Mad Men Creator Weiner ’87 Hosts Wesleyan Fundraiser in NYC

On April 25, Matt Weiner ’87, creator and writer of Mad Men, regaled an engaged Wesleyan crowd of 280 with insights into the TV business and comments on connections between the COL syllabus and Don Draper’s reading. The fundraising event, “An Evening with Mad Men” was held at the Director’s Guild of America Theater in New York, N.Y.

During an engaging and unscripted conversation with President Michael Roth, Weiner presented clips from his popular and award-winning AMC series and spoke about Wesleyan experiences that helped to shape his career in the entertainment industry. He talked about being a College of Letters major, and told a story of how a professor’s brutal critique of his senior poetry thesis set him on the path of writing for film and television.

“My Wesleyan education is on the screen,” Weiner said.

In addition to a special anonymous gift of $600,000, the evening brought in almost $37,000 in ticket receipts – all for scholarships.

The “Mad Men” fundraiser was the first in a series of events to kick off the $400 million THIS IS WHY campaign to support the university’s endowment. All proceeds from ticket sales— 100 percent — will go directly to financial aid for Wesleyan students.

More information about the campaign and upcoming events can be found at http://thisiswhy.wesleyan.edu.

View a photo gallery of the “Evening with Mad Men” in this Wesleyan Flickr gallery.

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