Last
week, I suggested that the times were a-changin’, even at Sterling Cooper, and
this week’s episode, “Tea Leaves,” provides further evidence. The firm finally hires its first black
employee, a new secretary for Don Draper (herself named Dawn). Sterling Cooper also hires a Jewish
copywriter and even Roger Sterling, who found a Jewish mailroom worker to bring
as window dressing to a meeting with a potential Jewish client in the pilot, is
supportive. “Turns out everyone has one now,” remarks Sterling.
Indeed,
the growing diversity of the firm reveals the broader changes occurring in a
society that is becoming more open. The
Civil Rights Act of 1964 had (barely) begun to open doors for blacks, with Title
VII banning discrimination based on race, religion, and gender. Furthermore, the institutional anti-Semitism
that pervaded advertising and other white-collar industries before World War II
was on its last legs. At the same time,
Roger Sterling’s diminishing role in the firm seems to reflect the weakening of
the old WASP establishment
The firm
courts Heinz, whose CEO wants Don to sign the Rolling Stones to do a jingle for
their ads. Don and Harry go to a Stones
concert in Queens where they appear extremely out of place among the denizens of
the youth culture, though Harry pauses to smoke a joint with some
teenagers. Reflecting the emerging generation
gap, one teenage girl tells Don to relax, alleging, “None of you want any of us
to have a good time just cause’ you never did.”
Don responds, “No. We’re worried about you.”
The
emerging counterculture of the Rolling Stones concert is contrasted with the
staleness of Betty and Henry Francis’ life in the Westchester County suburbs. Betty watches the “Andy Griffith Show” and “The
Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”, two successful television shows of the time,
but programs that feature a traditional 1950s ethos. Moreover, Henry goes (without Betty) to a
meeting of the Junior League of New York.
Betty,
who was absent from the season premiere, reappears and still seems very unhappy
as a stay-at-home mom, avoiding social events because she is gaining weight. Betty has a cancer scare in the episode and
though the tumor turns out to be benign, she doesn’t seem too thrilled with her
reprieve.
Henry is
working for New York City Mayor John Lindsay, a liberal Republican elected in
1965 who appeared to be a rising political star and was compared to JFK. While serving as a congressman from
Manhattan’s affluent Upper East Side from 1959-1965, Lindsay voted for the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and backed earlier versions of legislation that Lyndon Johnson would later pass as part of his Great Society programs, such as federal aid to education and Medicare. Though the conservative supporters of Arizona
Senator Barry Goldwater outmuscled moderates like Lindsay and New York Governor
Nelson Rockefeller to seize the nomination at the raucous 1964 Republican
convention, the GOP was still in the midst of an ideological battle for control
of the party. As the 2012 Republican
primary clearly demonstrates, the conservative forces eventually won the fight.
Echoes of
the current campaign are heard when Henry tells someone on the phone that
Lindsay won’t go to Michigan because “Romney’s a clown!” In historical
terms, Francis is referring to Michigan Governor George Romney, another member
of the GOP”s moderate-to-liberal wing and Mitt Romney’s father. I’m going to go out on a limb, however, and
surmise that “Mad Men” producer Matthew Weiner had a double meaning in mind when
he inserted that line of dialogue.
After the
first two episodes, the pace of “Mad Men” is faster than in previous
seasons. The social changes of the time
are clearly visible not only in the references to historical events, but in the
dress and day-to –day lives of Sterling Cooper and its employees. Toward the end of the episode, Roger Sterling
himself is moved to wonder, ““When is everything gonna get back to normal?”
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