"Mad Men" Gets Beethoven-mania

Wow, what a surprise. A Beethoven-soaked "Man Men" tonight, believe it or not! First, Pete finally gets Don up to a dinner party at his house in the suburbs--and rocks LvB on his big new console stereo where it seems a "tiny orchestra" is playing. Living in Cos Cob in a house instead of a NYC apartment he can play it as loud as he wants, he boasts.  "Do you like the music?" he asks, and Don replies, "I do."

Then the episode ends with a voice over of Ken reading from a story he has written under a new pen name, relating to Beethoven's struggles  (before which Pete's humiliations  pale).  Finally, the opening of the Ninth's "Ode to Joy" section played over the credits. Proving, I dare say, what we probe in our new book--that Beethoven is everywhere in our culture today--as was apparently true in 1966.  And to think, that was the summer of Blonde on Blonde.

Here's clip of ending, transcript is:  "The Man with the Miniature Orchestra by Dave Algonquin. There were phrases of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony that still made Coe cry. He always thought it had to do with the circumstances of the composition itself. He imagined Beethoven deaf and soul-sick, his heart broken, scribbling furiously while Death stood in the doorway, clipping his nails.  Still, Coe thought, it might have been living in the country that was making him cry. It was killing him with its silence and loneliness - making everything ordinary, too beautiful to bear."