Don's drinking
Every night, Don walks in and pours himself a drink. It’s not the “I need a drink” of a bad day, it’s a routine. It’s easy not to notice, because drinking is so ubiquitous on Mad Men, and so much more a part of these people’s daily lives than we’re used to. Drinking in the office? Ho ho!
But when Don was sleeping in baby Gene’s room (was that The Grown-Ups or at the beginning of Shut the Door. Have a Seat?) we see there’s a bottle on the nightstand next to Don’s bed. That struck me as a different level of commitment to drinking; that seemed somehow hardcore, and that’s when I noticed how much more Don drank routinely. That’s when I started seeing (when rewatching) that routine drink. So now I wonder, was the drinking so routine, so automatic, so minute-I-get-in-the-door in Seasons 1 & 2? I’ll have to look.
But we learned something else in Shut the Door. Have a Seat: Don started young. Dick Whitman was drinking whiskey at age ten.
Definitely hardcore.
A person can go his whole life drinking the way Don does and not spill into an alcoholic crisis. He can gradually get softer and meaner and more of a drunk without landing in the gutter or becoming Freddy Rumsen or going to A.A. Or there can be a crisis. We don’t know. But I am convinced that this is serious drinking, and I wonder what we’re going to see in Season 4 about it.
Basket of Kisses: The unofficial blog of AMC's Mad Men. Where all the cool kids meet & greet to talk about Don Draper, Janie Bryant, Christina Hendricks, Jon Hamm, Matthew Weiner, & subtexty things.
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December 17th, 2009 at 5:05 am
Totally agree. Don is totally hardcore with the booze. I noticed the bottle on the nightstand in Gene's old room as well when Don approached Sally. Jack Daniels? What was his comment to Conrad Hilton? Something about knowing about moonshine when it was offered to him during one of their meetings at the Waldorf! Do you remember During Season 1 when Don is sent out to buy a cake for Sally's birthday party and disappears for hours, only to return after the party was finished drunk and with a dog. Was the dog just a way to get out of the dog house that he was inevitably going to be in for returning so late, w/o a cake & drunk! That may be the closest that I have seen on MM of Don revealing a problem with his alcohol consumption. Other that that, he is very smooth with his drinking. Alchoholics can certainly be alcoholics without problems, or can they?. We tend to want alcoholics to seek help only when they are in crisis because of their drinking: they become mean, sloppy, etc. Does a controlled alcoholic really have no problem? Can there be such a thing as a controlled alcoholic? What exactly is an alcoholic? Is it a person who must drink everyday or only a person who has problems because of their drinking? It appears to me that Don drinks more than anyone in that office, even Roger. He is constantly sipping from that vintage '60s round glass w/the silver trim.
December 17th, 2009 at 7:11 am
On rewatching the three series, there seems to be a real sense of crisis building with Don. At the end of each season, the crisis appears to be temporarily resolved – Don escapes yet again! Maybe this is an accurate reflection of real life; in my life every day brings at least one crisis, but somehow I manage to survive it – maybe this really is how people muddle along, Don's safety valves being the booze and the birds so to speak, which explains a lot of his behaviour – he can't manage without them. But I'd like to see Don grow and change, I'm waiting for some catharitic event here. I haven't seen it yet, I thought maybe the disclosure of his real identity or the break-up of his marriage, but this doesn't seem to have had such an effect – as mentioned previously on this site, he's simply bounced back to old Don, possibly with a few more cracks under the surface than previously. Could his drinking be what brings matters to a head?
December 17th, 2009 at 7:48 am
I wonder if the divorce will cause Sally to start drinking, and what the impact of that would be on Don. Sally is already mixing drinks, and we saw her get drunk at the office.
December 17th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Good point. It is interesting and I'm sure at that time you had to be really far gone (like peeing on yourself) before anyone would even want to use that term for anyone. Just keep in mind though not all drunks get or turn mean. Usually how you behave when drunk is a reflection of your personality. if you are a mean drunk it is b/c you are holding that in the rest of the time and when your inhibitions are down that side comes out. Don can be a little mean when he wants to be but doesn't need to use liquour as an "excuse" to be mean or act crazy. I think even stone cold drunk beyond possibly getting sick, Don can handle himself. People who lose control (and I've seen people like that) are a whole different and slightly scary kettle of fish.
December 17th, 2009 at 9:07 am
Didn't we know that Don was a hardcore drunk way back in season 1? The Marriage of Figaro episode was very telling. How many beers did he have in the morning while he was building Sally's playhouse? That was all done before 2 in the afternoon! Then he had a bunch of drinks during the party: mint juleps, as well as his regular "drink of choice." I think he even had a drink in his hand while he was walking around with the movie camera. He was drinking when he and Helen Bishop were talking on the patio, and he was also drinking in the car. I believe there was even a shot of a glass sitting on top of the cake box. By the time he returned home with Polly Doggy, he was pretty tore up. Anybody who'd steal a golden retriever out of someone's yard had to have been pretty drunk…
Okay, I don't know for a fact that Don stole the dog, but as Roberta noted a long, long, long time ago, you can't just go to the local A & P and pick up a full-grown, apparently pure-bred golden retriever late on a Saturday evening. Polly had a collar and a tag when Don brought her home. How did he swing that?
December 17th, 2009 at 9:11 am
I interpreted the bottle in the room as meaning he didn't want to sit in the kitchen or TV room with Betty while he has his evening drink. It didn't strike me as any more hardcore than what he'd been doing all along (pouring himself yet one last drink when he gets home at night.) He just changed venues.
And yeah, you're just noticing he drinks a lot?
I don't know how he does it, given how much he drinks all day long, (the magic of TV I guess) but he rarely strikes me as pissing-in-his-pants drunk.
December 17th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Maybe he bribed Duck Phillips. With like, five bucks.
December 17th, 2009 at 9:42 am
@ Roberta
I thought of that…
LOL.
December 17th, 2009 at 10:35 am
@6 gypsy, I think Don has drinking down to an "art." Now I don't do this all the time so don't think ill of me, but I recall one occasion when I was at a tournament where people were drinking all day long and I found that if I drank slowly, not pounding stuff back, but slowly, and not only did I spend an inordinate number of hours drinking, (I won't say how many), I felt rather decent the next day, much better than I've felt after much shorter drinking instances.
So I imagine that Don paces himself and makes sure he eats enough food so his stomach isn't empty and given his height and build he can pack it away. Also I've never noticed this with Don, but some heavy drinkers make sure they drink a lot of water while they are drinking alcohol, especially the hard stuff. Even if he doesn't, having say 6-10 drinks a day all in one sitting is messy but that many from say 1pm till 10pm, not so bad, especially if you have a high tolerance, which I'm sure he does. Though how he keeps that nice fit bod with all those calories and no exercise (that we see) is beyond me.
Ok and now I'm sure you all think I'm an alchy. C'est la vie
December 17th, 2009 at 10:52 am
#1 Suzanne,
That's the first thing I thought of when reading this post. What was that comment to Connie? Something like, "It's familiar."
I remembered that moonshine comment when I watched the flashback in the season finale: Bowlcut Dick being made to drink from the jug by his drunken father. Yeah. Child abuse, but something else, too.
Don's drinking is a constant feature of his character. He's been doing it since scene one, episode one of season one — in which we saw him ordering still another drink. We met a man who was well on his way to pickling himself, who couldn't so much as have an honest conversation without a drink (and usually a cigarette) in hand.
Don's drinking amplifies what was in Rachel's eyes, Suzanne's words and Betty's cool disappoval: Don Draper is a man "who is not happy."
And drinks while he's driving.
And loses entire birthday cakes, company bonuses, and family cars.
And, evidently, steals dogs. (!!!)
What a magnificent shambles he is.
December 17th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Dark Peggy,
I've just sort of always admired you … but now I think you're my hero.
December 17th, 2009 at 11:11 am
@Anne B, you are funny!
December 17th, 2009 at 11:21 am
It's in part, generational.
The whole "Cocktail culture" that sprang up in reaction to the end of Prohibition.
I read something awhile back, someone who had assessed the level of ordinary, everyday drinking of the characters in the novel "The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit."
The assumption that it's normal in that upper middle culture to "have a drink" several times a day, that would set off warning flags to anyone now.
Couldn't find it in a simple Google search.
December 17th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Though how he keeps that nice fit bod with all those calories and no exercise (that we see) is beyond me.
Ten push-ups, disguised as a hundred.
December 17th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Well, bars still have "happy hours" for people getting off work and many stop in for that. I suppose there are still many people who get a drink as soon as they walk in the door in the afternoons, but the observation is correct. That much drinking is going to lead to a problem sooner or later. It already has for Freddie and Duck, who have had their battles with alcoholism. It may very well be a problem for Don or Betty or almost anyone on the show.
December 17th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
As long as Don sticks with the brown liquors, he knows where he stands. But before we go pointing the dirty end of the stick at Don, I challenge you to name a MM character that does not have drinking problem as Hudsunn suggests. Let's see: Betty has sex with anonymous stranger in random bar after downing vodka gimlet; Pete gets drunk and cheats on Trudy at least 3 times including raping the au pair; Kinsey gets drunk and masturbates in his office for inspiration; Peggy gets drunk and heaven forfend has sex with Duck……ok I am willing to concede that Bert Cooper does not have a drinking problem.
December 17th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
# 16 – "Bert Cooper does not have a drinking problem."
Maybe Bert is why everybody else in the shop drinks like a fish.
December 17th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
I'm pretty sure the drinking has been hard core since Season 1. My husband and I have are always joking to each other 'have a drink!' and we've been doing it since S1 when we noticed the hardcore booze.
I always figured it was just the way people lived back then (which is to some extent true – martini lunches, hello!) but one of the saddest moments of Don's childhood flashbacks to me was seeing him take a swig from the whiskey jug. He did it with such non-chalance… way too much for such a young boy. It was obvious that that's what he grew up with and I would bet his father was the one that first pushed it on him. I can hear Archie now 'be a man!' and making him take his first drink.
The culture of the times made it easy to continue, but Don learned that stuff at home. So sad.
December 17th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
P.S. And I meant to say… we noticed the hardcore booze with everyone, and particularly at the office. But also in social situations. So it's not just Don, it's the way things were back then.
December 17th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
He's an alcoholic. He's not a mean drunk or a sloppy drunk, and his tolerance level is probably higher than anyone in this century, but it's clear he depends on alcohol to get him through the day and the evening. It is an addiction.
It became especially apparent in Shut the Door, Take A Seat when he came into the office after not sleeping and immediately poured himself a stiff drink. When Roger — no slouch himself in the drinking department — pointed out that it was only 9:30, Don looks surprised.
December 17th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
maybe this is just "gypsy+3-in-the-airport" talking, but giving a kid a swig of alcohol doesn't strike me as child abuse. But then, I've never enforced teetotalling on my kids (thank god they're of legal age now!), so I guess I'm just a bad mother.
I agree with the "pacing yourself" comments, but on the other hand, drinking rye straight at 9:30 in the morning at the office is even more than I could handle. Instant puke.
December 17th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Generational or not, I gasped when we saw Don driving with highball glass in hand.
Yeah, that was a shocker.
He was literally cruisin' for a bruisin' even before he picked up the proto-hippie hitchhikers.
December 17th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
I am trying to remember…. Season 1 he has Roger over for dinner, Betty gives up her steak, Roger gets tanked… Don lets him get in the car, but then comments to Betty about how drunk he is even though he is about to drive. Was Don concerened about letting Roger drive drunk, or not?
December 17th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Suzanne, the phrase "one for the road" didn't come from nowhere, ya know.
Drinkin'-and-drivin' didn't used to have the nearly the stigma it has today.
I remember drive-through liquor stores in Austin in the early 70s, where you could pick up a 6-pack in your car. And then drink it.
And of course you could throw the empties out on the highway (although Lady Bird's campaign really changed people's thinking about that, bless her soul.)
December 17th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
From what I've heard, there are (or at least used to be, a few years ago when my friend was in graduate school) Drive-Through BARS in Wyoming.
Sigh.
December 17th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
I was at a drive-through liquor store when I visited Kentucky last year.
December 17th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
**Though how he keeps that nice fit bod with all those calories and no exercise (that we see) is beyond me.
Ten push-ups, disguised as a hundred.**
Don't forget, he's plenty skilled in the other variety of push-ups — the kind that require two people (10 toes up, 10 toes down).
________________________
Anyhoo…
This kind of drinking is seen in all kinds of pop culture artifacts from the past. Nick and Nora Charles were ALWAYS drunk. One wonders how they ever solved a case. And watch the old Bewitched shows on Hulu. Darren and Samantha are always having a martini or two. Darren usually has one the minute he comes in the door — just like Don. Otis on the Andy Griffith Show was a perennial drunk. Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies carried around a jug of moonshine, and the doctors on MASH had their own sill. Of course, this was seen as comedic, drinking = fun and joyous, not the dark, seedy side of alcoholism, which I think we're seeing a glimpse of on Mad Men. So the attitudes toward drinking have definitely changed over time.
This was also the era when liquor ads were prevalent on TV. At some point, maybe in the 70s or 80s, liquor ads disappeared altogether, although now they're making a comeback. I think liquor ads (excluding beer and wine) are still banned on network TV.
December 17th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Don's a pretty heavy drinker all the way through the series so far–his "days of plenty" seem indistinguishable from the other days–but we did see a (d)evolution from the first to the third season. Earlier, he comes home, kisses Betty, hugs the kids, and eventually Betty pours him a drink. Towards the end of season three, Don walks through the door, and *boom* he's pouring the contents of the nearest bottle in his glass barely before he's even spoken to Betty.
December 17th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
The comedy drunk stereotype was still going strong as of 1981, when Arthur was a smash(ed?) hit at the movies. In 1988 the sequel was dead in the water, in part because alcoholism was no longer "funny". Societal attitudes had changed that much, that quickly.
December 17th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
I always thought Don got the dog from the pound. The tag was probably the dog's license; the pounds today issue those, I assume they did then as well. It never occurred to me that he would steal somebody's pet, even being well aware of his slippery morals.
I talked to my mom recently about MM, and she said she certainly remembered lots of smoking then, but nobody she knew drank as much as the people on the show. Yeah, here's Don — chain-smoking, binge drinking, never exercising, hardly ever touching veggies or whole grains, and here he is, fit as a fiddle and ready for love. And Roger! He had two heart attacks over three years ago, and nothing since, despite changing almost nothing about his lifestyle AND not having access to bypass surgery or angioplasty? Now there's a guy with a rabbit's foot.
That's why I'm getting a feeling in my bones that someone on this show (Don perhaps?) is going to have some kind of health crisis next year. And it won't be Bert, of whom Roger said, "You're still going to outlive me."
Yeah, I think it's very possible that all the drinking has impaired Don's judgment and ability to have relationships, somewhat. I also think it's very possible he'll never find out, as long as no Freddy Rumsen-style embarrassments ever take place and his liver doesn't crap out on him.
December 17th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Would the pound have been open to the public that late on a Saturday night? Remember, he was sitting by the tracks for a large part of the evening, and he didn't have the dog then. He only picked it up on his way home. Today things stay open pretty late, but back then? In the suburbs? Nothing stayed open past 5 — if it was open at all on a Saturday.
As to relationships, Don's always had problems with relationships. He's a grown man with no friends.
December 17th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Knowing Don, he could talk his way into the pound after regular adoption hours and get them to give him a dog. (At that time, pounds also functioned as animal control centers, so they'd stay open on weekends; they just might not have the adoption office open past a certain time.) Or called up someone from the classifieds and adopted one directly from an owner. Or possibly headed off someone at the pass when they were about to surrender a dog to the pound, although I'm not sure it would still have tags on if someone was doing that.
I'm not saying Don didn't steal the dog. It just wasn't the first thing that occurred to me.
December 17th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
I think the daily Martini swilling may have been a WASP, wealthy suburb thing.
Not so much in the ethnic lower-middle class that I grew up in, but the first time I went to a Mainline, upper-crust WASP wedding in the early '70s I was amazed at the amount of good booze put away all weekend.
No food at the reception (Ritz crackers with caviar), but even then I was amazed at how those very rich, very white people put it away.
Maybe the white trash Don came from were also big boozers, although they swilled moonshine.
The lower middle-class families I grew up with in the '50s and '60s, well, maybe Dad had a beer with dinner, the grownups drank cocktails at night time parties, and big family gatherings or company picnics in the summer, there might be a keg of beer.
And briefly, in the '70s, I remember my father ritually downing his one Harvey Wallbanger a night.
But I don't remember any grownups I knew drinking either Martinis — or moonshine — on a daily basis.
December 17th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
I highly recommend "The Lost Weekend" on this topic!
I don't know how many of you have seen it, so here's the link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037884/
"The unsuccessful writer Don Birnham is an alcoholic. Only his brother Wick and girlfriend Helen managed to keep him sober for 10 days and plan a little vacation on the countryside for the weekend. But Don manages to send them both away the evening before. Alone at home, without any money, he's desperate for something to drink." (Wow! They have the same name! Cool!)
It's interesting how the film portrays how Don's (ha!) family and friends and society in general deal with his alcoholism. They don't really know what to do and how to help him! Oh my God!
December 18th, 2009 at 2:33 am
Throughout Prime Suspect, Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) seems to be handling her hard drinking. But by the end of the series, we see how she spirals out of control, and that she has had a serious problem with alchohol all along.
December 18th, 2009 at 3:45 am
It never occured to me that Don stole Polly/the dog in Season 1- but as I think about it- the dog was (in my opinion) way too nicely groomed & tagged to have come from a pound. Nor was he a mutt (not that every dog at a pound has to be a mixed breed- but the majority of them are)…interesting observation.
December 18th, 2009 at 4:10 am
Maybe not how often, although Don drinks often, but when we drink. The first thing Don does when he gets home is pour a drink, not kiss his wife or hug his kids, or change clothes, etc.
Like Hullaballoo pointed out, Don needed beer to put together the doll house. His drinking had something to do with the wreck with Bobbie and picking up the couple that robbed him(maybe clouded judgement). Also, the awful scene where he called Betty a whore with baby Gene in the same room. That was Don at his bottom.
Early drinkers, like Don, have been proven to be short serotonin (University of Georgia), the thing that gives us all a reason to get out of bed in the morning. Drinking alcohol for these early drinkers, like Don and yes, myself, bring our serotonin up to normal and thus makes our brains work maximally and make us feel normal. Ever have a friend tell you they drive better or think better when drinking? Maybe BS or may be true. I guarantee there are some former alcoholics on Weiner's writing staff because of how well done the drinking is handled on Mad Men.
Don has nobody to talk to, the only person he trusts lives miles away. He doesn't have a best friend, he didn't talk to his wife, at lease not intimately and when he did, we saw where that got him. He has 3 coping mechanisms, alcohol, work, sex, and that is it. He has nobody to turn to, yet. I am already looking forward to Mad Men 4, too.
December 18th, 2009 at 4:57 am
Btw, I'm not saying I just noticed Don's drinking! It just struck me in a different way.
December 18th, 2009 at 5:05 am
#37 Fatphil: "He has 3 coping mechanisms, alcohol, work, sex, and that is it."
The difficulty is that each coping mechanism (even work) adds to his problems, in Season 3 we see Don turning to sex (Suzanne) to escape with work problems, then back to work at the end of the season to escape from the end of his marriage (which I suppose could be characterised as at least a sex-related problem) Don is just going round and round on a merry-go-round from one crutch to the other, sooner or later it will spin out of control. The question is, which "coping mechanism" will be the one that screws him up? Or will it be something else entirely?
December 18th, 2009 at 5:14 am
#35
Forgot to say – Joyce, there is a real parallel with Don & Jane Tennison, the question is whether or not matters will come to a head at some point (which as you can see from above is my guess at present) or just a slow gradual decline. I'd prefer matters to come to a head as it gives at least some chance of recovery for Don by the end of the series. Of course there is always the possibility that Don could pull himself out of a slow gradual decline and that maybe the setting up of the new business might be the incentive to do so. But I don't think so myself – I think that the new business will ultimately add to the pressures involved.
December 18th, 2009 at 5:37 am
@34 Besides The Lost Weekend …
there is Days of Wine and Roses, 1962, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055895/ directed by Blake Edwards and starring Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick, and Charles Bickford. This great film literally changed American attitudes about drinking. The male lead character, btw, is a PR man.
December 18th, 2009 at 5:39 am
I'm totally concerned (like shes an actual person! heh) about Sally. Its heartbreaking. I can see some sort of substance abuse with Sally. Whether its alcohol, ciggs or her participation in the dawn of psychadelic/hardcore drugs that become the rage in the late 60s/early 70s.
Sally has been through a lot…the divorce, Betty's parenting…or just plain Betty, Gene dying…maybe accepting Henry as the new father figure? maybe she'll find out about her father and Miss Farrell?
I'm not going to leave out the unconventional rise of society as the 60s unfold. If it affects Don and several others at SC, its definitely going to affect Sally…and who knows, maybe Bobbie.
Heh, I can see her and Glenn becoming drinking buddies and smoking dope.
December 18th, 2009 at 8:00 am
Speaking of Bobbie… this is a bit off-topic here and personally I'd like to see a whole post on it: has anyone else noticed that for as dominant a role that Don plays in the series, his son plays an equally subdued role? Bobbie barely speaks, and when he does, it's usually just a few words. I don't think he's had a single moment where he says more than one sentence. I have found that interesting/odd since the beginning of the series.
I haven't been able to figure out what the significance of that is, but I think it's worth noting.
December 18th, 2009 at 8:32 am
#43 Rachel in Ca. Matt Weiner has commented on Bobby. He has said that little 8/9 year old boys are very different than little 8/9 year old girls in terms of remembering their lines/maturity. The 2 actors who have played Bobby just aren't yet up to carrying/remembering more script. Matt made the observation that a 9 year old girl (especially Kiernan Shipka) is much different in maturity than a 9 year old boy, and for these reasons, Sally/ Kiernan gets more dialogue from the writers b/c she can is that good!
December 18th, 2009 at 9:37 am
The level of drinking back then was far higher than we accept today, although even by those standards Don is over the top. Interestingly, both Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore, who in the MM timeline are about to premiere the best sitcom ever made, portrayed the very same kind of upper class, Westchester couple as Don and Betty and they both, in their personal lives, had drinking problems just like Don's. Neither of them ever had trouble with work and drinking, but drank heavily every evening after shooting their show. It took them years to each admit they had a problem, and that only came with the changing cultural norms of the 1970s and 1980s.
Darren and Samantha are always having a martini or two. Darren usually has one the minute he comes in the door — just like Don.
This is my favorite example of how much times have changed, especially in one of the early b&w episodes (with the real Darrin, not that sad replacement) when Larry Tate's wife finds out she is pregnant after years of thinking she was unable to have any. During the course of one dinner party, she downs no fewer than 4 martinis working up her courage to tell Larry – and this was all done for high comedy.
December 18th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Speaking of Bobbie… this is a bit off-topic here and personally I’d like to see a whole post on it: has anyone else noticed that for as a dominant a role that Don plays in the series, his son plays an equally subdued role? Bobbie barely speaks, and when he does, it’s usually just a few words. I don’t think he’s had a single moment where he says more than one sentence. I have found that interesting/odd since the beginning of the series.
I haven’t been able to figure out what the significance of that is, but I think it’s worth noting.
December 18th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
@Rachel in CA 43, Bobbie is still such a little guy, 7 or 8, so maybe they feel like the character is too young to really center a storyline around? Maybe as he gets older, like Sally they’ll show him doing more, especially if they show the impact of the divorce. He seems like a sweet little boy and he just killed me when he asked if they were in trouble and when Betty said they weren’t he said so plaintively “Then why are we in the living room” and his little voice cracked in the middle. Then his full body wrap around hug of Don, that made me so sad. Poor little man.
December 18th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
As a recovering alcoholic, I'm very cognizant of people reaching for drinks on television and the extent to which people are shown to drink heavily with no repercussions. Don always drank heavily from the beginning of the show.
Alcohol is among his demons. Don's very clearly a person suffering from an addictive disorder, as we've seen his complete disregard for potential consequences in each of his dangerous decisions.
And like many alcoholics, we've seen Don promise to quit his addictions, beg for forgiveness, and then relapse. Don Draper's problem is he still doesn't like himself, with himself being Dick Whitman. As someone so profoundly said at an AA meeting I attended, "I've never seen an alcoholic who deep down didn't hate his goddamned self?" That's Don Draper.
The reason why this show works so well, is we see these things going on in the background, but they're never really called into the forefront. No one really talks about this show being about a sex addict, but it is. It's the same with his use of alcohol.
Maybe this is why Don really doesn't get along with Duck. Duck at least temporarily sought treatment for his demons. Don never has (though he has an amazing "sponsor" in Anna Draper.)
December 18th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
well put #48 – I was married back in the early 70's to a handsome Don-like successful crude oil salesmen. He was, what I finally came to learn in Ala-non, a functioning alcoholic. But eventually drinking the way Don does, will have a toll on his body. Alcoholism is a progressive disorder, at some point your liver can no longer process the poison. Cirrhosis of the liver is the result. And yes definitely anyone who self-medicates like that does not like himself. Deep hurtful feelings are buried (or drowned) and not dealt with.
Interesting to note – It was not unitl the late 70's that the brave Betty Ford became the first major public figure to come out and admit she had an addiction problem – before that it was covered up and kept a secret.
December 18th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
#48, as I'm sure you know, there are vast differences in the way people tolerate alcohol. Don apparently has a high threshhold. Freddy had a low one. Duck must have had a low one, too. The same number of drinks that set them off may have little effect on Don. But, when he exceeds his level, that's when trouble kicks in.
I grew up in a cocktails before dinner household. One of my earliest memories is the tinkle of the glass stirrer in my parents, cocktail pitcher. They alternated between martinis and Manhattans. After my father died, though, my mother switched to wine and now rarely drinks at all.
December 18th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
I grew up in this era. every night my dad came home and had cocktails (manhattens) and munchies with Mom and ate some dinner after the kids had eaten. Just seemed normal to me
December 18th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
I forget now where I read it, but sometime during the run of Mad Men, I saw an interview with a real ad man of the era who spoke of the role that marijuana played in the creative process (at least, in his shop). The timeframe he was referring to was the mid/late 1960s.
I'll be curious to see if Don moves away from all the booze and gravitates toward pot. We've already seen Peggy, Paul and Smitty do this. Maybe they'll turn Don on.
I remember the psychedelic look of many ads in the late 60s and early 70s, which I'm sure were inspired by, at the very least, pot – and probably, in some cases, LSD.
Here are two 7-Up spots from that era … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK45VlYr0rU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kyTXwxXJ3E
December 19th, 2009 at 2:44 am
Maybe they’ll turn Don on.
Don was was smoking pot before Peggy tried it.
December 19th, 2009 at 4:04 am
I would just make the case that it's not even the volume of alcohol Don consumes that's the issue, it's his overall behavior. We saw him leave Anna Draper's last year determined to make the best of his marriage, and finally getting Betty to take him back. The first episode of the season, he's trying to sleep with a stewardess he just met. He knows his daughter has a "crush" on her teacher, and he sleeps with her. His urge for gratification overtakes his better judgement.
I've argued elsewhere that alcoholics deal with an ongoing struggle between pathos and logos. When you're feeling down and overwhelmed, or if it seems like the stress of life is getting the best of you, your emotional needs (pathos) are telling you to take a drink or feed whatever your addiction is. However, your sense of logic (logos) tells you, "You know better." It's when logos is able to keep pathos in check that you know you're winning the battle. If pathos ever wins, you've lost.
December 19th, 2009 at 4:06 am
re: Dark Peggy #9:
Of course Don exercised. Wasn't it in S1 when they showed him using that arm flex thingy in his office with a cig hanging out of his mouth at the same time? LOL!!
December 19th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
actually IIRC they've had six Bobbys. So I don't find it surprising that they haven't given any of them much to do.
December 19th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
# 53 – "Don was was smoking pot before Peggy tried it."
I think I remember him watching, as the Beats in Midge's Greenwich Village apartment smoked it, but I thought he passed, when the pot was offered to him.
[I'll need to re-watch my Season One DVDs]
December 20th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
I agree it is serious drinking but I'm of the opinion it's fairly representative of that go-go upper- middle metropolitan business milieu. The blue collar workers needed all their energy and clear-headed work ethic to move on up the ladder while it appeared they could. They couldn't afford the unending buzz. The white collar tribe was told to live the good life and they could so they did. And Don's pressing flesh with the group business barons that definitely could afford to and felt entitled to the eternal mixer.
It's a part of the job, a tool of the trade for him. I'm not sure it has to turn out prematurely disasterous for him. I've worked in the hospitality industry for some time and there are many grades of functioning alcoholics at all levels of the corporate structure. Most of them will make it to their sixties like everyone else before things start to uncinematically come loose and stall out.
Don appears to handle all that alcohol pretty well and he doesn't seem to need a taste to quiet the shakes or such. The brews on the Saturday to build Sally's playhouse? hey Sheryl Crow likes a good in the morning and look how well she's done. He does seem to binge when he's depressed or stressed, but self-medication alone isn't necessarily a bad thing. Maybe the finality of the divorce and the new work setting will free him up emotionally and let him get back to padding those five pages of the uncompleted novel I know the poor bastard has hidden in some other drawer in some other place in that house.
He needs to take Suzanne to Pamplona, drink some wine and watch the bulls run; Papa Draper is scratching to get out.
And nothing against the rest of you fine folks but I think if I was stuck in an airport lounge waiting for a connection and those NorthWest pilots from a few years back were spoiling for a challenge, I'd hope Dark Peggy, gypsy and Fatphil were flying stand-by. We might stand a shot (or two, ha!) against those seasoned pro's
December 21st, 2009 at 3:50 am
I couldn't think of a better way to spend a lay over than as the foursome you quoted. Well done, lom
December 21st, 2009 at 5:25 am
Cheers lom! Sounds like a good time.
December 21st, 2009 at 10:28 am
And a virtual Slainte to all of you, too!
December 22nd, 2009 at 6:12 am
There is much jolly camaraderie and good will in this fading thread! Huzzah! And Happy Christmas! (typed without Lane's deservedly ironic subtext)
And slainte! back at ya good women and men of BoK.
Here's one from Eire I always try to work into any festive gathering. Lately I began to imagine Bunk and Jimmy hoisting some Jamey in agreement, most probably with Roger and Paul if I may intermingle the fictional merrymakers:
" Let's toast your casket, which will be lovingly crafted from the wood of a hundred year-old oak, the seed for which we shall plant tomorrow."
Paul would be frustrated that he didn't write this down first no doubt.
I stumbled upon this site while snooping around for more — http://inspire.luquette.org/irish_blessings.htm
December 22nd, 2009 at 7:20 am
That's beautiful, LOM.
December 22nd, 2009 at 7:39 am
(demurely rolls eyes, looks to the floor and blushes.)
January 2nd, 2010 at 3:53 pm
[...] interested why Don has that flashback when while he’s watching Sally sleep. Deb, did the post on Don’s drinking, and the presence of the bottle in his new room. With what we know about Sally, is there a [...]