So I was watching the latest episode of Mad Men last night and I had if not quite an epiphany than at least an interesting thought. And for those of you who don't have basic cable and don't know what the fuss is, Mad Men -- which, in high concept terms, is a show about folks toiling at an ad agency in the early 60s -- is essentially a remake of all those Rock Hudson/Doris Day comedies of the era with a lot of really dark stuff (mostly institutional sexism and all-purpose amorality) substituted for the bedroom farce.

Anyway, we were talking the other day about the lovely Julia Meade, the 60s icon of elegance who used to do the live car commercials on The Ed Sullivan Show and who co-starred in Pillow Talk, perhaps the most famous of the aforementioned Hudson/Day comedies.

In case you don't remember her, here she is posing for the cover of LIFE magazine in March of 1960.

And it dawned on me -- she's obviously the role model for January Jones ' character of Betty Draper...

...the icon of 60s elegance wife of Jon Hamm's ad exec Don Draper on Mad Men. In fact, if I was a betting man, I'd lay good money that MM creator Matthew Weiner had Meade in mind when he created Betty.

Like I said, perhaps not an epiphany but at the least an interesting thought. In any case, you can learn lots more about the still lovely Meade over at her quite elegant official website.