Crime and
urban riots, two key issues during the 1960s, moved to center stage in this
week’s episode, “Mystery Date,” which takes place in July 1966. The Vietnam War and drugs made a secondary
appearance, though one can safely assume they will return in prominent fashion
during upcoming episodes and seasons.
Violent crime
rose dramatically in cities across the country during the 1960s, especially
during the second half of the decade. In
New York City, crime increased by 137 percent between 1966 and 1973
(Cannato, Ungovernable City, 527). Working alone on a Friday evening and afraid
that someone may have broken in, Peggy cautiously explores the office and discovers
that Dawn, Don Draper’s new secretary, has been sleeping in his office on some
nights. Dawn feels she doesn’t have a choice because no cab will take her back
to Harlem at night and her family thinks the subway is unsafe. Her fears are heightened because of the highly
publicized rape/murder of eight nurses in Chicago as well as the race riot in
the Second City.
Peggy
insists that Dawn stay with her and they seem to bond over being outsiders at
the firm. After all, Peggy was the only
female copywriter at Sterling Cooper for several years and Dawn is now the only
African American working at any position at the office. Their bonding ends on an awkward note when
Peggy glances nervously at her purse and appears afraid that Dawn might steal
her money during the night.
Meanwhile,
Henry Francis’s mother Pauline and Sally Draper are also frightened by the
nurse killings, even though they would seem to be safely out of harm’s way in
the Westchester County suburbs. Sally’s
adolescent fears are understandable, but Pauline Francis’ bizarre behavior,
which includes conspicuously holding a knife for protection, only serves to heighten
them. With Sally unable to fall asleep,
Pauline gives her some kind of sleeping pill.
Could this be the start of a larger drug problem for Sally?
The urban
riots of the 1960s, which characters have mentioned in previous episodes, continue
to garner attention in the show. While
there were several disturbances in 1966, they have been overshadowed
historically by the more violent and destructive riots in Watts in 1965 and
Detroit and Newark in 1967. Several
characters mention upheaval in Chicago, which did boil over in what civil
rights historian Taylor Branch described as a “miniature Watts,” where two people were killed between July 12 and July 15 (Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, 501-505). Erupting after police shut off fire hydrants
during a heat wave, Mayor Richard J. Daley blamed the violence on Martin Luther
King, who was then in the middle of a major campaign for open housing in Chicago.
In fact, King and his organization, the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), who were in the midst of their
first foray into the North, worked hard to prevent the riot.
Vietnam also
enters the picture as Joan’s husband Greg returns following a tour of duty in
Southeast Asia. Instead of having a joyous
homecoming, Greg, who is an Army surgeon, tells Joan that he has to go back for
a second tour. Joan is furious when she
discovers he volunteered to return, declaring, “Who goes back?” sarcastically
adding, “I will throw a parade for you
everyday for preserving freedom!” Reflecting the growing domestic divisions
during the second year of an Americanized war, Greg alleges that, “If this was
World War II and the Japs were still attacking us, you’d say yes! Of
course!” Joan responds, “Soldiers wanted
to come home from World War II also.”
Unable to
continue with Greg, who has repeatedly shown contempt for her throughout their
relationship, Joan asks him to leave for good.
The episode ends with Joan in bed with her mother and son, with sirens blaring
in the background, perhaps another sign of the growing disorder in America
during the mid-1960s.
Sources:
Taylor
Branch, At Canaan’s Edge, (New York,
2006)
Vincent
Cannato, The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay
and His Struggle to Save New York (New York, 2001)
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