Unfortunately I remember that era: pre-panty hose, microwaves, zipcodes and Original Crispy Pizza kits from the supermarkets.

EL, thanks for that comprehensive response to my question. I also wondered about the use of wine in the show. I don't know about Betty's solitary use; could it actually be sherry? In the scene portrayed in the photo, the hostess was taking some pains in trying to serve her guests international dishes and the wine was noted to be from France. In 1961, Julia Child had just published "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" so there must have been a rise in interest in wine around that time. The link you provided was informative: I had not realized that prior to that era wine-drinking was considered an "ethnic" activity which was to be avoided by Wasps.

At any rate, my overall impression of Mad Men is that it is so well written and (I assume) researched that any anachronisms are planted deliberately to cause us to question them. Not sure if that last makes sense, it's just a hunch I have. Perhaps it has something to do with the just-this-side-of-absurd depictions of the conventions of the era and our hind-sight reaction to them: the dry-cleaning bag scene, the excessive day-time liquor consumption, the mainstream sexism (not as hyperbolic as I suspect younger viewers might think) and the ever present haze of cigarette smoke.

My favorite scene was where Betty took a shotgun to the neighbor's pigeons. A lot of viewers thought it showed her going off the deep end. I thought it was her first moment of lucidity.

Mateus & Lancer's - the only way to go in the early 60's. Or Cold Duck. Back when NY State wines were prominent on wine lists, in Philadelphia at least. And every secretary got a bottle of Harvey's Bristol Cream for Christmas.

old pete, your post reminds me of the Burt Bacharach and Angie Dickenson commercial in the 60's. Martini and Rossi - say yes!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, in the 1960s, I worked for a large New York PR agency similar to the ad agency in "Mad Men." In those days, business lunches were most often preceded by two or three martinis, usually gin, on the rocks or up optional. I can't recall anyone ever ordering wine. When I moved to Europe in 1969, working for an American film studio, I discovered that not many people drank hard liquor with meals. The British had their pub lunches, washed down with pints of best bitter. The French favored long, lingering lunches lubricated by copious quantities of wine. Good wine, like Beaune and Pommard. Biggest surprise was that at lunchtime on Italian movie sets, the caterers set out liters of wine for the crew. Quite a contrast with the way we look at "drinking with lunch" here today.

As far back as I can remember (i.e. the period Mad Men is set in) my third generation American family from Italy always had red wine at dinner if there was "gravy" or red meat. Actually, white was infrequent.

Oh, gods, Lancer's. My Dad always had a bottle of that stuff in the fridge for when he had dates over in the early 70's. Fake stoneware bottle, is my memory, oddly shaped, kind of like a kerosene bottle.

Anyhow, I think Lancer's was more 70's. Not that I was drinking in the 60's.

Growing up Jewish in New York during the 50s and 60s, the only wine we had was Manschewitz sweet concord grape wine.

I remember my parents bringing home the empty Lancer's Rose bottle when they went out to dinner. My father would make lamps out of them.

This was definitely in the 60's.

Two words: Boone's Farm.

"Today while the blossom still clings to the vine,
I'll taste your strawberries, I'll drink your sweet wine,"

Portugese roses (Lancer's, Mateus), German whites like Blue Nun, and Taylor's wines were very popular in the mid- to late-60's. California wines were dreck at the time, and only winos drank Boone's Farm, Rippel, etc. Almost everyone I knew drank either cocktails or Black Jack, Gilbey's Gin, Canadian Club, etc., sometimes mixed with a little soda or Tonic, but usually "up" or over rocks. People drank hard, and I don't remember anyone getting really bombed. Must've had hardier constitutions then, huh? Nowadays, if I have a dram of single malt, I'm sittin' down for a while! Cheers, y'all!

I don't think anyone over the age of 18 was drinking Boone's Farm, although I did spy some at a party of 40/50 ish people over the summer. It's another bad drink memory for me (a night spent driving the porcelain bus will pretty much deter for a lifetime).

Unfortunately, I have more stuff that I can't even smell anymore, than what I can actually drink. Tequila, Jack Daniels, MD20/20, Boones Farm, Southern Comfort, etc,etc,etc. Thank God for rum!

We had sherry and port on special occasions and eggnog with bourbon at Christmas.

I didn't know for years that my mother kept bourbon in the back of the closet in the landing to the basement steps. She never seemed out of it to me.

As I got older, she would have a very large highball and a bag of Utz every night in front of the TV.

We never had wine, per se.

Dan D., we used to sing that at Y camp.

Figures my Dad would be behind the popularity train.

Dottie: teenagers and college student aged kids also drank Boone's Farm. It wasn't just for winos. I know, cos I certainly drank my share :-)

Thank God for rum!

The only traditions of the Royal Navy are rum, sodomy and the lash.
-- Winston Churchill

I drank Boone's Farm in College because it was cheap. That is till I got sick one night at a frat party. Never touched the stuff again.

Churchill, of course, had a completely inglorious career in the British Army.

Owl - glad you're back, but "gloryhole" ewww!

ewww indeed. sorry.

Oh great, now in addition to yuppies, hippies, puppies and guppies Lissa hates Churchill! Just kidding. I like to tweek English people by saying that the only reason he had any value was because his mother was American. They hate that.

Churchill was larger than life, so I can both hate and admire him. He deserves both.

So, 3 of us here, at least, know what a glory hole is. May I suggest that anyone who doesn't *not* google it.

Perhaps we should stop talking about glory holes. Not suitable for primetime, for sure.

Anyway, Churchill was a larger-than-life lush, from what I have read. Not too long ago I read a book on Stalin who thought Churchill a drunken fool but really liked FDR. Not that Stalin was a drunken murderous crazy fool himself.

I like history stuff...

In a room of Churchill, Stalin and FDR, FDR was rather a wimp.

Of course, it is absolutely amazing that Yalta wasn't blown to shards. That much ego just isn't natural.

Lissa,

Its funny you should say that. Stalin thought the same thing of FDR, but liked him nonetheless. He thought Churchill was a loudmouth drunk, but FDR could be one he could talk "business with" intelligently.

"Glory hole" has , as well.

(Although Owlie doesn't strike me as being a miner.)

You know, PCB Rob, about the last thing on earth I'd ever want would be the good regards of Stalin. That would be even worse than Phyllis Schafley asking me out on a date.

Wow...did I screw that up. I meant "has other meanings, as well."

I think I was concentrating so hard on the link that I forgot some words.

As murderous dictators go, Stalin had awesome hair.

Kim Jong-il's had some serious hair things too. Hard to not like the Elvis look. It works for him.

How about Bob Erlich's hair?

[ducking and running...]

Mr Erlich fits right in with Stalin and Kim Jong-il. (Take that anyway you want.)

How did this post get so off-topic. Oh yeah, that was me with rum, sodomy and the lash.

And now we end up with the Dictator Hair Club for Men. Bosnian-Serb genocidal monster Radovan Karadzic
http://advocacynet.org/blogs/media/users/nicoleslezak/karadzic2.jpg
also had some crazy hair. HIs disguise while he was a fugitive war criminal for ten years: add crazy big beard.

Erhlich's hair has always fascinated me. It looks like a bad toupee. I talked to a former state senator once about the hair issue. He laughed and said that he played basketball with Erhlich and that he was sure that it was his real mop. I wonder who cuts it that way -- some crazed Amish barber?

The late, sainted Molly Ivins used to call the gov. of Texas "Gov. Good Hair."

Then there was the flap a few years back in Germany about whether or not the PM dyed his hair. Actually, it was more of a kerfluffle, I think.

I think folks should be glad we got off on hair and not on sodomy and the lash.

How about Bob Erlich's hair?

You do know that's a rug?

You would swear that's it a piece and really bad one at that, but a locker room companion claims it is not. But you never know. Someone else told me that it's a Shatner 2000 Turbo-Ringo model. Or a well-trained ferret.

I haven't been in the locker room with him but I saw him play a 1-on-1 charity game against Steve Rouse (then of WQSR) and The Hair definitely didn't behave normally. Several years ago, I was close enough to shake hands (which I did, because c'mon, I'm tacky but I don't diss the Guv!) and then spent so time in the same room and it's definitely a rug. A good one, designed to look good on camera, but it ain't real.

The mental image of a "crazed Amish barber" has me laughing out loud (well, actually snickering to avoid detection by the goof off police).

My favorite Amish band name:
http://b7.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/00334/79/50/334500597_m.jpg

I don't understand why someone would buy such a hideous toupee.

Hal, maybe it was a gift?

maybe it was a gift?

Ha! Good one!

Back to the Red Wine ... (see earlier post on topic drift)

In 1958 my father was stationed in Merced, California with his Air Force flight, and we spent a lot of time wandering down to Napa and Sonoma. He had slides of the Mondavi winery under construction, and learned to drink red wine in that era. Though he was catholic in his taste (the gin & vermouth were under the sink next to the Mr. Clean), it was always true that we had a couple of bottle of the good juice in the basement at all times through the 60's and 70's. I particularly remember Beaulieu, Heitz (including a Martha's Vineyard selection) and David Bruce bottles on the shelf.

omg,
Great band name!

and if Bobby Ehrlich is wearing a rug, its a darn good one. Better than the mop Shatner sports.

I wondered if The Gov. wore a toup, but when I compared his do against a former dean of UM law school, I figured R.E. was yet another victim of really bad haircuts. I know the former dean's hair is real, but he has NO idea what constitutes a good haircut.

I think it's sad someone would aspire to a haircut that looks to so many like a rug.

I was listening to the Guv and Kendel on WBAL radio a while back, and Kendel said she gets a lot of comments on the lack of sideburns on the Guv.
I think that sideburns would make the bad haircut/bad rug look a heck of a lot better. Sideburns certainly couldn't make it look worse. He is a good looking guy, but that hair...
I personally think that if he had had sideburns he would have won the election :-)

Good take on the sideburns, Cosmo Girl! It's sort of like someone who doesn't have eyelashes. You keep looking at them thinking "what's wrong with this picture", but you just can't put your finger on it.

The total lack of sideburns is weird and I notice it all the time. It makes whatever is on his head look like a full wig. If you could see the back of his head, you could probably be sure, because rugs don't ever properly match up there where they meet the neck. Maybe he has allopecia like film director Mike Nichols? Nah. That accent is pretty rough too.

I personally think that if he had had sideburns he would have won the election :-)

Ah, well thank [your favorite deity here] for bad haircuts! :-)