Well, I am not sure he lost all of Hilton, but I got the definite impression that he lost the International Hilton account.
It seemed to me that Don was given a ‘do-over’. He didn’t lose the account - he just got scolded and told to go away and redeem himself. It was more of a personal hurt that Connie felt - he thought Don understood him, and that Don felt the same way he did. He thought he’d found, if not a son, a sort of soul-mate. Don’s banal ad campaign just made Connie feel let down.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll go elsewhere. He still recognizes that Don’s a big talent and a hard worker. It probably means that he gained a business associate - but lost a friend.
Ouch! What a troubling episode.
I’m thinking about the conversation between Don and Sal. I got the impression that Don thought that Sal was the one who had made a pass at the Lucky Strike guy? Is that so?
Well, we know that Guy isn’t the man for the job. Because…
HE’LL NEVER GOLF AGAIN!!!
I didn’t get that impression. The way I saw it is that Don just felt that Sal should have recognized the importance of the situation and taken one for the team, so to speak.
I’m pretty sure “you people” meant homosexuals.
That’s how I read it, too. Don thought Sal should’ve slept with the Lucky Strike guy, even if he didn’t want to, because he’s a big client. I thought that was revealing – Don expected Sal to give in to LS guy’s advances the same way that he expects the women he pursues to give in to his advances.
Thanks. That’s how I interpereted it too, but I was wondering if maybe I got it wrong. And I also thought it was interesting that Don thought Sal should have done it.
But here’s a question–Why did Sal not do it? Was it the coercive nature of the situation? Was he not attracted to the Lucky Strike guy? Was he resisting his homosexuality? All three?
I’m guessing the resisting his homosexuality part was the most important because he kept going back to the “I’m married” thing. He sounded like he was trying to convince himself. And they did show him saying “I love you” to his wife. (I’m sure he does love her, but obviously not in a sexual way.)
I think it was all three, and add to that the inherent risks and complications of getting it on with a client, which are exponentially increased when you’re both closeted gays. After all, Lucky Strike Guy’s rather disproportionate reaction to the rejection wasn’t really about being hurt or insulted, it’s about not wanting Sal there because Sal knows he’s gay, and he sure as hell can’t have that getting about.
“We’ve had two clients walk out angry this week. Is that what we want to be known for? That and cutting off people’s feet?”
Maybe the Lucky Strike guy just wasn’t his cup of tea. Despite what some people think, gay men aren’t up for it with any just any other man.
It could be that Sal is also professional, in that he doesn’t sleep with clients.
I think DianaG has it right. In 1963 you couldn’t be an outed gay (although I guess they’re letting the European guy, the one who cut Peggy’s hair, get away with it) very easily. I think if Sal had slept with LS guy, he still would have asked for him to be fired. Either way, he would have known his secret.
Yet another reason to love this show; whenever someone pines over the “good ol’ days”, this show is a perfect example that not all was good.
Assume for a minute that you could be sent back to that time period, knowing what is going to happen in the next 40 or so years.
My guess is most of us would be considered a total, raving freak/nutcase for even hinting that some of their beliefs and double standards were bullshit.
Actually, that is sort of fun to envision; everyone on the SDMB suddenly transported back to the early 60’s.
Most likely we would all get to know each other - either in prison or in court as co-conspirators on J. Edgar Hoover’s list of undesirables.
Well, Don may have thought the standard stereotype about promiscious homosexuals, but lets not forget that Don wasn’t buying his oh-so-innocent “I’m married” schtick either, becuase he knows at least that “innocent” part of the act is complete BS.
I’ll look everybody up if I make it out of Mississippi alive.
Did that stereotype even exist back then? I thought that came along more from the 70s/80s bathhouse days.
Green Bean did include that possibility in his post:
(emphasis mine)
I got a strong sense of #3, although Sal certainly didn’t resist his homosexuality in Baltimore. And speaking of the Baltimore Incident, Sal seemed so desperate to act on his homosexuality then, that I was surprised he had such an opposite reaction this time.
Mayhap he was disgusted by the smell of Lucky Strike’s lucky-strike-ridden breath. I don’t know, but at least it gives me the excuse to use the word mayhap.
That and they didn’t really have any privacy. They’re in an editing suite with frosted glass! Remember how Sal opened the door after, and there were people walking by. Way inappropriate on so many levels.
Isn’t it from the Sodom and Gomorrah days? I’ve always felt that much of homophobia is out of some sense of jealousy, that they are hooking up left and right (and with no risk of pregnancy).
Someone I was watching with said ‘I wonder what would have happened if Joan had turned the guy down.’ Me, too. Would Don have done the same thing? What if she was still single? I hate to think what an angry Don would have done.
Context is everything. It’s one thing to acknowledge his homosexuality to a random nameless busboy in a city he doesn’t live in, and quite another to acknowledge it to a client.
That said, I don’t think Sal was remotely attracted to LSG, which is hardly surprising given that he’s a generally unpleasant person.
Sal asked Don if he’d have expected the same if it had been a girl, and Don said yes, depending on what he knew about the girl. A woman like Joan would have been expected to put out. I’d imagine he meant if it was someone younger and virginal (like everyone assumed of Peggy), he’d have given them a pass.