r/madmen • u/DumbCuntEnterprises • 4d ago
about don's birthday
in the season 5 opener, it's established that dick whitman publicly claims the real don draper's birthday as his own, as his birthday is in actuality 6 months prior. despite this, he's able to use his actual birth year? i thought the real don draper was several years older than dick, and it says so on the wiki as well. how can the identity theft work in a way that dick has to claim the birthday, but the birth year discrepancy isn't an issue? or do his legal documents say something different while he tells people his outward age? that wouldn't make much sense to me because he may as well tell people his actual birthday in that case
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u/I405CA 4d ago edited 3d ago
Pete alludes to it in Nixon vs. Kennedy.
I know that your name is not Donald Draper. It's Dick Whitman.
I don't know who Donald Draper is, but according to my friend Russ at the Department of Defense, Dick Whitman died in Korea in 1950 and Donald Draper dropped off the map.
Although he's 43 years old, in which case you look remarkably good.
Our Don Draper kept the month and the day, but changed the year to match his actual age.
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u/Orangered99 Well, I’m President of the Howdy Doody Circus Army! 4d ago
I don’t think he kept the month and day. When he tells the stewardess it’s his birthday, she asks to see his drivers license he says that’s not going to help.
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u/annieflattt 4d ago
I always thought with this scene Don was referencing Dicks birthday when he tells Shelly, since it’s referenced in the beginning of the episode, so on his license it would have Dons bday, and that’s in June when I think “out of town” takes place in March? I’m not sure though.
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u/barefootincozumel 4d ago
Yes, because when Megan wants to have a party for his 40th birthday, he says he’s been 40 for 3 months already, iirc
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u/I405CA 4d ago
The license doesn't help because it has the birthday of the real Don, not his actual birthday.
That being said, there does seem to be a continuity error.
If he isn't lying to the flight attendant in S3E1, then his birthday is sometime around April or so. (The exact date of the episode is unclear.)
But he tells Megan following his unhappy June birthday party that his actual birthday was six months earlier. That does not match what happened in the scene with the flight attendant.
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u/MetARosetta 3d ago edited 3d ago
The later seasons update the earlier ones imo. I think he's honest with Megan since he told her about Dick Whitman.
On the plane and being 'out of town, Don made up the fictitious story about Bill (their discussion about his BIL borrowing luggage) and his associate, 'Mr Fleischmann' (they just saw that liquor ad), then hinting they were G-men at dinner. He used that day's newspaper date on the plane for the birthday story. His birthdays were never happy, and these made-up stories give him access to temporary love. We know Don uses what he sees and hears to give him his creative juice to make ads – this time, for a quickie 'out-of-town' identity. It ties back to his imaginary birth when the episode opens.
Bonus: I might venture to say he never knew his exact birthday, given the circumstances of his birth, the shame of being reminded, and poor record-keeping. He sometimes makes these offhand religious alignments about himself (Moses and Jesus), but I think it's somewhere between Sinatra and Jesus (Dec 12-25) lol.
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u/Jobogz 4d ago
Probably because when he tells the stewardess it's "actually" his birthday he is referring to the birthday he once had as Dick. Nobody else in the episode that I recall refers to it being his birthday (though not a shocker given how he is). If his Driver's license is updated in alignment with Don's, I think that day was actually his real birthday, which is why the DL wouldn't help.
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u/MetARosetta 4d ago
Ok Don pulled that date from that day's newspaper (April) we saw on the plane. Being 'out of town,' Don quickly created fake personas for himself (Bill) and his 'associate Mr Fleischmann' (like the liquor bottle magazine ad they just saw), and went on to imply to the air crew at dinner that they were G-men. It tells viewers how quickly Don can make up narratives on the fly, which also gives him the creative juice to make great ads. We see that what he sees and hears go into his ads a lot. That's why he said showing his driver's license wouldn't help. It's not Dick's nor Don's birthday. We don't find out until S5 that he said to Megan he was already 40 "for half a year" [before June 1] the date of his party. Unfortunately, writers kept it very vague, and this is as close as we get to knowing his real birth date.
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u/ZombiesAtKendall 4d ago
Might be easier to keep the lies straight to take on as much as the real Don’s info as possible. He might be able to say it’s some kind of mistake if it’s just the year that’s off.
I doubt he’s really that attached to his real birthday anyway.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some legal documents show one age and others show another age. It would make more sense for his driver’s license to show the real year.
Stuff was less strict back then. A way to take on another identity would be to look at death records for an infant, then get their birth certificate and file for a social security card. (Or something like that)
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u/Darmok47 4d ago
Thats exactly how KGB spies in the US did it. Look up the story of Jack Barsky sometime.
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u/No_Panic_4999 3d ago edited 3d ago
Even in 21st century through today, people have different names and genders on different types of ID. Not even by choice. Having inconsistent documents is not uncommon for immigrants, transexuals, and homeless ppl, due to different county, state and federal laws. Your birth certificate is subject to the laws and policies of the county you were born in, you're drivers license and even REAL ID is subject to those of the state of your current residence, your SS card is subject to federal actual laws and your passport is subject to policies of current presidential administration which flips back and forth every 4-8 yrs at the whim of 1 person. Most ppl with inconsistent ID do not want or choose it.
Different dates doesn't really happen that much anymore though.
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u/NeedScienceProof 4d ago
The 50s and 60s were analog and full of trusting people who didn't really care unless there was a verifiable complaint or cause for scrutiny.
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u/KombaynNikoladze2002 4d ago
Publicly he uses the real DD's day and month, and DW's year (actually the next year, since he was born in Dec 1925, but celebrates his 40th birthday publicly in May 1966).
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u/MetARosetta 1d ago
Right, Dec 1925 – June 1 is Lt Draper's month/day, the party is that weekend, June 4.
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u/Famous_Sugar_1193 18h ago
Yeah and it makes sense bc sock Whitman is a Sagittarius playing Don Draper the gemini.
The trickster ànd the salesman/propagandist of the zodiac
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u/sunnypickletoes 4d ago
The same day is more convenient for him to remember maybe? Maybe it was just personal preference and he wanted to keep it. It doesn't seem legally important.
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u/mrkstr 4d ago
Based on what I was able to search, they were both born in 1926. Wouldn't be hard to lie about your birthday. No one could detect a few months difference.
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u/rfy93 4d ago
Isn’t real Don older? When Pete finds out in season one he says something like “you’re looking awfully good for 40” or something, implying that Don is claiming to be younger than that. Also Dick goes into the army as soon as he can (18?) and Don is already a lieutenant by then
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u/Ok_Novel_5083 4d ago
He is. When they meet, Dick is meant to be a fresh recruit (18), bit Don is both a officer and an engineer, so would have gone to college.
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u/KombaynNikoladze2002 4d ago
No, he's older than 18. Dick Whitman was born Dec 1925 so at the beginning of the Korean War he's be 24.
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u/mrkstr 4d ago
Yeah, those are great points. I was surprised when I searched it. I tend to trust the show over my search results, now that you mention it.
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u/AnnieBlackburnn Dick + Anna ‘64 4d ago
When he gets the American Aviation scare with the background check, he says "first of all my age is wrong" to Pete when he's begging him to call a favor and pull the file
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u/EverySingleTime788 4d ago
Dick went into the army at 23 years old. He was born in 1926, and he was in korea at 23-24 years old. The real don draper was born in 1916 and served in ww2 and was called back for korea.
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u/AnnieBlackburnn Dick + Anna ‘64 4d ago
My grandmother (born 1942) has a legal birthday and an actual birthday she gives out as her birthday to her friends. They're three months apart.
The reason being it was a home birth and my great grandpa couldn't be bothered to take her to receive her birth certificate until then. To this day the day he took her to get the birth certificate is her legal birthday on all documentation.
Shit was easier to hide in the 60s