Last Night's "Trippy" Mad Men: From Howard Johnson's To LSD
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HOWARD JOHNSON'SIn the 1960s and 1970s, Howard Johnson's was the largest restaurant chain in the United Statesâthough now we know it mostly as a hotel. In 1961, founder Howard Deering Johnson hired "famed New York chefs Pierre Franey and Jacques Pépin to oversee food development... [they] developed recipes for the company's signature dishes that could be flash frozen and delivered across the country, guaranteeing a consistent product." In this episode, Roger asks Don to head up to the New York flagship "on business," saying, "How about a completely debauched and unnecessary fact-finding boondoggle to the flagship in Plattsburgh, N.Y?â Don takes Megan instead, and we get a look at the orange-roofed roadside chainâthe one they traveled to is now closed.
LSDIn September of 1966, LSD-inspired art hit the cover of LIFE magazine; Paul McCartney was about to admit he had taken LSD; and there were plenty of news reports about the drug, which were unsurprisingly centered mostly around Grateful Dead shows:In this episode, we see Roger and Jane take it at a party her psychologist is throwing.
ALIENS In this episode, Michael Ginsberg tells Peggy, as they're working at the office at night, "Actually I'm from Mars. It's fine if you don't believe me but that's where I'm from. I'm a full-blooded martian. Don't worry, there's no plot to take over earth. I'm just displaced. I can tell you don't believe me. We're a big secret, they even tried to hide it from me. That man, my father, told me a story I was born in a concentration camp but you know that's impossible." He goes on to say that he received only one communication from the other aliens, "a simple order: stay where you are."There were plenty of UFO sightings in the 1960s, and in 1966 (the current year on Mad Men) the famous Grinning Man appeared in New Jersey. The "bizarre, smiling entity" was sighted several times in 1966... "In New Jersey and also in connection with the Mothman phenomena in Point Pleasant, West Virginia... Witnesses describe an incredibly tall man, with shimmering, green clothing, small beady eyes set far apart, with an overly huge grin. Several witnesses do not remember seeing ears, a nose, or hair on the figure. The grinning man has been seen in connection with UFO sightings."Below, watch a 1966 Interview with Walter Cronkite and Carl Sagan about the existence of alien civilizations.