Oh, man...(Mad Men tonight; mild spoilers)

[Frustratedlady]

4. Yes, it did happen and probably still does.

I had heard it rumored that some of the pretty, young girls were "invited to entertain" male visitors, but thought it a falsehood until one of the girls moved to the house next door and told me that she had been a member of the "stable"--I suppose the men referred to them as fillies, thus stable was a good code word. Whenever a bunch of guys came to town to negotiate/sign contracts, the girls would be invited to show them a good time. The girls were paid a salary/hour and got a pretty fancy meal and entertainment. What they did on beyond was, ahem...up to them.

Ironically, the practice stopped when a law was passed for equality. If the company had a govt. contract, they had to have so many minorities in management or the contract was ended. Since we didn't have hardly any blacks employed (they rarely applied), women were moved up to management positions. Of course, those women wouldn't have gone along with the (filly) stable idea so it quickly died on the vine.

I love that show.