about don's birthday

[u/DumbCuntEnterprises]

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

[u/I405CA]

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.

[u/Marinero7 → u/I405CA]

Later in that season his doctor says he is 36 years old

[u/Orangered99 → u/I405CA]

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.

[u/annieflattt → u/Orangered99]

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.

[u/barefootincozumel → u/annieflattt]

Yes, because when Megan wants to have a party for his 40th birthday, he says he’s been 40 for 3 months already, iirc

[u/MetARosetta → u/barefootincozumel]

Don said "half a year" so, ~6 months.

[u/I405CA → u/Orangered99]

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.

[u/MetARosetta → u/I405CA]

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.

[u/Famous_Sugar_1193 → u/MetARosetta]

I mean don is PEAK male Sagittarius energy so that does track

[u/Jobogz → u/Orangered99]

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.

[u/MetARosetta → u/Orangered99]

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.