In the Fifties and Sixties, homosexual characters were rarely seen on American television. When they did appear, they were often portrayed as caricatures. This changed in the Seventies with the debut of the short-lived, 1972 summer replacement show
The Corner Bar. This largely forgotten sitcom was historic for introducing the first recurring gay character on an American television show. Unfortunately, Peter Panama (Victor Schiavelli) was portrayed as such a stereotype that Rich Wandel, then the president of the Gay Activists Alliance, referred to the character as "the worst stereotype of a gay person I've ever seen." Fortunately, since then gay characters on American television have been portrayed much more realistically. Among the best known gay characters to appear on American television in the twenty years was Salvatore Romano (Bryan Batt), the art director at Sterling Draper, during the first three seasons of the TV show
Mad Men.
In some respects, Sal conformed to previous stereotypes of gay men in American society. He was close to his mother, with whom he would often talk on the phone in Italian. He was extremely fashionable, always wearing the best clothes, and urbane. Indeed, in the sixth episode of
Mad Men, "Babylon," when lead character Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and his wife Betty (January Jones) are discussing actress Joan Crawford, Don tells Betty, "All men love Joan Crawford. Salvatore never stops talking about her." For the most part, however, Sal transcended old stereotypes of gay men. Sal Romano became a fully developed character, and he also remains one of the most popular characters on
Mad Men.
Mad Men being set in the Sixties, Sal is a closeted gay man, passing as straight. To this end, he often jokes with the other men of Sterling Draper about women. Sal also refrains from any homosexual activity during the first season of
Mad Men. one has to think for fear of being discovered. In the episode"The Hobo Code," Sal has dinner with Sterling Draper client and Belle Jolie executive Elliott Lawrence (Paul Keeley), but declines his invitation to go back to his room. It must be kept in mind that the time period in which
Mad Men was initially set in 1960, a time when the Lavender Scare was still very much underway. The Lavender Scare was a moral panic over homosexuality that lasted from the end of World War II into the Sixties. Homosexuality was still included the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association as a mental disorder.
It is perhaps to continue passing as straight that between the first and second seasons of
Mad Men Sal married Kitty Romano (Sarah Drew). Initially, Sal and Kitty's marriage seems happy, although, as might be expected, it son develops problems. In the episode "The Gold Violin," when Sal invites Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Staton), on whom Sal has a slight crush, to dinner at their apartment, Sal pays more attention to Ken than he does Kitty. Things come to a head in Sal and Kitty's marriage in the episode "The Arrangements." Kitty complains to Sal about their lack of sexual intimacy. It is when Sal re-enacts Sterling Cooper's commercial for Patio Diet Cola, which is a take-off on the opening of the movie
Bye Bye Birdie (1963) in the same episode, that Kitty finally realizes Sal is gay.
While the audience realizes from the beginning that Sal is gay, for most of his run on
Mad Men no one at Sterling Cooper does. But then Salvatore Romano is deep in the closet. As mentioned earlier, he jokes with the other men at the agency about women. In the first season he also refrains from any homosexual liaisons. As far as the rest of Sterling Cooper is concerned, Sal is straight. He is also a valued member of Sterling Cooper. Don Draper respects Sal's opinion in artistic matters and he is often allowed more input into advertising campaigns than some of the copywriters. In "The Arrangements" Don selects Sal to direct the television spot for Patio Cola, a task that he excels at.
While Sal was very much in the closet in the first and second seasons, in the third season episode "Out of Town," while Sal and Don are on a business trip to Baltimore, that Sal permits himself a tryst with a male hotel bellhop. Don discovers this after a fire breaks out in the hotel. Much to Sal's relief, Don never mentions what he saw to Sal. On the plane flight back to New York City, Don does suggest the line "Limit Your Exposure" for the campaign for London Fog raincoats. Sadly, one of the people who realizes that Sal is gay is Lee Garner, Jr. of Lucky Strike, Sterling Cooper's top account. In the episode "Wee Small Hours" Garnet made a pass at Sal, which Sal rebuffs. Garner demanded Harry Crane remove Sal from the account and when Harry did not do so, Roger Sterling fired Sal in order to keep the Lucky Strike account. The last time we see Sal is in the same episode. He is in a phone booth at a truck stop, apparently arranging to meet another man.
Sal's departure from
Mad Men was not popular with fans. According to Bryan Batt in an interview with
Esquire in 2015, after Sal left the show "there was a big write-in outcry." I find this entirely believable, as I know that Sal was a favourite among myself and my fellow
Mad Men fans and all of us were disappointed that he would no longer be on the show. Of course, many
Mad Men fans always hoped for Sal's return. He never did, not even in the show's final season. That leaves
Mad Men fans with the question of "What ever happened to Salvatore Romano?" In the same interview Bryan Batt relates that Matt Weiner once told him that Sal would come back as a big director, but he thought the "storyline took a different route." As to Bryan Batt's opinion as to what happened to Sal, in the
Esquire interview he said that he'd like to think "Sal had a happy ending," although that it would mean breaking his wife Kitty's heart. Bryan Batt thought that after Sal's mother died, he would finally come out of the closet. In the
Esquire interview, Bryan Batt said, "I imagine him walking through the West Village as Stonewall happens and getting swept up in it." I don't know about other
Mad Men fans, but I always thought Sal probably got a job as an art director at another agency. I think he probably continued directing television commercials and may have eventually directed television shows and even movies. And I do think, once his mother died, he came out of the closet.
As to why Sal Romano remains a fan favourite among
Mad Men fans, I think there is a number of reasons. The first is that Sal was among the very few decent men at Sterling Cooper. While he might joke with the other men about women in his effort to pass as straight, he always treated the secretaries and other employees at Sterling Cooper with decency. Sal also has a dignity that many of the other people at Sterling Cooper does not. He could have very easily given into Lee Garner, Jr.'s advances, but instead he chose to stand up for himself. Honestly, I would not want to work with Don Draper, much less Pete Campbell, but I think Sal would be very pleasant to work with. Second, I think many people can identify with Sal beyond gay men, even cisgender, heterosexual men such as myself. In the aforementioned
Esquire interview, Bryan Batt said of Sal "I think everyone in their lives, in some way, shape, or form, pretends to fit in. Anyone who has felt they didn't belong, who felt as if they couldn't be themselves among others, can then identify with Sal whether they are gay, straight, or whatever.
While there were gay characters on American television before Salvatore Romano on
Mad Men, in some ways he was a groundbreaking character. While gay characters had appeared on American television before Sal, Sal was probably one of the earliest closeted gay men portrayed in an American period television, if not possibly the first. Through the skill of the writers on
Mad Men and Bryan Batt's talent as an actor, Sal became one of the best developed characters on the show. He also became one of the best loved.
