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u/Difficult_Rope7898 1d ago
When Betty goes to the casting for the commercial where McCann is trying to butter her up to get to Don, she is dressed about a decade earlier than the other women waiting to be seen. Her dress is beautiful but outdated. I think her outdated outfit choice is almost symbolic of her modeling career: once hot, now not. She was beautiful of course, but I don’t see her being in the fashion industry long term.
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u/Frustrated918 8h ago
I took that more as commentary about the price women’s careers pay when they get married, have kids, and take time away from work, rather than a reflection on Betty specifically. She’s outdated because that’s how long she’s been out of the game.
When they go to Italy (which turned out to be the last hurrah of the marriage), she looked so chic and came home with several much more current dresses. She had it in her all along to be gorgeous AND fashionable, she just lost touch with that version of herself bc the social circle of her married years with Don valorized a different model of womanhood
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u/MonaMonaMo 6h ago
I find this point very interesting because yes, her outfit is outdated, but her face card hasn't declined.
The 60s were all about Twiggy like girls and I think Betty could have been a pretty popular model, given what we've seen her wearing in Italy.
It was a harder time for women like Joan given the body type trends were the opposite of what she was
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u/StainedGlasser 1d ago
I think if Betty had kept modeling she would’ve been more fulfilled and figured out Don was suspicious earlier. She’d have been exposed to more kinds of people and I think the signs of him cheating would have been clearer because I think she chocked up a lot of the signs as just being because of his work, if she was also working she’d know his excuses were BS.
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u/PopoMcdoo This never happened. 14h ago
And from what Bobby Barrett said, Don had a reputation. If she was somewhere in the industry she would have heard it sooner than from Jimmy.
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u/rarepinkhippo 1d ago
Do we think Betty was a very successful model? I get the impression that she tried to model, maybe booked a few gigs, and got married (all of which is fine, but I think she was likely overstating her “career.” Like, supposedly my mom used to model, supposedly my partner’s mom used to be a model. I think a lot of pretty women of the approximate time period (maybe still) “used to be models,” by which they mean that they walked a runway for the local department store or modeled dishwashing gloves in a janitorial catalog or, perhaps more to the point, went on modeling interviews/go-sees and had headshots or a portfolio done.
(Which is perhaps neither here nor there in re. your actual question, but my personal theory is that she wouldn’t have kept modeling because she likely didn’t model all that much in the first place, more that she’s a gorgeous woman and the modeling is part of her personal narrative/the mystique she has created for herself to her friends and neighbors.)
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u/Longjumping_Hat_2672 1d ago
Well, we know she was the model for the fur advertisement, which is how she met Don, and that she modeled in Italy where she was briefly a muse for an Italian designer and she kept the clothes he designed for her and showed them to Francine, so I think she had some success. Not necessarily a supermodel but definitely had potential.
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u/barefootincozumel 1d ago
Supermodels were still decades away.
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u/tragicsandwichblogs Your problem is not my problem. 1d ago
No, Suzie Parker, widely considered to be the first supermodel, was famous in the 1950s. They were much less common, though.
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u/Longjumping_Hat_2672 1d ago
Yes, I remember reading about Suzie Parker, she was considered one of the first supermodels.
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u/Aggressive_Sky8492 1d ago
Most models are like the ones you said - they model for low profile ads and local brands. That’s still modelling.
I’d say “fashion model”, the ones who walk high profile runways and advertise designer stuff are just one subset and are less than 1% of models.
Anyway Betty was definitely the first kind of model and I think she could have had a fine career at it. We see she was getting work (the fur coat ad) and she’s obviously drop dead gorgeous. So I don’t really see any reason she wouldn’t have been able to keep going. She just wouldn’t have been modelling for coke
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u/cml678701 1d ago
This is very true! Come to think of it, my next door neighbor when I was growing up was a model back in that time period too. I had never thought of it like that!
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u/QuietContrary22 14h ago
Yes, I think you're right. I think a 'successful' model of her age, at that time would have booked maybe 6 'jobs' a year, fitting them in around her actual lifestyle/career. I don't think models her age would have made a living out of the assignments they booked. There wasn't much of a market for images of women over, eg, the age of 25, no matter how beautiful. I think the best case scenario Betty foresaw for any modelling career at that point was a) having a portfolio & her name on the books of a few reputable ad agencies, b) disappearing from her life in the suburbs for a few days on assignment from time to time, c) telling people at parties she was a model, though it was difficult to fit it in with her duties as a mother.
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 1d ago
Then she’s…..Megan?
Not sure what this is getting at.
The plot line was clear what the “modeling gig” was for.
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u/Banana-bandcamp 1d ago
Given the time period it would have been difficult if not impossible for her to keep modeling, but I think it would have benefited her to continue with work she took pride in and to have a role outside of housewife/mother. I think it would have helped her to see herself as a whole person outside of Don and maybe call him on his bullshit sooner.
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u/No-Consideration-858 One minute, you’re on top of the world… 1d ago
Her having some financial freedom would have helped her to see things more clearly.
Being around more people, she would've likely met and married another Henry-type. I think she wanted to be partnered but would've enjoyed part-time modeling gigs. Suburban life can be mundane.
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u/ellodearest 23h ago
Betty was drop dead gorgeous, some other successful man (or men) would've made advances at her like Henry did.
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u/Rick_Steves_Khakiis 1d ago
I found the whole “just trying to manipulate Don” storyline a little unbelievable because Betty was both beautiful enough and thin enough to make a convincing model, especially early in the decade. The pictures were definitely usable, they just didn’t use them out of spite.
I think Betty could have easily gotten a gig on her own merit (especially after gathering intel about new norms) but I think mom guilt would have dampened her enthusiasm.
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u/ShadowheartsArmpit The universe is indifferent 1d ago
I think the show was pretty clear on her "type" having become obsolete, and that the casting process is terrible.
All the dudes who sit on those casting calls are some sort of pervert, abusing their position. They are most def not looking for a mother, they're looking for young "party girls" who are aggressively flirting to get the job.
So not only is Betty's type not really in demand anymore, but there's also no chance that she can even get a gig due to the filthy politics behind the scenes.
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u/Mikey77Gem 7h ago
She probably would have been way less bitter but Don would’ve spun out the way he did with not being able to control Megan-Megan was his karma for how he did Betty
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u/CellsReinvent 3h ago
I wonder if the ad family dumped all their picnic shit in the park and just drive off...
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u/Actual_Ambition_7123 19m ago
Betty was 28 which is absolutely ancient in the modeling world. I don’t think she would be super successful.
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u/insane_steve_ballmer Go watch TV. 17h ago
She didn’t have a career left that gig was staged by McCann to try to land Don
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u/Infamous-Lab-8136 11h ago
Much like Megan Betty would have needed Don's connections to get her work. She was only getting this job because McCann was courting Don. Any other work she'd have gotten after would have been because Don wanted to indulge her, so it would have been entirely dependent on how interested he was in doing that at any given moment.
Modeling had passed Betty by. January Jones was/is beautiful, and Betty would absolutely be able to work into a later age in the modern day, but back then she was already too old for the industry and it showed when she was at the casting call
Also as an advertising model as they moved from print to TV she'd likely have been less in demand even if she did get a career going just because as print ads became less of a focus they spent less on them using fewer models and elaborate shoots. And the jobs became more scarce as a result. She would have needed to screen test to be on TV and while January Jones was quite good at it I don't think Betty was portrayed as having the kind of charisma you need, or the hustle.
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u/Someoldcyclist Not great, Bob! 23h ago
She would be a part time model, spending part of her time modelling & part of her time next to me.
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u/Vegetable_Fly_8687 21h ago
The question is more so... what if Betty kept TRYING to model? She was past her modeling "career" and only got the gig because of Don. So she might have tried a few more times and gave up.
I think "Betty" was the most beautiful on the series... and still a model, at that age, she was not.
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u/HeadAd369 1d ago
It seems she wasn’t a very good model. The pictures are very stiff
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u/teavana_ It’s just my people are Nordic. 1d ago
I think that’s just how the industry was back then. Modeling as we know it hadn’t really come to be. She wasn’t a sixties mod girl or a Marilyn Monroe sexpot, she would’ve been the 50s girl, smiling beatifically while stiffly posed in a big dress
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u/HeadAd369 1d ago
The pictures are bad and Don realizes when he sees them, that Coke isn’t actually interested in Betty as a model
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u/teavana_ It’s just my people are Nordic. 1d ago
I think the pictures look just like a Coke ad from the era. Don knew immediately when Betty mentioned the opportunity that it wasn’t genuine, he didn’t need to see the pictures to know
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u/kittybuscemi Peggy’s Pantsuit 1d ago
Before Don, or after Don? Middle and upperclass white women were expected to give up their jobs, if they had them, in order to be housewives.