Henry, the debonaire advisor from the Gov’s office, apologizes to Betty for abruptly ending their lunch and explains that he must answer “his master’s voice.” Betty seems not to get the reference.

“Do you know those?” he asks.

As the wife of an ad-man, Betty Draper probably should have some familiarity with the His Master’s Voice ads. The famous image of the little dog (named Nipper) listening to the sound of his late master’s voice recorded on a gramophone was trademarked in 1899 by Emile Berliner. Berliner eventually passed the trademark to an Eldridge Johnson, who used the image on his company records. The image became so well-known that the company colloquially became known as His Master’s Voice, or, for short, HMV.

• footnote - by Natasha Simons

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   Heh, I learned this in a Literature and Film class in college. It would be my “random fact” whenever I’d see an HMV in...

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