Guest post by Nathaniel R: Mad Men at the Movies ran at The Film Experience and is being posted here in conjunction with re-airings of episodes.
Mad Men @ The Movies looks at the many film references in the Emmy winning series.
Episode 2.2 “Flight 1″
The staff of Sterling Cooper have reluctantly trekked out to New Jersey for a party at Paul Kinsey’s new place. He’s the most bohemian of the ad men and he never lets anyone forget it.
“Trust me Montclair is the knees*. We have Globe Trotter Antiques. We have the Wellmont theater — silent movies with organ, the Montclair art gallery, George Inness. Have you heard of him?”
Upcoming neighborhoods are always topics of conversation in New York. While I completely agree that loving silent movies is a badge of honor, Kinsey wields all such badges like weapons. He’s trying to impress and belittle at the same time. Note the end of the convo: Have you heard of him? So bitchy. This happens to be one of the bitchiest episodes of Mad Men in total. Peggy and Joan get eeeeevil hostile moments, too.
But about those silent movies. The parents of most of the Mad Men characters–mostly minor characters but not all–would have even seen plentiful silents in their first run. Everyone went to the movies during the silent era. No movie revolution has ever been as seismic and swift as the switch to sound in the late 20s. Black and white, for example, took more than three decades to die out. This episode takes place in 1962 and black and white movies were still regularly being made. It wasn’t until 1966 that AMPAS dropped their separate technical categories for black and white as color began to truly dominate. (One has to wonder how much longer we’ll have 2D or films actually shot on film with digital more and more the norm. 3D can be fun but I’d really prefer it was a passing fad like it was in previous decades. Real life is in 3D and you don’t have to wear glasses for it.)
The first silent I ever saw was the Douglas Fairbanks fantasy The Thief of Baghdad (pictured left) at the Redford Theater in Detroit, one of my holy places. After that I was hooked on silents–preferably with organ. The Redford preceded each movie, not just the silents, with a half hour live organ overture of old standards.
Other cultural references in this episode
My favorite Mad Men literary reference ever. Peggy’s mom responding to a comment about the local library. “I gotta renew The Agony and the Ecstasy. It’s takin’ forevah.” Heh.
*I think he says “the knees” but it’s hard to suss out. Was this a common 60s slang version of “the bee’s knees?” Anyone know?
I think you’ve got it. It’s the bee’s knees was an antiquated expression back then, but I think Kinsey is the kind of guy who would try to revive a dying thing by changing it just a little.
Agree on the bees knees thing.
I think there was a Roaring ’20s nostalgia/revival thing going on around then.
I kinda miss the Kinsey character. The pipe, the pretense, the pride.
(it’s one thing to be proud of your community and the cool cultural things it has – it’s another to be so defensive about Peggy’s “embellishing” his ideas)
And, he has a decent singing voice:
“Hello! ma baby, Hello! ma honey, Hello! ma ragtime gal….”
Was it “Sheila”, at whom Joan snarked, with whom Paul travelled South to protest, and who dumped him after the march? Anyway, I never detected a shred of tokenism in that, credit be to the writers and actor Gladis.
(let’s not forget, he was ready to bag the trip South, until he got shoved over for the SoCal trip)
While it would hardly be essential to the show, I would be happy to see him come to SCDP – working for Peggy of course.
He might even bring that Selectric back to the office.
@Jahn Ghalt- I would love to see Peggy and Paul in a scene again, but I think it would be more interesting to see them in a social setting, or maybe at the Clio’s next year. Awards shows make for great episodes.
Retro Girl-
Copy that! ;O)
Am trying to bring back CB radio slang…
@ 7 Peg4prez-In that case, 10-4 good buddy.
To follow that thread what’s Paul’s 20 nowadays? Is he at another shop? We got to see Smitty working for Teddy Chaough last season. Maybe Paul has taken his pretentiousness and Selectric away from Madison av and has re-written his god awful play. Or better yet, taking his stab at creating the Great American Novel.
@ 9 tilden katz-I assumed he stayed at SC when it merged/was taken over. If he did leave Madison Ave, I’ll bet he’s working at some pretentious bookstore, while he’s working on a play or a novel.
God, I hope they bring him back. Paul was at least so earnest in his pretensiousness. And, he DID have a good voice!