Mad Men at the Movies 1.1

A truism: In New York City, people are often engaged in the arts. They talk movies, theater, books. One of my favorite things about Mad Men, Matt Weiner's fascinating series about the men and women of "Sterling Cooper" a mid level Manhattan ad agency, is how it references the arts of the 50s and 60s. In most filmed entertainment, other arts are generally only used in facile ways to underline themes, tell contemporary (and instantly dated) jokes or crudely reference an era. Mad Men weaves them in as smartly as the rest of its period details (costuming, sets, politics) to steep you in the world the characters are actually living in or the world they wish they were living in.

With Season 3 debuting this weekend it's a good a time to begin looking at the series' cinematic shout outs. It's also a sneaky way to work a great television series into The Film Experience. Even for you film buffs who've never seen an episode, I hope you'll enjoy these funny, telling or throwaway references to movie stars and cinema. Most episodes of "Mad Men at the Movies" won't be this wordy but I have to lay the groundwork. It's the pilot episode.

1.1 "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"

Twelve minutes into the premiere, creative director Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is exercising in his office when Salvatore the art director (Bryan Batt) enters to discuss an account.

Salvatore: Oh look at you, Gidget. Trying to fill out that bikini?
Don Draper: Summer is coming.

I'm guessing this isn't the first time a gay man called another man "Gidget" in 1960, old school queens loving feminizing monikers as they do. The funny thing about the scene is that Salvatore hasn't even come out to himself and isn't in with the gays. He comes by it innately -- nature not nurture. The weird thing about the scene, in the larger context of Mad Men, is that Don Draper rolls with the girlish ribbing. He's a smidge more lighthearted in the earliest episodes. TV shows (even great ones) always take time to "settle".

Gidget, starring Sandra Dee, opened in April 1959 a year before this episode takes place. It was so popular that it spawned multiple sequels, imitators (see the beach party genre) and a mid60s TV series starring Sally Field. "Gidget" and "Sandra Dee" quickly turned into those sorts of names that also double as adjectives in the common vernacular. Consider Grease's "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" musical ribbing.

Salvatore's reference becomes funnier the more you think it over. Don is doing the exercise motion I personally remember girls doing in the late 70s (or was it early 80s?) while chanting "I must. I must. I must increase my bust. The bigger the better the tighter the sweater, the boys depend on us". I searched for the etymology of that rhyme and kept coming back to Judy Blume's "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret?" though surely the rhyme precedes that 1970 bestseller? Why else the reference to tight sweaters, which seem to place it in an earlier decade. Gidget herself is considered a flat chested (despite Sandra Dee filling out a swimsuit just fine) tomboy.

She acts sorta teenage, just in-between age
Looks about four foot three
Although she's just small fry, just about so-high
Gidget is the one for me

A regular tomboy but dressed for a prom
Boy, how cute can one girl be?
Although she's not king size, her finger is ring-size
Gidget is the one for me

James Darren, Sandra Dee and Cliff Robertson "The
Big Kahuna" in Gidget (1959)

As you may have gleaned from this post, I can't get enough of Mad Men. Even Gidget would have loved it it's so swell. "Honest to goodness it's the absolute ultimate!"

other Arts references in this episode:
<--- Cinema: A stripper at Pete's bachelor party does a weak Marilyn Monroe
Broadway: My Fair Lady (both verbally and musically "On the Street Where You Live")
Books: Bambi, A Life in the Woods
Magazines: Reader's Digest
Television: The Danny Thomas Show (also known as Make Room For Daddy)

Special thanks
To the Lipp Sisters at Basket of Kisses (a great Mad Men fansite) for providing a starter list.

Rosario @ the Beach

Rosario Dawson on Malibu in Vanity Fair's November 2004 issue.


va va voom. Have any of you been following the news about Rosario's NBC web series Gemini ? Even the major corporations are getting into the web series act now. Here's a good WIRED article on the evolution of webisodes.



She's quite the "I'll try anything" sort of celebractress, isn't she?

Mitchum @ the Beach

Robert Mitchum @ Cannes in 1954. He was 36 going on 37.


I always think of him as an old man... even when I think of him in his early movies. Strange. Mitchum was busy busy busy in the 1950s. He had headlined two motion pictures released earlier that year (River of No Return with Marilyn Monroe and She Couldn't Say No with Jean Simmons) and he had one more coming in the winter (Track of the Cat with Teresa Wright). The following year would bring the world his (arguably) greatest triumph, the utterly brilliant thriller The Night of the Hunter though he's maybe better remembered for being the original Max Cady in Cape Fear (1962). If you haven't seen either, do so.

While I was looking up Mitchum info to go with this image -- I never thought of Mitchum as a dancer so it prompted incongruous delight -- I learned that his grandson is a popular model named Kian (pictured left) whose favorite Mitchum film is also Night of... I love this quote from the prettyboy:

He died when I was 13, so I remember him as the big scary guy in the corner with this incredible voice that I didn't want to get near. But now that I'm older I can appreciate where it all came from.

I'm not related but I relate. As a kid I didn't like Mitchum. I had only really seen him in the television miniseries The Winds of War and I didn't 'get' him. I didn't understand his style of acting and he freaked me out: too detached, stiffly masculine, gruff, sinister (?) ...not any of the things I responded to in male leads. In the 80s when I fell in love with movies I was all about William Hurt, Harrison Ford and --when it came to old movies on TV --Gene Kelly and James Dean. Here's a couple more 50s images for you...

[image source]

In the first image Simone Sylva surprises Mitchum in Cannes with her ample bust (what is it with Cannes & boobs? Please to explain... anyone) and in the second, also taken in 1954 though I'm not sure where, Mitchum sits with Night of the Hunter author Davis Grubb.

time capsule: In May 1954 France was ending its long complicated involvement with Vietnam (glossily movie-documented in the 30s set Indochine with Catherine Deneuve and The Quiet American with Michael Caine which takes place in 1952) after losing the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Over in America the U.S. Supreme Court handed down their decision in Brown vs. Board of Education famously ruling for integration, important 'wind beneath my wings' groundwork for the huge civil rights movement of the '60s. In US movie theaters Indiscretion of an American Wife (starring Montgomery Clift), Johnny Guitar, Hitchcock's Dial "M" for Murder, the smash hit Three Coins in the Fountain (eventually a Best Picture nominee --my review) were all opening. The less famous, still underappreciated ensemble business drama Executive Suite also opened in May. I love that one.
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Kelly @ the Beach

Kelly Lynch sprawled out on the sand for a photoshoot back in 1989. She was 30 years old.


Does anyone else remember her? 1989 was an important year in her career. She was getting attention for her sparkplug part in Drugstore Cowboy (a fine rental choice if you haven't seen it). Gus Van Sant handed her the funniest line in the movie, delivered to her always high boyfriend Matt Dillon

You never fuck me and I always have to drive.

Like many young actresses A list opportunities didn't really pan out (the competition is insane. Not for the faint of heart these acting careers) but in the right roles she was a keeper. I loved her butch lesbian in Three of Hearts, too.

Time capsule: While Kelly was stretched on the beach, The Little Mermaid was beaching herself and restoring Disney to its former animated hit-machine glory (retrospective). Tim Burton's Batman was the toast of mainstream moviegoers and an archeologist named Indiana Jones was also back in theaters ... again. Franchises made up nearly the entire top ten of 1989. The past nineteen years have noticeably altered many Hollywood careers but they haven't altered moviegoing tastes much. It's still Indy, Batman, franchises and animated films that pack movie houses.


The only thing you'd never see today: Driving Miss Daisy was in that year's top ten grossers. Oscar bait and/or period films rarely rock the multiplex anymore. The audience for them apparently never leaves their TV sets now. I hate to sound supportive of something like Miss Daisy (yeesh, someone hand me some soap. I feel dirty) but here's to variety. It would help the cinema a lot if audiences still wanted a little bit o' that and a little bit o' this on their movie menu. Man cannot live on superheroes and franchises alone. Man will try. Man will eventually get hungry for something else. Maybe in nineteen more years. Here's to 2027!

Helen @ the Beach

Happy birthday to Oscar winning sexpot Dame Helen Mirren who turns 63 today. Here she is vacationing in Italy... (wait for it)... last week !

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Damn woman! Put some clothes back on. You're making the rest of the world feel all mortal, flabby and hideous. Yes, even the thirtysomethings. Helen is shielding her eyes because the heavens just parted so the angels could gawk at her. For what it's worth the man wearing the clashing t-shirt --I guess she doesn't dress him-- is her husband, director Taylor Hackford (Ray, The Devil's Advocate) more commonly referred to by his alternate title "Luckiest Man Alive".

Time capsule (last week... er)
While paparazzi were losing their shit over Helen at the beach, the masses were losing their shit over The Dark Knight @ the multiplexes, Whedonites were losing their shit over Dr. Horrible (including yours truly) @ the internets, John McCain was losing his shit @ war planning (not that it wasn't already lost) and hopefully he will still be losing losing losing come November's general election. How shitty would 4 more years of this nightmare be?

Like this post? Take a look at other recent highlights
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Mark(y) @ the Beach

Mark Wahlberg at the beach for Vanity Fair in 1993. He was 22 years old.

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We had yet to see him on the big screen (his first theatrical feature The Renaissance Man, a Danny DeVito vehicle, was due the following year) so he was still in his "Marky Mark" underwear flashing rap star days. Early response to his acting was muted. It wasn't until the one-two critical successes of Boogie Nights (1997) and Three Kings (1999) that people started thinking 'hey, this guy is a decent actor'. Oscar voters ignored his brilliant I Heart Huckabees (2004) performance --his best ever say I-- but he'd get his first nomination for The Departed two years later. But ouch. M Night Shyamalan's The Happening just gave him his first round of truly bad performance reviews. How quickly will he recover?

time capsule: In late 1993 when this photo premiered in Vanity Fair, Oscar buzz was growing for current releases Schindler's List, The Piano, Remains of the Day, In the Name of the Father, Philadelphia and The Age of Innocence. The latter two would stumble on nomination morning, missing key top categories. Summer hit The Fugitive took one of the best pic slots.

Musicians at the movies ~ Wahlberg wasn't the only singer working the screen. Will Smith, his contemporary in rapping and movie star dreams, made the transition to serious actor a touch faster: Six Degrees of Separation was also in theaters Whitney Houston's The Bodyguard soundtrack from 1992 was still dominating the radio with hit after hit. In 1993, people still thought she was going to have a huge film career, too. (Oops). Madonna was torching whatever goodwill advances she'd made as an actress from A League of Their Own by following it up with Body of Evidence though she was actually pretty good in Dangerous Games (also that year, though no one saw it). Meanwhile, Janet Jackson was Poetic Justice and Tina Turner was getting wondrous biopic love courtesy of the incredible Angela Bassett, who received a well earned Best Actress nomination.

previously on @ the beach: Liev & Naomi, Natalie Wood, Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, Saïd, James Bond and Honey Ryder.

click here for the freshest post (The Dark Knight)

Liev & Naomi @ the Beach

<--- Naomi Watts, 39 and her beau Liev Schreiber, 40, at Bondi Beach with their son Sasha in March, 2008 [img src]

If I ever made it to Australia I'd definitely need to go to Bondi Beach. So many beautiful Aussie celebs seem to have strolled alongside it or swum in it. I love that Liev is sporting Wolverine style sideburns and jacked up musculature here just like Wolvie himself Hugh Jackman (also an Aussie beach regular). The probable reason for the twinner look: He'll be costarring as the villainous Sabretooth to Jackman's hero next year when X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) opens. Archenemies have often been distorted fun house mirror reflections of superheroes since at least the Bizarro/Superman days in the late 50s, though it was possibly Batman and his rogues gallery that made that shtick stick if you know what I mean.

On a side note: I am terrified that they're calling the movie X-Men Origins which implies that there may well be more than one of them. I think I can get several enthusiastic hallelujahs straight away when I say that the world does not need another Halle Berry superhero movie. How Hollyweird ever thought she was right for a second franchise after the mess she made of Storm in her first, I shan't ever understand ?!?!? But that's a topic for another day. Another day from four years ago. Argh. MOVING ON...

time capsule: In March 2008 The Painted Veil (2006) had been on DVD for 10 months already. And yet you still hadn't rented it! What's wrong with you? "Kitty Fane" is Watts' strongest most Oscar worthy role this side of Mulholland Dr. Liev is also good in this underrated film though his role is smaller than his biceps above.

Josh & Kate @ the Beach

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JA from MNPP here. While doing research for my post at MNPP this morning in honor of Josh Hartnett's 30th birthday today (research = looking at pretty pictures of a pretty man), I stumbled upon an entire series of promo shots of Mr. Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale for Michael Bay's homage-to-shiny-people-and-the-shiny-bombs-that-blow-them-up Pearl Harbor, and couldn't resist taking my opportunity while at the helm of TFE to dedicate a post to it. I mean... if there's one thing The Film Experience lacks, it's attention paid to Pearl Harbor, otherwise known as "The Thinking-Person's Titanic."

Wow, typing out that sentence made me throw up in my mouth a little.

In all honesty, there have been a few times that I've stumbled across PH on television and found myself drawn into its swirl of pretty commercial surfaces. I find it's more entertaining if you pretend it's really a love story between Hartnett and Ben Affleck. Also, you should be very, very drunk.

Time capsule: I would choose 2001 as the one of these to do, wouldn't I? Well, that happened. In entertainment, at the tail-end of the year Peter Jackson would introduce us to Middle Earth and Chris Columbus would take us inside Hogwarts for the first time. In music, Beyonce & Co. introduced the word "bootylicious" into the vernacular, while Christina Aguilera & Co. dressed like crazed Muppets who'd devoured a cosmetics counter in the "Lady Marmalade" video.
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Jean @ the Beach

Jean Seberg in 1958 at the age of 20.

[src]

While looking for pictures of some of my favorite actors at the beach I tripped across this somewhat odd snap of Jean for Otto Preminger's Bonjour Tristesse and it reminded me of my own appreciation for lovely short-haired actresses. This was just a year after Jean's disastrous debut Saint Joan and two years before she shouted "New York Herald Tribune!" in Godard's Breathless.

Poor Jean Seberg, she was gorgeous and talented and to this day doesn't get a whole lot of respect. It must have been tough living in the era of Hepburn, Taylor, and Monroe.

Time Capsule: The space craze was on. NASA was launching. Sputnik 1 was falling. And Khrushchev was becoming Soviet Premier (in accordance with a strange Russian tradition that selected the person with the most H's in their name). At the box office, Vertigo was opening to mediocre critical and public response. Meanwhile a studio-botched Touch of Evil was showing against Orson Welles' wishes. Lana Turner's daughter stabbed Johnny Stompanato to death, and Che Guevara's rebels invaded Santa Clara.

If you could weekend at the beach with any movie character, who would it be?

My answer is Madison from Splash on account of... well, duh! You know why. What's yours?

Pssst , Susan and I are off to the beach for the weekend. If I can convince her to crimp her hair, say her name in high-pitched mermaid squeals or walk around naked on the Jersey Shore than I will totally share pictures when I get back.

Marilyn @ the Beach

Marilyn Monroe in New York in 1957, photographed by Sam Shaw. She was 31 years old.

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She was in her first year of marriage to the great playwright Arthur Miller and her new movie The Prince and the Showgirl was opening in theaters. She died five years later on the other coast, after only three more movies, forever cementing her legend as the sex symbol of Hollywood.

Time capsule: That summer was eventful. In August Marilyn's husband was convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to name names in the paranoid McCarthy hearings you've seen fictionalized versions of in so many movies. In non-Marilyn related events: Paul McCartney and John Lennon were meeting for the first time as teenagers, eternal blight on America Senator Strom Thurmond was famously fighting against a civil rights bill with a 24 hour long filibuster (what a swell guy!), punk icon Siouxsie Sioux was born, Eric von Stroheim died and "Love Letters in the Sand" by Pat Boone was the only non Elvis Presley #1 hit for most of the summer. A Face in the Crowd, Gunfight at the OK Corral, Silk Stockings and Love in the Afternoon were all playing in movie theaters.

Amanda and friends @ the Beach

Amanda Seyfried (22, so pretty ~ I've entered a pretty trance ~ p r e t t y p r e t t y) ... and some other girls* walk along the beach for Vanity Fair


* Oh, don't take offense "other girls". It's just that I only have eyes for Amanda. And Anne and Kirsten and Lauren and Amy and Evan and Scarlett and... Amanda's photographic BFFs (they probably just met) would be Emma Roberts (17, Julia's niece and Nancy Drew), Blake Lively (20, of Gossip Girls) and scary Kristen Stewart (18, of Panic Room, Into the Wild, Jumper). What? She scares me. She just exudes need onscreen... whether it's the need to jump Emile Hirsch's bones or just the vague need for an undefinable something. I feel as if she might reach out of the screen and just >cling<>some gaping need' desperation kinda freaked me out in Jumper (previous post) and I think she was onscreen for about 16 seconds all told. s-c-a-r-y.

I get sick of hearing about Gossip Girls but I like Blake a little more upon hearing that her three favorite movies are Wizard of Oz, Moulin Rouge! and Romeo + Juliet. The girls are posing for Vanity Fair's annual Teen Hollywood issue. Which I had kind of forgotten about and which is vaguely distracting from my Vanity Fair retrospectives of plain ole' "Vanity Fair's Teen Hollywood". (Another one of those coming your way very soon)

You can see all eight of the photo spreads here... or, you know, buy the magazines. There are things called stores and they sell photos that you can touch on this stuff called "paper" it's really... well, it's something! I included this photo of Jonah Hill (Superbad, left) with Rachael Taylor (Transformers) and Amber Heard (Friday Night Lights) because it made me giggle in how well it illustrates that Hollywood top fetish 'schlub gets the hot chicks!'. Jonah can be hilarious but try to imagine this photo with Nikki Blonsky. It just wouldn't happen.

Now you can see rare celebrity portraits of larger women surrounded by hot men (I remember one of Rosie O'Donnell back in the day) and I'm sure there've been a few others but it's always portrayed as a kitschy gag and the men are of the nameless shirtless model variety. They'd never drape two of Nikki Blonsky's male peers over her. They just wouldn't. [insert Joan Cusack Addams Family Values voice here] "But what about Debbie's Nikki's needs?"

I've doctored a photo for you just to demonstrate the improbability.

Madonna @ the Beach

Madonna in Hawaii in 1985.


She turned 27 that summer --the same day she married Sean Penn (August 16th). This photo (adorning wee Nathaniel's wall, poster-sized, much to his mother's dismay) was taken by legendary celebrity photographer Herb Ritts (1952-2002) and was one of the earliest of many iconic images he would take of his friend. They'd later return to sand and water (Malibu the next time) for the immortal Cherish video in 1989.

time capsule: Madonna's career had just gone supernova the previous year with the release of Like A Virgin in November. In 1985, Madonna was headlining the first of several classic concert tours "The Virgin Tour" and had just enjoyed her first starring role in a legit movie, Desperately Seeking Susan for which she won many good notices in the spring. That early Desperate film success was not an indicator of things to come. Movie critics were rarely kind again though she'd keep trying for another 17 years, finally throwing in the towel after Guy Ritchie's Swept Away (2002).

Other celebs making film debuts in '85:
Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg in The Color Purple (both ended up Oscar nominated), River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke as the young stars of Explorers, Josh Brolin in The Goonies and Viggo Mortensen (just two months younger than Madge) as a young gentle Amish men in Peter Weir's Witness. Good year.

Were you alive in the summer of 1985? If so, movie memories please...
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Saïd @ the Beach

Saïd Taghmaoui in 2000 at 27 years of age. This was shot presumably somewhere in France. They have lovely beaches...


And men. I really like Saïd's work though no one ever speaks of him. At the turn of the millenium he was still rapidly ascending since his breakthrough film La Haine (1995, a must see) and had just delivered a devastating supporting turn in Three Kings (1999)... that oil in the mouth scene between him and Mark Wahlberg ---damn.

Things have been quieter for him since (at least on this continent) but hopefully his supporting role in G.I. Joe (2009, pictured left) will repolish his appeal to U.S. casting directors. He's a fine actor and definitely has screen presence.

Time Capsule: Oh, you remember what was happening in 2000. Steven Soderbergh was all the rage at the movies (Erin Brockovich and Traffic), Toni Braxton was dumping her fictional guy ("He Wasn't Man Enough for Me"), Destiny's Child was begging you to "Say My Name" by which we presume they meant only "Beyoncé", and Florida, half of the voting public and the US Supreme Court f***ed over the USA for the next eight years. Great, now I'm depressed again.

Bond & Bond Girl @ the Beach

Sean Connery and Ursula Andress in Jamaica in 1962. Aren't they adorable?

[src and src]

They were filming the Bond classic Dr. No which opened in the US the following summer. Honey Ryder is one of the best Bond girls ever, methinks. The shot of her emerging from the ocean was so choice. It wasn't bested in the franchise until Daniel Craig donned the blue speedo.

Time capsule
They weren't the only ones getting sandy. Lawrence of Arabia opened that year. They weren't the only ones getting wet. Mutiny on the Bounty was up for Best Picture. The Bond franchise wasn't the only classic thing debuting: 1962 also saw the premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf on Broadway, the birth of A listers Jodie Foster and Tom Cruise, the release of The Beatles first single and Spider-Man in comic books. Spidey would get his own powerhouse movie franchise 40 years later.

Oh, and the ground underneath the Bond playthings feet? It had a big year too. Jamaica became independent in 1962.

Anne @ the Beach

Anne Bancroft in 1955 (unconfirmed on the date but close at least). She was 24 years old.


The beach is a studio backdrop. Those Hollywood tricksters! Normally when I see old photographs of movie stars I just think 'oh, look at the movie star when they were younger!' But in this case I had a total psychic disconnect...

I was like "Anne Bancroft was alive in the 50s!???" as if this had never occurred to me before. The most vivid Anne Bancroft memories all come from 1960s movies (The Graduate, The Pumpkin Eater, The Miracle Worker) and, for me at least, watching of those same movies in the 1980s when I was a kid and knew her primarily from her work and marriage to Mel Brooks and movies like Torch Song Trilogy (where she played Harvey Fierstein's homophobic mother) and that overheated psycho nuns drama Agnes of God. I guess I always thought of her as an older woman, one of these stars that came to prominence only late in life. I was wrong. She was only 35 when she was creating the ultimate older woman role in "Mrs. Robinson" and just 6 years older than Dustin Hoffman.

From 1953 to 1956, 'round the chronology of that beach photo, she made 11 movies. She was the same age as Scarlett Johansson now. I'm flipping out.

Time Capsule: In 1955 Disneyland (previous post) was opening in Anaheim, Gunsmoke (the longest running TV series of all time) was debuting on CBS, James Dean, the same age as Bancroft, was crashing his porsche tragically dying just months after the first of his three classics (East of Eden) opened in theaters, and "Rock Around the Clock" was making waves on the radio as one of the first hits of the modern rock era.

Natalie @ the Beach

Natalie Wood in Malibu in 1963. She was 25 years old.

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The former child star was at the heighth of her adult fame with three hits just behind her (Splendor in the Grass, West Side Story and Gypsy) and another opening at Christmas: Love with the Proper Stranger.

Time capsule: In the summer of '63 --let's pretend it was summer but it's Malibu you never know-- Cleopatra and Hud were playing in movie theaters. Liz Taylor, her main rival for 60s female starpower, was dazzling in eyeliner in the former. Paul Newman, one of Wood's earliest co-stars, was delivering a magnificent performance in the latter. Newman and Wood were both nominated for an Oscar the following February, Liz was not but she ended up with the only Best Picture nominee between them. Tell me again how Cleopatra is greater than Hud? AAAaaaaargh.

The summer's biggest hits on the radio? The immortal "It's My Party" -Lesley Gore, "I Will Follow Him" -Little Peggy March (Hi Sister Act!) and the great and silly "If You Wanna Be Happy" -Jimmy Soul --remember when Cher, Christina Ricci and Winona Ryder danced to that in Mermaids (1990)? Good times.

Speaking of good times: President John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King were both championing civil rights and delivering famous speeches in the hot months this year.