So, Betty joined the Junior League of Tarrytown. As it happens, we have two Basketcases (brenda and Cynthia) who are Junior Leaguers, and their information was so interesting that I am promoting it from comments.
There were several comments, so I’m summarizing:
The League is time-consuming, and you can’t just become a Secretary if you’ve only recently joined. It is so demanding that we virtually would have had to see Betty occupied by League business in previous episodes. Brenda cites:
Month[ly] meetings, a big fundraiser in fall and winter, Christmas markets.
There is an annual volunteer requirement of forty hours, which may have been higher in 1963. In addition, the position of Secretary would almost certainly have required a vote.
Cynthia says:
This would be the Junior League of Northern Westchester [note from Deborah: Betty says Junior League of Tarrytown]. The woman who appeared to be president was too old. Back then, the age limit was 40 for active members: over 40, you became a sustainer and could volunteer but not hold office. (It is all different now, no age limits but it was stricter then.)
Brenda adds:
I wonder if Matt or the writers confused it with the League of Women Voters. For one thing, the Tarrytown League (est 1935) would never have been so political.Their activities were a “nearly new” (aka thrift) shop, a puppet theater and the annual follies. At the very most, it might support a community wide campaign but this was not a project the League would tackle solo.
In regard to the political involvement, Basketcase duckpeggy found this:
“A stepped up campaign for federal and state intervention in the plans of two power companies to establish large plants on both banks of the Hudson River was announced by a group of conservationistsAmong the groups cooperating in the preservation are the Sierra Club, a hiking and conservation organization and the Junior League of Tarrytown.” ( The New York Times, Nov. ˜63)
I think this can fairly be called trivial, not unlike Ossining being absolutely the wrong town for the Drapers to live in, but I do find it fascinating and I thank brenda, Cynthia, and duckpeggy for their input.
17 Responses to “Junior League”
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But isn't Ossining divided into a couple of townships — Ossining Village and Briarcliff Manor, where all the rich folks live? They're still both considered Ossining, just different neighborhoods or areas. I remember Francine talking about Chillmark and the "tree streets," both of which are part of Briarcliff, no?
Different Leagues have different requirements – my league has a placement requirement of 72 hours for actives. We don't have a Christmas Market, but we have a Charity Ball as our big fundraiser. A previous League I was a member of was involved with other community groups in establishing a greenway/park area, so I thought what Betty's League was involved with would be entirely within the realm of possibility, especially if they partnered with the Sierra Club.
Perhaps she's not Secretary of the League, but Secretary of her placement/commitee? If she were Secretary of the entire League, the Nominating Committee would have to put her on the slate and the entire League would need to vote to approve. It wouldn't be just asking her in her living room.
It is weird that her involvement in JL hasn't been mentioned before though.
She was preggers…so maybe she got off some for that. Maybe it’s a corrupted league where they figured out how 'important' Don was and offered her a position? I'm sure she does a lot of things that we don't see. I don't think it is odd, but I’m not in the junior league.
Naomi, you're right – she definitely could have taken a leave of absence for pregnancy/new baby. And I'm also of the mind that we're only seeing a slice of these people's lives at any given time.
They did mention something about waiting for Betty while she was pregnant. I agree with Naomi and Abby, it might just be one of those things we don't see. Given that Bets was raised Main Line and her friendship with Francine, I would have been surprised if she wasn't involved in some type of activity. Although I second guess myself now, when Jimmy Barrett asked her what she did all day her only mentioned extracurricular activity was riding.
I could be wrong about this but my recent memories suggest that the conservationists lost. That area of the Hudson around Tarrytown, the Tappan Zee bridge, Nyack, Ossining, it still very beautifulo but as I recall, there are nasty looking power plants that mar part of the view.
If the Tarrytown League did exist, but the Northern Weschester League also existed, could the Tarrytown group be a break-away? In that case, they may have just gotten started, so waiting for Betty to get over her pregnancy might have been necessary to have any work done at all – i.e., could we be seeing the full 1963 membership of the Tarrytown League in Betty's living room?
The other possibility is that this is a little Douglas Sirk moment. In Imitation of Life Lana Turner remarks to her African-American maid of many years, played by the brilliant Juanita Moore, that she never knew the maid had friends, showing the gulf that exists between them. We see MM mainly from Don's eyes, and he would be pretty oblivious to any involvements – political, charitable or otherwise – Betty has.
The Junior League of Tarrytown became the Junior League of Westchester-on-Hudson in 1966. There is also a Northern Westchester League, but it is in Bedford.
Here is the Locate a League map, from AJLI.org: http://www.ajli.org/?nd=leaguemap
And here is the history page on the Westchester-on-Hudson League's website: http://www.jlwoh.org/jlwoh/npo.jsp?pg=about2
CPT_Doom, good point and I just saw Imitation of Life (and its 30's original) not too long ago, fascinating films both.
Betty might have been involved in more activities before her mother's death, too; that seemed to have been the catalyst for a period of depression/malaise in her life that could have kept her from being as active as she'd been.
Ha! The first thing I thought when they said Junior League was, "That woman's too old!" A striking error in a show that pays so much attention to detail. At any rate, I would agree that they were probably asking Betty to be secretary of the committee only.
The old lady also could have been a sustainer advisor to the committee.
Thanks for your interest in the League! A little more background.
Normally, women join the League after college or upon marriage, which in those days might easily have coincided. You have to have a sponsor, in the form of another League member, and you are welcomed first as a provisional year. You pretty much have to give your life over to the League that year. In addition to classes on the history of your League, and your community, you are expected to participate in both League volunteer projects AND your own class project. It's a killer — you have one or two things every week. Being accepted as a full League member is a vacation.
Once you gain full status, you have to do 40 hours of volunteer work in the community, which can range from stuffing envelopes for a charity to work on a project like a park cleanup. But that is separate from your volunteer time for League projects which can be very serious stuff (one of ours was a program to reduce infant mortality rates in our area, and we actually had an impact). If there's a designer show house or a thrift shop, you have to take shifts.
You used to be a full League member until age 40 and then become a sustainer, when you are released from attending monthly meetings and the volunteer hour requirement, but you are still expected to participate in League-wide projects. Sustainers often do their own projects and they are really the backbone of any League. The age limits no longer apply but pretty much everyone I know who hits 40 is happy to move over.
I realize this all might sound trivial, but for many people, and especially homemakers from a certain income level, the League is a centerpiece of their lives, and it plays a key role in its communities. (It was co-founded by Eleanor Roosevelt, after all.) If Betty really is a League member, we should have known it before this. That's one thing that Matt underestimated and I'm sure he'll now realize its importance.
The thing is a season covers around an entire year and we only get 13 episodes of which a small percentage is focused on Betty and an even smaller amount on her social activities. So while it might have been a little truer for Betty to at least have mentioned Junior League before I don't think it's really that far fetched that she could have been involved in Junior League from Season 1 and before.
Also from the scene it looked like Francine was secretary for the committee so they may have just been asking Betty to be secretary for the committee not the entire League. Unless the League secretary goes to all committee meetings.
One thing I did find funny was that when she accepted the job of being secretary, everyone else had a pad and pen and was taking notes and she wasn't! Doesn't the secretary keep the meeting minutes?
So glad you touched on this topic; as a Junior Leaguer myself, I confess I was happy to see the League get some "Mad Men" love.
These comments are mostly spot-on – as others have noted, you wouldn't have found an officer that old back then. Also, the League would have almost certainly have played a bigger role in Betty's day-to-day life, particularly if she was the League secretary (vs. a committee secretary) and given the time / the Drapers' social standing. Not only was/is it a societal thing for some, but the volunteer commitment (80 hours per year, in my case) is such that your friends & spouse would have to work hard not to know about it; I'm also surprised Weiner didn't include this detail earlier.
One quibble: some Leagues have taken on more big ticket, political endeavors like the Hudson River project. 2 of the Leagues of which I've been a member have legislative committees who specifically target such projects and research, draft, and rally support for legislation.
I have a friend at the Westchester Historical Society who just sent me an article. It’s from 1960, I believe. The headline reads “Nearly New Shop Opens A Junior League Project.” In one of the paragraphs it states “Tarrytown Junior League members working in the marking room include Mrs. D. Bruce Otis Junior of Hastings…and Mrs. Arthur D. Below of Ossining.” So it appears there were members of the Tarrytown Junior League who lived in Ossining. Also, a fun fact–Tarrytown is about 7 miles closer to Ossining than Bedford. It was called the Tarrytown Junior League back then, as previously stated.