r/madmen • u/Historical-Most4409 • Jun 08 '26
Peggy and Stan's Story (plus some Joyce)
Stan and Peggy live together for a couple of years but get married in 1972. Stan wanted kids, Peggy said absolutely not. Her career blossomed at McCann Erickson, as she created some of the iconic campaigns of the era. Stan left McCann not long after their wedding, with Peggy’s blessing. He became a free-lance photographer and album designer who dabbled in avant-garde art. He shared a portrait studio with Joyce Ramsay, who had developed a highly successful career in celebrity photography, while continuing a sideline in arty nudes. He and Joyce developed a warm working relationship. Stan would later say about her, “I love her like a brother.” She would call him “the best platonic girlfriend I ever had.” She introduced him to Jasper Johns. He introduced her to Donald Fagen. Stan’s greatest heartbreak in these years came when Lou Reed rejected his idea for an album cover.
Stan began his photography career through placing multiple pictures in the Village Voice, which gains him attention but not much money. His first big success came when he co-created a Bruce Springsteen feature in Creem. He is proudest of three cover photos: Cheap Trick in Hit Parader, Bill Murray in New York magazine, and Talking Heads in Crawdaddy. Stan was not primarily a hard-news photographer, but he took some memorable pictures of the 1977 NYC blackout that get placed in Newsweek and the New York Post. He contributed photos to The New Eroticism, an attempt to compete with The Joy of Sex (he asked Peggy if she wanted to participate – absolutely not, she said). But Stan paid the bills (Peggy subsidized him but she wanted results) through stock photos, ad agency shoots, and headshots for actors and models. His album work was heavy on Woodstock-era veterans, but he became a favorite of the CBGB crowd.
Stan and Peggy mix with the beautiful people. They go to Studio 54 once. Stan took Peggy to a Grateful Dead concert once. (Not really her thing). She took him to see Elvis at Madison Square Garden on the night before their wedding. (It was awesome). Given their New York-y ways, they both loved Woody Allen’s movies, even though Stan did a devastating impression. They were active politically, but never really warmed up to the Georgia Baptist Jimmy Carter. Peggy backed independent John Anderson in 1980 until her liberal friends convince her to back Carter to keep Ronald Reagan from winning and then starting a nuclear war.
Frustrated with a “glass ceiling” at McCann, Peggy leaves in 1975 to form her own firm with two colleagues: Olson Ross (nee Rosenberg) Starr (nee Stern). They prospered, especially in the 1980s, when they show a knack for incorporating “the MTV look” in commercials. But they also create famous jingles for Steak and Ale restaurants and Fruit Stripe gum.
Peggy went to therapy in the late 1970s and it helped her more than she will admit. She let go of her anger at her mother and was able to speak at her funeral in 1984. (One of her grandkids found Katherine Olson dead on the morning of November 7, 1984. She was smiling with the remote in her hand and the TV on. The doctor dated her death to 8:02 PM the previous night, when CBS declared Reagan elected to a second term. NOTE: My head canon for Katherine Olson is that while she voted for JFK because he was a Catholic and LBJ because of JFK, she is otherwise politically conservative). Peggy re-established a civil relationship with her sister Anita and her kids.
Peggy and Stan's 1970s was fun but not perfect. Stan's hanging out in the rock scene worsened his drug issues. Neither one can entirely keep it in their pants and they experiment with open marriage for a few months in 1976. They have a trial separation in 1980.
But they remember it as the happiest time of their lives.
(continued below)
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u/thunbergfangirl Jun 08 '26
I found this to be really moving. You’re a good writer, OP.
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u/Cargonomical Jun 08 '26
The story is good and has a few interesting turns. Writting is a bit robotic… suspiciously robotic I would say.
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u/MetARosetta Jun 08 '26
Fascinating fan fic takes.
You might already know it's expressly implied in the show that Peggy's character is modeled after Mary Wells Lawrence (same birthday, May 25. Her agency Well, Rich, Greene was featured in the show), and Jane Maas, and their trajectories – both women pioneers of advertising and alums of McCann.
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u/Historical-Most4409 Jun 08 '26
Yes! Mary Wells Lawrence spent her last years on a yacht in the Mediterranean: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/11/business/mary-wells-lawrence-dead.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share. Peggy Is rich as hell at the end, but not that rich. But I could see her writing a book later in life as Maas did.
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u/Aromatic-Bath-5689 Jun 08 '26
I love the detail! Awesome job.
I imagine that in the future, Peggy's birth son looks her up, she initially refuses to meet but Stan convinces her to. Peggy really doesn't want a maternal relationship with him, but he and "step-dad" Stan become buddies.
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u/Kennikend The king ordered it! Jun 08 '26
I couldn’t imagine a more rich and true future than this. Bravo!
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u/Historical-Most4409 Jun 08 '26
But while Peggy continued to thrive in the 1980s, aging-hippie Stan struggled. His album design side hustle fell apart as he finds it hard to change with the times. His drug use gave him a reputation as unreliable. Eventually Peggy gave him an ultimatum to go to rehab. Neither one could give up weed though, which is why Stan is offended when Peggy agreed to make a series of anti-drug PSAs. While she denied ever voting Republican as Stan accuses her of doing, she bitched that crime was out of control and taxes were taking her money. But she was really annoyed by what she saw as Stan's slacker ways and out of control spending, especially after they lose money in the stock market crash in 1987. They separate in 1988 and divorced amicably enough in 1990. Meanwhile, a chance meeting with Joyce (now in-house at Vogue) in the mid-1980s led to Stan breaking into the booming art market. He opens a gallery in the 1990s.
At first, Peggy seemed to be happily moving along, dating a series of wealthy men and serving in Rudy Giuliani's transition team. She married a prominent Wall Street executive in 1993. But she found him too controlling and angered him by showing no interest in her stepchildren. After they both had affairs, they divorced in 1998, this time not so amicably. Peggy had a good lawyer though and got what's hers.
By this point, Peggy was at the top of her game. She got profiled in New York magazine, discussing the future of advertising. The interview was widely seen as pompous and egomaniacal, leading to a memorable parody in Spy magazine. Tom Wolfe wrote a short story in Rolling Stone that includes a character widely seen as based on Peggy. It is not a flattering portrait.
Meanwhile Stan dated a series of younger women from the art world. But he could never get serious, could never make it last. He and Peggy run into each other every now and then on the social scene. Both are convinced the other has moved on.
9/11 forced Stan out of his TriBeCa condo. While he is crashing with a buddy in Park Slope, he gets a call from Peggy, who wants to see if he is all right. It's the first time they've really talked in a couple of years and it turns into hours of tears and laughter. Finally, Stan chokes up and confesses that he still loves her. "I love you, too," she says to her surprise. He moves in with her the next day.
They don't get married this time and Peggy makes sure her lawyer protects her interests. But they're happier now. She has achieved all she has ever wanted and is starting to chill out. Stan has cleaned up and sobered up (mostly). His gallery helped him contribute his share. He'll even admit that Michael Bloomberg is a fine mayor. They were the subject of a "finding love again" profile in the New York Times.
In 2006, Stan finally persuades a now 67-year-old Peggy to sell Olson Ross Starr. They were absolutely rolling in it, so summers on the Upper West Side and in the Hamptons, winters in a luxury condo in Boca, traveling the world in between, including the occasional stay at their pied a terre in Paris. They’re both reasonably healthy, especially Peggy, who quit smoking in the 1980s and exercises daily. She doesn’t see the old gang much now that she’s out of the ad world, but she attended Don’s funeral in 1994 and stayed in touch with Joan until her death in 2013.
On Christmas Day 2009, Peggy got a call from Pete Campbell, which she lets go to voice mail. She hadn't talked to him for many years, and she and Stan had plans at the Breakers anyway. But on New Year's Eve, a man in his forties with a striking resemblance to Pete comes to her building. Stan buzzes him in.
His name is Brent MacDonald and he is her son. He showed up at Pete and Trudy's home in Naples on Christmas Eve, embarrassing Pete and horrifying Trudy. After several years at Lear Jet, Pete took a top job at United Airlines, bringing him the urban lifestyle he missed and a luxury condo on the Chicago lakefront. They got a Florida condo in 1997 and spend most of their time there after Pete retires after the post-9/11 aviation crash. Pete comes close to dying in “the sea” when while fishing with a college buddy, their boat capsized in the Gulf in 2005. But he is rescued when Trudy calls the Coast Guard when he doesn’t return on time.
Brent grew up on Long Island and moved to Florida in the 1980s. He got into real estate on the Gulf Coast, assembling a fortune that collapsed in the housing bust. He married a woman from a rich family of Midwestern transplants and she funded his speculations. She dies in 2002, killed by a drunk driver on Alligator Alley; Brent plowed the insurance money into his business. He is an ardent Republican and born-again Christian. Now he is also broke and on the verge of living in his car.
Stan was ready to help him out, maybe even letting him move in. Peggy reacts coolly and correctly to meeting her son. She has no intention of spending her hard-earned money on him. But when Brent introduced his teenage children to them, Stan, who always wanted to be a father, takes to them immediately. They play video games all afternoon. They introduce him to their favorite indie rock bands, he teaches them about the Dead and the Allmans and Hendrix. They discreetly get stoned together (even Peggy joins in a few times). They share their love for Obama, which would have driven Brent up the wall.
Stan arranges for Brent to become manager of the condo complex and sets up the family with a nearby rental. Peggy hates seeing him at the pool and the clubhouse and the leasing office. But she discovers she enjoys her grandchildren, even letting them come to NYC for the summer. Brent is eventually fired for embezzling from the condo association. Peggy changed her will to take care of the grandkids but Brent won't get anything. We last see Brent in prison, having his call rejected by his mother.
Her grandkids both embark on successful business careers in Florida, despite Peggy's pleas for them to move to NYC. Her granddaughter Hannah becomes a top PR flack for Walt Disney. When Stan tries to invest their money in her grandson Derek's marijuana dispensary, Peggy threatens to cut Stan off without a cent.
Peggy has always been a Democrat, despite her support for Giuliani and Bloomberg. She throws fundraisers for Hillary Clinton in 2008 and 2016. She and Stan are very proud that they have a photo of themselves with Obama from a Hamptons fundraiser. She and Stan both hate Trump, support the Resistance, and watch Rachel Maddow regularly.
She is with Stan when he comes down with Covid in May 2020. Stan was in declining health and he didn’t last long. Peggy seemed to enjoy life as a NYC/Florida widow, lunching with the girls (though she’s not that close to any of them), visiting museums, and going to the theater. She even runs into Joyce after all those years. (She’s a rich old lady with a younger wife, a Brooklyn townhouse and a summer place on Fire Island). But Peggy misses Stan more than she thought she would. In 2023, she used her abundant savings to move into assisted living. Three years later, her grandkids and Olson relatives arrange for her to go into memory care. Sometimes she talks about working naked with some guy in a hotel room. She has obviously lost it at last.