LOS ANGELES – Mad Men built its world out of paper: client briefs, business cards, memos, tax returns. Hollywood Pictures™ holds a deep run of that paper, and of the objects that dressed the Draper apartment and the Sterling Cooper offices, in one of the largest Mad Men collections in its studio archive.
The anchor pieces are Don Draper’s own. The catalog carries his Sterling Cooper creative director business card, a trifecta set of his business cards, an envelope from his apartment, his 1963 income tax return, and his HERO mid-century office book collection. There are mid-century cufflinks cataloged to Season 2 Episode 7, Season 3 Episode 6 and Season 3 Episode 10, a skinny handmade silk necktie offered with a business card, his HERO 1950 black tuxedo suspenders, a vintage cap, and a mid-century necktie clip from Season 3 Episode 6.
Then there is the work itself. Mad Men was a show about advertising, and the archive holds the agency’s output: Don’s Jaguar request for proposal, his Heinz marketing client job sheet, Bob Benson’s Dow Chemical creative brief, Lane Pryce’s Dow Chemical ad copy concepts, and a run of Ted Chaough’s approved print ad concepts for Life Cereal, Birds Eye and Samsonite, each paired with a business card. Don and Bert’s Sterling Cooper advertising terms and conditions signature page is in the collection as well, along with Ken Cosgrove’s senior staff new-client update memo regarding Chevalier Cologne.
The set decoration runs just as deep. The mid-century ashtray rail – Don’s 1960s glass ashtray, Joan’s mid-century glass ashtray, Peggy’s – is one of the collection’s signatures. Around it: vintage cocktail and party napkin sets for Don, Betty and Joan; Betty’s mid-century milk glass and her 1960-1975 magazine set dressing; Megan’s Life magazine set decoration and lapel pin; Don and Betty’s china dish; Don and Megan’s holiday plates and kitchen cookware; Sally’s yellow baby blankets, headband and bracelet; and Peggy’s kitchen plate and winter accessories. Even the oddities are here, down to Don’s ten vintage prop cocaine bags from “A Tale of Two Cities” and his rare vintage one- and two-cent unused George Washington stamps.
Mad Men aired on AMC from 2007 to 2015 across seven seasons, created by Matthew Weiner, and it remains the benchmark for period production design on television. The props were the point: every object was cast as carefully as the actors. That is what makes the archive legible to fans – a Sally Draper headband or a Chevalier Cologne memo reads as clearly as a scene.
Hollywood Pictures™ calls itself an exclusive evolving collection of certified props and wardrobe, and every item in the Mad Men archive comes with a certificate of authenticity. CEO Dave Goodrich built the company after a career running e-commerce and licensing for major studios, including global e-commerce for 20th Century Fox licensing and marketing for ScreenBid, the studio prop-and-wardrobe auction house.
Browse the Mad Men collection at hollywoodpictures.shop.