Marilyn makes a fleeting appearance in a new Netflix movie starring and directed by comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Revisiting the launch of America’s favourite breakfast pastry – the Pop Tart – back in 1963, Unfrosted is one of several recent films built around consumer brands (following last year’s Air and Barbie.)
In one scene, Jon Hamm – apparently reprising Don Draper, his ad-man character from TV’s Mad Men – delivers a sales pitch for ‘La Jelle Jolie’, aiming to bring sex appeal to the humble cereal. The ‘Jelle Jolie Noir’ has a chocolate flavour, while the ‘Jelle Jolie Sensual’ has “no packet at all, for those who dare. Because his pleasure … is also hers.”
‘La Jelle Jolie’ is fictitious, but while Hamm’s character is billed only as ‘Ad Man No. 1,’ he refers to his colleague as ‘Roger’ – his boss from the Mad Men universe, played by John Slattery.
A mockup ad features pin-up artwork of a woman in a baby-doll nightie, overlaid with a simmering pastry. The model’s pose is based on an iconic image from Marilyn’s 1949 nude calendar shoot with photographer Tom Kelley – and indeed, her modesty was ‘covered’ with a black lace teddy in some reproductions.
The pairing of Marilyn and the ‘Mad Men’ is apt, because she was referenced in several episodes of the AMC drama, which ran from 2007-15. Spanning the 1960s in its entirety – from Kennedy’s election to the Moon Landings – Mad Men went far beyond the winking nostalgia of Unfrosted.
In fact, this scene is a direct parody of Don Draper’s Playtex sales pitch in Season 2’s 6th episode, ‘Maidenform,’ first broadcast in 2008. Using the tagline, ‘Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn?‘, Draper invokes Marilyn’s bombshell glamour in contrast with Jacqueline Kennedy’s refined allure.
Like ‘La Jelle Jolie,’ this ad campaign was fictional – but it caught the public imagination and even inspired Pamela Keogh’s book of the same name (see here.) Incidentally, ‘Maidenform’ is said to be Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner’s favourite episode.
Marilyn’s ‘Happy Birthday Mr President’ performance was briefly mentioned in the previous episode (‘The New Girl’), while the 9th episode, ‘Six Month Leave,’ explores the characters’ varied reactions to the news of Marilyn’s death.
The men are mostly dismissive, but the young women in the typing pool are bereft. “One day you’ll lose someone who’s important to you,” office manager Joan Holloway (Christina Hendricks) tells Roger. “You’ll see. It’s very painful.”
Perhaps the most poignant moment occurs during an elevator scene, when copywriter Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) says to Don, “You just don’t imagine her ever being alone. She was so famous.”
While Don is nonplussed, Hollis (La Monde Byrde) – the elevator operator, and one of the New York ad agency’s only black employees – responds: “Some people just hide in plain sight.”
Marilyn’s downbeat Some Like It Hot number, ‘I’m Through With Love,’ plays through the end credits.
There is a covert reference to Marilyn in Mad Men’s fourth season, with the introduction of Dr. Faye Miller (Cara Buono.) She is partly based on Dr. Joyce Brothers, a psychologist and TV personality – but ‘Faye Miller’ was also a pseudonym used by Marilyn when she checked into Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic in 1961.
Thanks to Marco at Marilyn Remembered
The Marilyn Report 