The Dick Whitman Express
Let’s talk about Conrad. For me, Season 3 is all about the Big Guy.
He’s this season’s express train to Dick Whitman. In S1 it was Adam. S2 was Anna. S3 is all about Conrad Nicholson Hilton.
For now, I’m holding onto the presumption that the old coot is for real. Meaning that he knows what he’s doing with all this father-son jive. One minute he’s ready to adopt young Dick, and the next he’s holding Don’s head in the toilet.
“What’d you expect … love?” Can you think of a more loaded question to ask Don Draper?
He didn’t get to be a hotel baron by wasting his time. So I’m hoping – whether he remains with Don or not – that Connie leads us closer to Dick Whitman.
October 17th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
I think Hilton’s presence – the man and the business – on Mad Men, has pretty much run it’s course.
Remember, the show is about people in an advertising agency. Lately, it’s looked more like a series whose focus has been on the hotel industry and the whims, wants and wishes of Conrad Hilton.
It’s not a huge account, dollar-wise and it’s hard to see how Connie (or his company) is really taking the show anyplace. Also, it doesn’t look like Don Draper or Sterling Cooper/PPL are too willing to put up much longer, with Hilton’s disruptive presence and undue influence in their shop.
Agencies do sometimes “fire” clients, and I think this will happen soon.
October 17th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
I don’t think it’s the current size of the account that’s an issue, it’s the potential – enormous if they got the whole thing. I think Connie will tire of Don first, or maybe they’ll agree to a mutual parting of the ways. Connie himself indicated that he goes through ad men like tissue when he first took Don on.
October 17th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Connie has served a useful purpose: to show that Don can jump to someone else’s tune when he feels there is much to gain from it. We’ve previously seen Don as his own man, a Richard Blaine “I still my neck out for no one” kind of character, cool and collected, at least in professional settings.
But for Connie, Don is willing to jump on planes, drive into Manhattan late at night, and sign a contract. He’s eager and the fire still burns and thus when he’s rejected, he feels it.
October 18th, 2009 at 1:54 am
As a businessman and strategist, I think Connie’s a bit of a sadist (not merely an eccentric); as a father figure for Don, that sadism is a trip wire for Don’s original longing and suffering, and now appears to be wrenching Dick from Don in some (newly) tragic ways. I keep thinking of the hobo from Dick’s childhood . . . and I wonder how much longer until Don’s fencepost is scratched with that very same mark. I believe Connie is a terrible and powerful catalyst, as many fathers often are.
October 18th, 2009 at 3:05 am
“What’d you expect … love?”
I loved that line, and loved Don’s response to it. Don always bristles when someone mentions the “L” word. It’s very subtle, but it’s almost like a nervous tick. I loved the way he high-tailed it out of the Cadillac dealership when the salesman asked “afraid you’ll fall in love?”
October 18th, 2009 at 4:33 am
I hadn’t thought much about the Hilton’s — considering the modern day representatives. If I never saw or read another story about that empty-headed ho-bag, Paris, it would be fine with me.
Mad Men, however, has caused me to do a bit of reading on the Old Man, Conrad.
He was born in 1887, on Dec. 25th. Having been born in the 1800’s is fascinating enough, but he lived to be 91 (!)
*the light bulb (thank you T. Alva Edison) was invented in 1879 — the radio 1890’s. From there — moving pictures, TV ~~
This old hound dog lived through decades of revolutionary change. Hero or capitalist-opportunist or whatever, he clearly had DRIVE and longevity.
I very much like the actor, Chelcie Ross, and I think he brings a certain gravitas and perhaps a bit o’dementia to the role. It’s my hope that the writers eventually close out his story amicably. I kinda like him. gruffness and all.
October 18th, 2009 at 4:38 am
oh and this:
“Conrad Hilton gave up active management of the company in 1966 when his son Barron was named president. The founder remained chairman of the board.”
So, in 1963 Conrad would only be running the game for three more years…Don had better get busy with the account, eh?
October 18th, 2009 at 6:45 am
I must confess I’m not enjoying Connie’s character in S3 and I absolutely loved Adam and Anna. I understand that Connie connected with Dick not Don during their first meeting but he hasn’t uncovered Dick yet. It’s taking too long and in the meantime Connie is hogging a lot of scenes and I’m finding him a very exasperating presence. Maybe I’m supposed to feel that way, but I just wanted to get away from all the Connie scenes in ‘Wee Small Hours’. I’m also not keen on Mad Men using a real life person as such a prominent character. It tampers with MMs fictional suspended-disbelief reality for me.
I’m a bit disappointed in S3 that the new characters I love are getting no development while the newbies I dislike are eating up all the screentime. Connie, Miss Farrell and Henry all bore me and irritate me. Meanwhile great new characters like Lane, Mr Hooker and Olive are being shelved and given no real purpose. Which is a shame because I found them far more entertaining. And what happened to Peggy’s new roommate who was so hilarious in one scene and has been absent from the show ever since?
October 18th, 2009 at 7:34 am
Well we know Peggy read Connie’s book “Be My Guest” written in 1957. I am assuming Don has read it by now.
I read an excerpt of the book. (just Googled the book title) While it is an autobio, some of it is similiar to Peal’s “Power of Positive Thinking”. The main premise of the book is Think Big, Act Big, Dream Big, Be Honest. He also shares that he learned the power of prayer from his mother and the habit of hard work from his dad. The book is dedicated to his parents. The idea to Dream Big came as a result of one his son’s asking that success had to have more than hard work and prayer.
During the early sixties, Hilton’s big move was to start building hotel’s near airports. They also capitlizied on the gaming and gambling business where is was legal. We will have to see if Don’s next pitch will be in these areas.
What I get from the book is that this man is consumed by ambition and personal relationships are secondary if at all.
It does seem strange to me, like someone else mentioned, that MM has chosen to bring an actual real life character in the mix.
October 18th, 2009 at 8:28 am
I like the addition of Connie to the storyline, and I’m anticipating that it will lead to a further reveal of Dick Whitman.
I’m a little frustrated by this season though (maybe I’m just losing patience) It’s starting to seem like they have a 7-episode storyline arc that they’re trying to extend into 13 episodes.
October 18th, 2009 at 8:52 am
Hiltons (the hotels) seem to symbolize post war America, particularly the corporate 1960s. Big.Anonymous.Ubiquitous. Doesn’t matter if it’s Sixth Avenue or Main Street. Havana or Tokyo. They all have that sameness..Architects call their style “international” because they don’t have a national origin but I always thought they could be nothing but American.
This is not Don – or the Don he fancies himself to be.Not the jetset Don or the La Notte Don or Lutece Don.
October 18th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Don’s always at his best at SC when he reaches down into his emotional core, and communicates a truth that is both deeply personal and at the same time universal. And most of the time (all of the time?), it’s about the meaning of love and the interconnectedness of us as humans. His Kodak presentation had that, as did his Mohawk pitch. Even his lunchtime pitch to MSG had that – it was about hope. Funny that he can home in on that so well in his work and apply it to the emotions of others, and yet it’s one the thing he can’t figure out in his own life. I think what we’re seeing in Don’s best work is actually coming from Dick, though Don would probably never admit it to himself.
Connie wants a campaign for Hilton that is almost literally a “campaign” in the military sense – a crusade, a mission, something that describes who Connie is. Don tried to take this and and turn it around and make it meaningful on a personal level to the customer – no matter where you are, you’re home.
The weird thing is, I think it was this ability of Dick/Don to identify with the human condition that appealed to Connie in the first place.
I’ll be curious to find out if we see another Hilton pitch, and if Don solves this dilemma – how do you take one man’s messianic mission and make other people care about it?
It does feel like Connie will be the catalyst for forcing Dick to the surface, just as Suzanne will be the catalyst that forces the Drapers to do something about their marriage, one way or the other.
I have very high expectations for Ep #12 and #13 (I’m afraid tonight’s will be another lull before the storm). Don’t let me down Matt!
October 18th, 2009 at 9:56 am
One thing I think odd about the MM characterization of Conrad Hilton is that he comes across as a very unglamorous personality, yet this is a man who was married to Zsa Zsa Gabor, not exactly a shrinking violet or averse to personal publicity. Plus, his son Nicky was (briefly) married to Elizabeth Taylor, so Connie probably transmitted some sort of values system (or lack thereof) to his own real-life son. While he may have ultimately disinherited his children, or left them very little, he was not unwilling to bankroll Nicky so that the son was able to lead the lifestyle of a playboy.
October 18th, 2009 at 10:50 am
When I saw the phrase “express train,” I saw it more as a freight train who is shaking up Don’s life. Almost like a snow globe, where the flakes of snow are the bits of Dick Whitman that Don keeps tamped down, he needs that shake up to allow parts of Dick to filter up.
In that regard I would compare Connie more to Rachel and Bobbie than Adam and Anna. The latter two were real pieces of Dick’s past, but with Rachel and Bobbie we saw Don be more truthful about his past than he ever is with his wife or co-workers. And like Connie, both of them totally messed up the carefully created Don persona, Rachel because Don isn’t supposed to fall in love with his other women and Bobbie because she brought his dark side out – the side he was repressing when he was “being good” for Betty.
It is interesting that this season the person who is freight training through Don’s life is not a romantic interest, but one with a far more deeply emotional connection – the father he really never had. I also think that we are seeing more and more of Dick Whitman come through each season. It’s almost as if, having learned in S1 that he didn’t have to fear exposure, Don is beginning the process of healing the scars on his own soul – caused by his decision to take on another man’s identity.
October 18th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
I think when Don signed the contract Hilton did a full investigation on Don and discovered Dick. He knows whats what with Don and he will use him and then “save him” because he is Catholic and wants to do good while doing good for himself. Remember the bible and picture of family comment. Connie is out to save Don. Just you wait.
October 18th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Great call B Coop. Each season seems to have one character that really goes to the core of the Dick Whitman-Don Draper conflict or are particularly good at stirring up DW even as DD tries to repress, rebuild, destroy(?) the person he was. There are certainly others who tug at it (Rachel, Bert etc.) but there is only one per season who gets right at the heart of the tension and that is certainly Connie this season.
Adam and Anna really only knew Dick Whitman so it’s not surprising that they immediately open the conflict and Don/Dick has to deal with it then and there. Adam finds his brother in NY as a literally a different person. Don will not (cannot) let down his guard and Adam is crushed by the loss of a brother he looked up to and the last of his family. In S2 Don actually seeks out Dick Whitman in CA. With Anna he is Dick Whitman observing Don Draper as an outsider looking in.
Some of the confusion (and yes exasperation!) with Connie in S3 is that (1) it not only opens up the DW conflict but adds the baggage of a lack of a loving father – a double whammy. (2) Connie met Don in a DW moment but now he must act/be fully Don Draper. Connie’s disappointment seems to be more with Don Draper. This conflict along with trying to please his surrogate father is draining Don’s energy.
Connie wants a campaign that combines “goodness” and “confidence.” Dick Whitman contains most of Don’s goodness but Don Draper owns the confidence. Connie is the one opening up the wound but only Don/Dick can reconcile this.
The exasperation is also around the added layer of complexity in the S3 “outsiders.” We know who Adam and Anna are pretty rapidly (goes for Rachel, Bobbie, jet-setter etc.) At this point we still can’t say whether Connie and Miss Ferrell are a force for good or ill or something in-between. Falafel and Gypsy I admit to being a bit frustrated too but I think MW is intentionally keeping us off balance for a bit longer. I’m looking forward to seeing how things move forward tonight.
October 18th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
#15-So Connie is Don’s Father Gill? Interesting…
And, falafel, I completely agree(as usual..lol) with your post about the new characters…I am so curious about Lane Pryce and Peggy’s roomate situation. It seems we’ll get a little bit more of the Pryces this week. I do like the Drapers, but I’m so over the domestic melodrama already. A little bit goes a long way.
October 18th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Re #15: I don’t know. How could he investigate Don and find out about Dick, short of breaking into the locked desk drawer or feeding Anna some truth serum? Dick/Don seems to have ensured that the paper trail is seamless — there’s a death certificate for Dick, a legal divorce for Don/Anna, etc. — and it would be pretty difficult for even Connie to have divorce records in every county nationwide searched for a “Don Draper” even if he were so inclined — and what has given him any cause to believe Don was married before or not who he says he is?
If/when Dick is revealed, it will be directly due to some oversight/slip-up/ceased-to-care moment on Don’s part, not the deus ex hotel magnate. If that were going to be Connie’s role in the series then the writers could’ve saved us all the trouble and had Bert (who has far more at stake vis a vis Don’s credibility) do the investigation at the end of season one.
October 18th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Brenda @11, Hilton Hotels do indeed represent America. In ‘63, there’s still a little glamour attached to that, as America is still in many ways on the upswing; but soon, that would change. Soon, “Hilton” would come to stand for the Ugly American, the clueless, loud, demanding tourist and the advisors to the local military junta.
If you search those Life Magazines that Google has so kindly put up, you can follow this. Even in ‘63, there’s an angry letter to the editor in response to the long puff piece, from an American traveler and his wife, who would NEVER stay in a Hilton, with all it represents. Soon, you start to see Hilton associated only with negative or violent events — the Athens coup in ‘67, Chicago ‘68, “Hanoi Hilton”, etc. In a 1969 article, Hiltons are derided as “plastic”, which was the worst possible insult in that era. Also in that year, an editorial by Shana Alexander called for a $10 fine for all American tourists overseas asking for the Hilton (and a $5 fine for asking for a hamburger).
October 18th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Coop: Great post!
#16 ddd, interesting take on each season’s “pull” character. I had never thought of seeing things that way.
If I did try seeing last season through that lens, I would probably conclude that there was a push-pull dynamic going on: Bobbie Barrett as the push (away-from-self) character, Anna as the pull (toward-self) catalyst.
#15 Susan F, I agree that Connie may be overtly trying to “save” Don. But Connie is Catholic, and a stern father — as we’ve seen in his description of his own sons. According to his model of what goodness is, he might try to bend Don, almost until he breaks.
I take personal issue with this. I think it’s far easier to break a person — particularly one who you know has been hurt — than anyone knows. When Connie sat in that office last week, wearing his Stetson (fug!), challenging Don to seek love from him, I felt outrage: almost as much as I’d felt when Don said what he said to Sal.
I sense that this is what I was meant to feel. But that’s what good TV does, yes?
Finally, #5 hullaballoo: YES. For whatever reason, Don does not personally relate to love. “Feeling”, yes: love, no.
“You, feeling something. That’s what sells.” Here is Don’s territory, his fluency. But you can’t push him over the line to love. There is something in love that … I don’t know … scares him?
“I don’t want to lose this,” he said to Betty, last season. What he was describing was love: the word he never uses. “This”. Why can’t he name it? What is it in that word?
Who pulled the pin on that grenade, and when?
October 18th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I wanted to share a tidbit about the real Conrad Hilton around the time of Mad Men. He donated funds for the construction of a new high school building for a Catholic all-girls academy in Covington, Kentucky, of which I am an alumna. The foundress of the school, Sister Mary Agnetis, asked him for help, and they corresponded for 17 years!
The story is documented here:
http://ndaheritage.blogspot.com/2008/11/proud-tradition.html
A picture of Conrad and his wife on the site of the future school is here:
http://www.ndapandas.org/Home/AboutNDA/Heritage/tabid/74/Default.aspx
I really love that the Sister who keeps the archives for the school considers both Conrad Hilton and the school’s foundress, Sister Mary Agnetis, to be “titans.” By golly, I do concur!
I read “Basket of Kisses” and the comments religiously! Thank you Lipp sisters and fellow Basketcases!
October 18th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
yes #20 AnneB, Connie leaving is hat on during the meeting was a sign of disrespect to Don and everyone else in the room
October 18th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
This is kinda off tangent/topic…but what do you think will happen if Betty met Anna? Do you think Anna will tell anything to Betty, just to ease Don’s suffering a la ripping off a band-aid? Will Betty accuse Don and Anna of having an affair? Will Betty accuse Anna of lying? I’m curious as to what you all will think?
October 18th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Anna is a self-actualized woman and if she met Betty, I think, would be very up front, yet understanding of the situation. Betty, on the other hand, is deep in a fear state which masks as depression, shallowness and viciousness and behind all this a call for love. Anna can and probably would see this as a call for love, but how Betty would respond…at this stage, I think, not well…a few years from now perhaps differently. We absorb what we can, store it away and it blossoms, with luck, in the future.
October 18th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
There goes Anne B asking the 64K question.
I think Don doesn’t use the word because he’s already defined “love” as just an advertising construct.
The reason you haven’t felt it is because it doesn’t exist. What you call love was invented by guys like me to sell nylons.
I don’t think this was cynical posturing; he believes it, knows it to be true, to his experience at least.
I think some questions to ask are whether Don needs to acknowledge “love” (as most people define it) in order to be a happy complete person; and can we like and accept Don if he doesn’t.
October 18th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
From what we saw last season, when Jimmy Barrett told Betty about Don’s affair with his wife (Bobbie Barrett)…Betty was in denial at first and told off Jimmy.
Anna is straightforward and upfront…you’re right Gina. Anna doesn’t like bullshit. Remember when she sought out Don/Dick at the car dealers. If Betty and Anna were to one day meet and Anna were to tell Betty, I think Betty can have an irrational reaction. OR perhaps they will be divorced then and Betty wouldn’t care.
October 18th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
# 18 Millicent
Pete went through the shoe box. He had his meeting with Cooper and Don. When Connie’s people investigated the players Pete put his foot in the subject and gave away his 2 cents without even knowing he was squealing to the Hilton crowd.
I also think Joan knew of Peggy’s pregnancy. But that is for another time.
October 18th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
#27 Susan F, I don’t think Hilton’s people would have talked to Pete. He’s too far down the food chain. They might have talked to YodaBert, Roger or Lane, and all three of them could easily have mentioned the issue of the contract.
I also don’t think this is about Connie “saving” Don because he is a Catholic. Catholics don’t have a tradition of “saving” people. The most that ever happens is that somebody might invite you to join the altar society or the Knights of Columbus.
October 18th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Also, here’s a wonderful link to a story about the Havana Hilton (now the Havana Libre). Castro made it his headquarters when he marched into Havana in 1959. Trader Vic’s is still there, I can attest to that, although it’s under new management.
http://www.havanabeforecastro.com/chapters/13-habana-hilton.htm
October 18th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
# 21 – Vodka Gimlet, Thanks for that info about Hilton’s connection to Covington Kentucky. Before landing in San Diego nine years ago, I lived for a while in Northern Kentucky & Cincinnati.
That photo of Conrad Hilton made me think of Don Draper’s globe, behind his desk at SC. And doesn’t he also have some kind of geegaw on his desk, that is (or looks like) a smaller globe?
October 19th, 2009 at 4:37 am
#21 Vodka Gimlet, #30 SmilerG
I, too, was excited to see Covington KY mentioned! I have lived in Northern KY all my life and was so surprised to see that!
Thank you to everyone who posts here. My MM experience isn’t complete until I’ve read what all of your takes are on each episode.
October 20th, 2009 at 12:40 am
About this time, the young, attractive nun who had recently become president of Webster College, convinced Conrad Hilton to donate 1.5 million to build a theater to house a permanent repertory company and provide real, professional theater experience to the conservatory students.
Rumor was that Conrad Hilton had a crush on Sister Jacquelyn and she took advantage.