Last night's episode took place around mid-May of 1968, and while no major world news moments were mentioned, Peggy does declare her love for "Bobby" Kennedy. This could be a bit of foreshadowing, as the next episode will likely be taking place around the time Kennedy is assassinated. Here's a look at what we saw in last night's show—from Chevy's top secret car to the whorehouses uptown—and how it all compares to real life:
CHEVY VEGA
In last night's episode the team is competing for a last minute chance to take control of Chevy's advertising campaign for their new top secret car. General Motors has dubbed their project the XP887... but the real name will be the Vega. The car that nearly destroyed GM.
Autoblog revisited the disaster when the car turned 40 in 2010, explaining: "The Vega's bodies were stamped from almost impossibly thin steel to save weight and costs, and they rusted very badly because of it.... and perhaps most damning, the car's innovative-for-the-time aluminum engine, which went without cylinder liners in favor of coated bores, failed at an alarming rate due in part to a cooling system that was inadequately designed. In any case, blown engines common, as were high oil usage and blown head gaskets." The Vega saw its final year in 1977.
UPTOWN "PARTY HOUSES"
Xaviera Hollander
Pete Campbell has an awkward run in at what he calls "the party house up on Lex." Various Mad Men have patronized the city's brothels throughout the show, and they were plentiful in the 1960s. One such house was that of Madam Xaviera Hollander, which was located at 73rd Street and York Avenue. "In 1968, Xaviera Hollander left her job as the secretary of the Dutch consulate in Manhattan to become a call girl, where she made $1,000 a night. A year later she opened her own brothel in a high-rise at 73rd Street and York Avenue called 'Xaviera's Happy House' aka the 'Vertical Whorehouse.'" She was the city's leading madam, but things went awry in 1971 when she got wrapped up in a police corruption scandal called "the Knapp Commission," which eventually led to her deportation—this is all documented in her memoir, The Happy Hooker: My Own Story.
STEWARDESSES
Stewardesses in 1968
Roger is having a fling with a stewardess, of course. Throughout time, stewardesses have been held to insane expectations and demands—a 1966 New York Times classified ad for stewardesses listed these requirements: "A high school graduate, single (widows and divorcees with no children considered), 20 years of age. 5’2” but no more than 5’9,” weight 105 to 135 in proportion to height and have at least 20/40 vision without glasses." Northwest Airlines, where Roger's gal is working, actually came under fire in the mid-60s by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, after a stewardess was fired for getting married.
In the '60s, the girls were wearing miniskirts and had become much more than someone to serve drinks on flights. According to PSA... "PSA hired some of the most beautiful women in the industry to be stewardesses. They were one of the most powerful promotional items the company had."
We were really hoping by now SCDP would have landed Braniff as a client. The airline had the most fascinating commercials! Here's one featuring Andy Warhol in 1968:
UPPER WEST SIDE
Peggy's Upper East Side apartment fell through, so she's over on the much more dangerous Upper West Side, which in the late 1960s was still a neighborhood in transition. Her boyfriend Abe is fixing up their new apartment (which looks like it may be in a brownstone), as noises from outside and upstairs filter in to their new living space. Peggy mentions a junkie living upstairs, who may or may not be pooping on their stoop.
One real life couple who bought a place on the Upper West Side during that same time, later recalled to the NYT, "In the late 1960’s the Upper West Side was one of New York’s fastest-declining neighborhoods, rife with drugs, crime and decay. Yet where others saw risk, we saw opportunity: affordable housing, racial and economic diversity and a vision of a sustainable, vibrant community not yet on the urban demographer’s radar."
SHOPPING
A lot of shopping bags are shown in the episode: Megan has one from high-end women's apparel retailer Bonwit Teller, which was founded in 1895 and went through many location and ownership changes. At this time it was likely at 5th Avenue and 38th Street. Meanwhile, Peggy has bags from E. J. Korvette, a chain of discount department stores that was founded in NYC in 1948. The stores were amongst the first of a despised model—they "displaced earlier five and dime retailers and preceded later discount stores, like Wal-Mart." The company went bankrupt and closed in the 1980s.
HAZEL (TV SHOW)
Peggy's boss Ted is sitting in his office with a television full of static, and he tells Peggy, "I just wanted to watch Hazel but I can't get any reception." The show was based on a comic strip by cartoonist Ted Key, which appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. But did Matthew Weiner mess up (a la Le Cirque) again, or was he just making fun of the show? Hazel stopped airing in 1966, two years prior to the current time on Mad Men. There was syndication on networks at the time, but Hazel wasn't in syndication until the 1970s.
