I have this theory: People write blogs because they miss writing homework papers, only it’s better, because you only EVER have to write about the things you’re nuts about. There’s much to be said for a liberal education…and right now, I’m happy that I spent hours reading Lit Crit texts, because now I can dazzle fellow former English Majors by throwing in a reference to Harold Bloom’s seminal (in probably every sense of the word) work The Anxiety of Influence. If this hallucinogenic tome passed you by, here’s the gist: John Milton loved and loathed William Shakespeare who loved and loathed John Spenser who loved and loathed…well, you get the idea. Writers, setting out to craft something fresh and wonderful, are occasionally paralyzed by the daunting relization that everyone before them has already nailed the subject they want to cover. Talking about style and Mad Men falls into this catagory. I’m sure that somewhere (and some alert reader will no doubt point out where) is an article so similar to this one that it’s the written equivilent of wearing the same dress to a small party. Given the real and present danger of that happening, here I go.
I’m going to limit the scope of this to something pretty obvious, but hopefully entertaining and somewhat educational for those of you (like me) who simply cannot look at a movie without wondering: ‘Where can I get that dress?” In this case, I’ll be looking at the three key women of Mad Men and where they fall in a long, well-dressed line of “working gals” in cinema’s rich past. What’s interesting is where the Mad Men women swerve…but we’ll get to that. For purposes of clarity, I’ll catagorize these beauties in my system of ”Star Style” types: The Bombshell (Joan), the Girl-Next-Door (Peggy) and the Classically Ladylike (Betty). (Which type are you? Take my quiz!).
Dames
Early 1930′s backstage musicals depict women working (usually) together, a sorority whose main aim is to land a man. The women tap, eat, gossip, console and advise each other, working as a unit until, well, the Haynes Sisters said it best: “Lord help the sister who comes between me and my man!” 
In 42nd Street, Ginger Rogers and Ruby Keeler are part of a women’s collective of wisdom. Ginger was a wisecracking Bombshell; Ruby, the perky Girl-Next-Door (GND). There weren’t any “Ladies” in these rough-and-tumble flicks, because it was assumed no lady would deign to trod the boards.
Backstage sisterhood was a common theme in films from the Thirties. Marcelled girls squealed and mocked their way through communal meals, gab sessions and shared late-night confidences (women in nighties is one of THE most typical ways to express solidarity while titillating male viewers). Here Ginger Rogers and Kate Hepburn trade barbs in Stage Door–Kate has yet to learn the unspoken rules of this thesbian (that’s THESBIAN) sorority. 
We’re in this together, sister
In the 40′s, sisterhood reigned. Hollywood supported the WWII home front by showing American women pulling together. And, now that hard times (and few men) were upon the American scene, “ladies” were forced by circumstances to explore formerly taboo venues. Ladylike Hedy Lamarr surfaces in Ziegfeld Girl, class to her back teeth; she chums with Lana Turner (Bombshell) and Judy Garland (GND).
Showing women of all social classes pulling together for the greater good–usually against one rogue woman who doesn’t understand that this is no time for petty differences–is a classic Forties theme.
The boys are back and there’s gonna be trouble
When the war ended and American men returned, the fragile filmworld sisterhood dissolved. Now, it was basically every woman for herself. After all, there are only so many men to go around now, and one can’t afford to be charitible. It’s difficult to find movies depicting any sorts of sisterhood on an ensemble scale in the late 40′s-early 50′s. 1939′s venomous The Women was revisited in a mean-spirited stinker of a musical 1956′s The Opposite Sex. 
One refreshing standout is 1953′s How To Marry A Millionaire, featuring Marilyn Monroe (Bombshell), Betty Grable (GND), and Lauren Bacall (Ladylike). These equally attractive women unite in a familiar cause that’s pretty much spelled out in the unambiguous title. 
More than one person has noted a resemblence between Marilyn and Joan Holloway, but it’s almost purely physical.
Joan has the streetsmarts of Bacall, not the wide-eyed innocence Marilyn projects.
(By the way, no one since Elizabeth Taylor’s upscale call girl in Butterfield 8 has ever rocked a neutral day look as well. Just sayin’.)
So, the Fifties were basically jam-packed with catty women at each other’s throats, frenemies because of limted resources. Another noteworthy exception is The Desk Set (see my series on the styles of that marvelous movie here).
Refreshing different was the rollicking Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, but that hardly counts, since the time setting was not exactly contemporary and hardly an “office” setting…but at least the girls all pulled together. (See what I mean about nighties?)
Please indulge me in another aside re: Joan and her busty precursors. You may not recognize anyone in this group, but there’s one girl there who could give Joan a run for her money in the Bombshell department–Julie Newmar. Yep, Catwoman (the ONLY one for my money. Cards and letters extolling Eartha Kitt may be sent to…).
So, now we come to the late 50′s, early 60′s, our Mad Men era–what is the social norm per Hollywood? Women scrapping for the few shell-shocked men who survived the war and men who expect women to view them as the Masters of the Universe. At this point, even Hollywood had to admit that women were firmly entrenched in the workplace. To encourage them to vacate positions traditionally filled by men and show how dangerous it was for women in the dog-eat-dog world of office work, films like 1959′s The Best of Everything had a loud-and-clear message: ”GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL ARE STILL A WOMAN!” 
One look at Joan Crawford’s embittered old maid character would shake almost any working gal’s ambition to claw her way to the top.
One delightful, cuspy film, 1960′s Where The Boys Are, shows a marvelous sisterhood of caring, but it’s a college life dramady that shakes a warning finger at promiscuity. The only quasi-bombshell here is the boisterous Connie Francis–but she’s really a GND dolled up for the occasion. Pathetic Yvette Mimieux, a fragile blonde whose very name sounds like the weak cry of a sex kitten, is a Sophisticated Ingenue. Dolores Hart (who later became a nun) functions as the group’s de factor mother superior; hers is a marvelously Charmingly Natural look.. My favorite, the lovely, lanky Paula Prentiss, is adorable as the Smartly Tailored Tug. (They’re coming soon for a Spring blog post, so stayed tuned!)
Office place spoofs like Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? reinforced the idea of women joining the workforce for only 2 objectives: they needed money and they needed a man. Just ask Jayne Mansfield, that movie’s Bombshell…
Uneasy female alliances, if any, formed in these “office gals” comedies. Girl-Next-Doris Day’s gal-pal flicks like That Touch of Mink showed the softer side of women, but the producers were careful to assign slightly goofy, less-attractive besties who offered no real competition to the leading lady (no offense, Audrey Meadows–yes, I know that’s not her in the image; save your stamps). So, the balance of power was never truly threatened.
Which lands us plunk down in Mad Men, that well-written, mesmerizing soap opera about a land that time forgot for many of its viewers. But, movie fans like us recognize Bombshell Joan, Ladylike Betty, and GND Peggy as types that have populated “women’s pictures” for decades. More than reflecting reality, these character tropes offer perspectives on how women are perceived by men. Because, after all, who’s writing, directing, funding and producing these movies? Those Mad Men of Hollywood!
Swerving on the road to nowhere
In classic Hollywood movies, Bombshells are super-sexy maneaters, Ladies are genteel, self-sacrificing madonnas, and Girls-Next-Door are wholesome, happy virgins. While Mad Men’s gifted costumer Janie Bryant uses classic costuming motifs (curve-hugging dresses for Joan, bouffant silk trifles for Betty, whimsical, harmless cottons for Peggy) to depict these types, she understands so well that windowdressing both covers and reveals.
Fans know complex Joan employs her looks to advance her cause but is touchingly vulnerable; ladylike Betty is a carnivorous Hitchcock blonde; and perky Peggy is ambitious and anything but a virgin. Far from Hollywood’s classic depictions of these types, Bryant’s brilliant wardrobe choices thrill vintage-clotheshounds like me while often camouflaging the character’s motives and methods. But, true to their 60′s roots, these conniving, clever women almost never form a union and even the best of friends have to watch their gorgeously clad backs.
