“Della Femina himself is big, sweet and charismatic. He speaks in the Brooklyn tones of his childhood... Della Femina is definitely someone who eats the world leaf by leaf. His is one of those ‘American dream’ stories, in which a poor kid from a neighbourhood one senator described as /the breeding place for crime in the United States’ ends up owning a thriving business, a sprawling house in East Hampton, another off Park Avenue and many other fantastical things.” (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/145766a2-8fb1-11df-8df0-00144feab49a.html) He had learning disabilities and did badly at school. Jerry started his selling career by working in different retail departments, such as Macy’s, Dillard’s, etc. By the time he was 20, he got the idea of wanting to write advertising copy. He started selling ideas to small New York agencies until one agency decided to invite him in for an interview. Jerry offered to work for free, but the agent said that he had to pay a “token salary” and offered Jerry $5,200. According to Jerry, that was more than any Della Femina ever made.
Jerry Della Femina developed his persona as a business man. Jerry quotes “I invented myself” to Katie Roiphe, a Financial Times reporter, when being asked if his crazy behavior was natural or staged. He acted very wild and nutty in executive meetings and built up his reputation of being crazy. “In new business meetings, he could always tell he had clinched the account, when the executive said: ‘You are not as crazy as I thought you’d be.’” (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/145766a2-8fb1-11df-8df0-00144feab49a.html) Katie asked Jerry if Mad Men was in relation to Jerry’s business life. Jerry responded back by saying Mad Men was more dull than it actually was. According to Jerry, his advertising team made the guys in Mad Men look like bench warmers compared to them.
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