Don Draper/Dick Whitman
Lives in Ossining, NY, with his wife Betty and their two children, Sally and Robert.
He had an affair with graphic artist Midge Daniels. Conversation indicated it had gone on for about five years. They ended it in the summer of 1960.
Met and fell for Rachel Menken in March/April 1960. Began a passionate relationship over Labor Day weekend, 1960.
Don’s first advertising job was in-house for a furrier (where he met Betty on a modeling job; Don the copy writer, Betty the model). His boss at the furrier was Teddy, an old Greek writer.
Dick Whitman was the child of a prostitute who died in giving birth to him. He was raised by his father, Archie, a drunk, and his wife Abigail. They had a son, Adam, when Dick was around 8-10 (?). Archie died from being kicked in the face by a horse, and Abigail soon “took up with another man,” who may be Uncle Mack, and whom she may or may not have married.
Abigail died years later of stomach cancer, and Uncle Mack died as well.
Dick joined the army and served in Korea, where he switched dog tags with his senior officer, Don Draper, immediately after Draper died in an explosion.
In approximately 1952, Don was a used car salesman.
His half-brother Adam believed him to be dead until spring of 1960, when he spotted a story (with photo) about Don Draper in Advertising Age, and sought him out. Adam was working as a janitor at American Calculator in the Empire State Building, and lived in a single room occupancy (SRO), which he hoped was temporary. In October of 1960 he hung himself in the SRO.
June 30th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
The NvK script indicates that Dick/Don is 23 in 1950 (Korean War flashback), and 33 in 1960. This seems to be about the oldest he could be to have missed serving in WWII–even at the tail end of it. So, Don born in 1927?
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Okay, the Advertising Age supplement says that Dick/Don is 36, not 33. Would that be at the time of season 2 or season 1? 36 in 1960 makes him well old enough to have served in WWII–and for more than just the tail end of the War. Did he get some kind of farm deferment? Why was he then allowed to go to Korea? Wouldn’t the same deferment be in effect?
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:32 pm
The Ad Age supplement is explicitly 1960. Roberta has been working on a post about this…
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:42 pm
I have?
Oh, about the timing stuff… yeah, it’s a clusterfuck.
I thought you meant the Ad Age thing. ‘Cause, not.
July 20th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
If he was around 26 in the Korean War he would have been 18ish in ‘42 and 20ish around ‘44. 20 was the draft age during WWII. However, if the character was in college during WWII he could have had a deferment for certain degree programs, especially in ‘44/5. Since he was an officer in Korea he might well have been college-deferred for WWII. Or, alternatively, he might have been enlisted in WWII and that may be used as storyline in the 2nd season?
July 20th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
He wasn’t an office in Korea; I mean, the real Don Draper was an officer who was there because the Army was paying for his college. Dick Whitman was a private who volunteered “to get away.”
July 21st, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Well, i’m not clear on his *not* being an officer, unless i missed the part when that was stated in the series. I’m just outlining the real-world potentialities for the criteria presented. He(Whitman) might have been prior-service enlisted from the WWII-era, a career enlisted soldier, a junior officer, or a recent(Korea-era) enlistee from the perspective of possibilities(as long as the writer/s follow real rules and procedures in that era of military service). Unless it was specifically said that he was a recent inductee and a private soldier it leaves open these other possibilities for further developments in the series.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Unless it was specifically said that he was a recent inductee and a private soldier
It was.
July 21st, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Right, Deborah. If I remember correctly, the real Don Draper even asked what ridiculous notion made Dick want to be there. I got the sense Dick Whitman hadn’t had too much military service beyond basic training. When the real DD asks if he knows how to shoot a gun, Dick/Don’s response is I can for what training I’ve had, or something like that. His whole demeanor suggested that he was a relatively new recruit with very limited knowledge of life in the army. Had he served prior to Korea, I think he would have had more weariness–he’d be more hardened toward military life, and had a better knowledge of protocol. It seemed like the real Don Draper had to tell him everything. Someone who’d been in the service prior to that wouldn’t need that kind of instruction.
If Dick/Don was of age during any part of WWII, I can’t imagine him not taking that as an opportunity to get the heck out of dodge. That’s what young men did then. If they could serve and they wanted to leave home, that’s what they did. In my own family, there were several relatives who even lied about their ages because that was their ticket out of the South. What was Dick/Don’s circumstance that made him different from the other young men of the era?
July 24th, 2008 at 1:36 am
My question exactly, Hullabaloo: where was Dick during WWII? As stated above he was more than old enough to serve, and the part about “wanting to get away” wasn’t clear to me. Away from what? Or who? If not a soldier/sailor/Marine, was he maybe a crook or hood of some sort before Korea? As an adoptee he wouldn’t have qualified for the Homestead Exemptiom from service during the bigger war(WWII).
Therefore- he’s got some “missing time” between say age 16(1940ish) and Korea(1950-3). If he stole Draper’s ID he most likely never went to college at all. What did he do during the ’40’s?
My other thought is that he *might* have been in the merchant marine, given his seeming worl-weariness. Because of his demeanor i assume he’s well-travelled or at least had more living in his time than just farmwork. Rural farming is hard work but it hardly creates a complicated soul.
July 27th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Could it be possible that Dick is younger than the real (dead) Don?
July 27th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Jeff, Roberta blogged about the timeline here.
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:55 pm
FYI: My father was born early 1928, graduated high school June 45 and was drafted. Not sure of date of draft - his 18th birthday Jan 46?
He served overseas in Phillipines. Upon his death we learned he was considered a WWII Era Vet. Got a certificate too.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:50 am
This week’s episode alludes to him selling cars in (we’ll say) 1952, since he says “that was the ‘49, this is the 1950… the car is two years old.” Am I seeing this wrong, because this messes up the whole WW2/Korea timeline.
September 12th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Oh Gods, you’re right; it keeps getting worse.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:17 am
Jumping ahead a bit.. Which episodes should I watch to learn how certain employees of Draper’s agency “learned the truth” about Don’s past? I’ve missed quite a few of the first season.
September 26th, 2008 at 1:07 am
HandEDave, only 2 Sterling Cooper employees (that we know of) know about Dick/Don. One is Pete Campbell, the other is Bert Cooper. Rachel Katz (nee Menken), a former client of Sterling Cooper knows a little about Don’s upbringing, but doesn’t know his real name is Dick Whitman.
The Dick Whitman/Don Draper backstories are contained in episodes 5G (episode 5), The Hobo Code (episode 7), Long Weekend (episode 10), and Nixon vs. Kennedy (episode 12) of the first season.
September 26th, 2008 at 1:09 am
Oh, and in episode 11, Indian Summer, Pete intercepts some mail of Don’s, which is how he finds out about Don’s past.
October 24th, 2008 at 11:41 am
I apologize that my first post at this fabulous site is to take issue with another comment, but I simply can ‘t let this go unremarked upon:
“Rural farming is hard work but it hardly creates a complicated soul.”
toby,
My father was raised on a farm in NC before and during the Depression. He and his 8 siblings were very aware via movies, newspapers, radio, passers-by that a very different world existed beyond the tobacco rows. He bolted for Europe during WWII, then left the South for good for NYC and eventually its suburbs, where he never really fit in yet neither could he return. His was among the most complicated souls I have ever encountered, yet so were those of some who stayed on to farm. Never underestimate the extent to which urbanites are under the spell of pop culture and ideology or the conflict experienced by rural folk whose lives remain perhaps more connected to both the very real and the manufactured.
I have always thought Don’s farm background is an exquisitely powerful reason-enough for his complexity.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
The ACTUAL stuff that is used on Don Draper’s hair!
http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/look-the-part-2-mad-men-hair-uncovered/