just found..... http://tv.ign.com/articles/100/1008796p1.html

"Every scene on the show takes place on a specific day in history," said Rich Sommer, who plays Madison Avenue's father-to-be, Harry Crane, speaking to the show's authenticity.

"Even if someone's in the background reading a newspaper, if you were to walk up to it you would see that it was the date of the day on the show," added Aaron Staton, who plays aspiring short story writer, Ken Cosgrove. Staton then went on to add that being on the show was a much more focused way of learning history of the time.

Because the show features specific days and events, the "history" on the show isn't just a broad overview of the decade, but a much more focused study.

.....Joel Lambert's character is named, "Jack."

Cough-cough!

Don with a stewardess? Maybe if she's really aggressive. My bet is that this Jack/Joel guy invites them for dinner because as we've seen with clients visiting SC, it's what they did for out of town visitors. You know, Pete's "cousins"... of course, Weiner's hint could be misleading and something to keep us guessing. I wanted to think Don could at least get through Betty's pregnancy without turning elsewhere. That said, a forgotten fling wouldn't be as bad as his past cheatings.

I think Joan and Roger are done. That was sealed when he told her she was his best POA ever. She knew then that not only were Roger's feelings for her were of the cheap variety ("I almost left my wife" UNTIL their affair) but I think she's knows that's Roger and that's who he is and always will be. Roger doesn't love. Joan, while she may not realize it (nor will she get it with Dr. Date Rape) wants more than that. I just don't see her and Roger falling into each other's arms in any meaningful way again. I was hoping she'd still be just engaged when we come back, but she tells Peggy (the day after the rape scene) she's to marry at Christmas.

IIRC, Jane wasn't physically in the last epi, but she was mentioned. Having recently watched those again, she only has a few scenes altogether. She doesn't have to be in it to stay in the story line, especially since I think she's out of the office and being "kept" by Roger somewhere as we last left off.

I'm really relieved it's starting in 1963, not further ahead. I would have felt cheated if it skipped too far ahead with all of the big changes, especially in light of the merger. Batt says we're going to learn more about Sal, so perhaps this is more than about being gay. I really like Sal's character (and others) and like that the supporting actors of this show are so multi-dimensional. I like that we know so much about so many of them, what their homes look like, their familial relationships and so on. I also wonder who we might lose in the layoffs. At least we know Sal isn't one of them!

Perhaps Don is now running SC/PPL so he may be forced to do more travelling. I hope Duck is out and Freddy is back. It will be at least 6 months when the new season starts. I had hoped we would get one or two episodes of pretend familial bliss before Don's next fling. I think that at least some of us would like to see Don be able to control himself. He tells Bobbie Barrett,"I don't want to do this" then just lets her have her way. Maybe this is truly the only area where Don has no control. Just like I have no control over my obsession with this show.
Thanks for the link,Dry

Here are more promo pics - wow!

http://tvblog.ugo.com/tv/even-more-mad-men-season-3-promo-pics