The Real Life Mad Men: Man Finds His Grandfather in Don Draper's Show

Over the past four seasons, "Mad Men" has become a pop culture phenomenon, putting viewers in a martini-soaked time machine back to the golden age of the advertising industry.

But for one viewer, the show is more than a glimpse back in time -- it's a glimpse into the family photo album.

For Josh Lurie, the story starts with his late grandfather, an advertising giant who worked alongside the man believed to be the inspiration for "Mad Men."

It's been widely speculated that the show's lead character, Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm), is loosely based on Draper Daniels, a revolutionary real-life adman who made it big in the 1960s.

But there were other talented admen of the era who were power players -- even if they didn't inspire characters in the show.

Lurie, a 43-year-old entrepreneur and business development veteran based in Chappaqua, N.Y., knew that his late grandfather, Ben Laitin, had been an influential adman in his day, working for such powerhouse agencies as Young and Rubicam and Leo Burnett.

But he didn't know how much his life mirrored the show until he read an unpublished memoir his grandfather left before he died.

What he found stunned him.

"I always had a distant appreciation for how smart he was and what a good writer he was," Lurie told AOL News. "But once it was all put in context due to the popularity of 'Mad Men,' and I went back and reread all his stuff, I was amazed that he had lived this exact life. Including the drinking, gambling and being a cad -- the good with the bad."

That included Laitin's colleague and friend, Daniels.

Lurie explained that the two were competitive, but also respectful of each other.

"There seemed to always be a balance between mutual respect and friendly professional competition or one-upsmanship, which I think also somewhat defined the era. I always like the story where they each recommended each other for a job to try and eliminate the other for the internal promotion at an agency they both worked for."

Though they had a friendly rivalry, Daniels actually credited Laitin as "the best financial ad man," according to Lurie.

Although his grandfather never had a chance to watch "Mad Men," Lurie thinks he would have loved it.

"It would be like watching a time machine for him. I think the storylines would open up his memory to stories that actually happened to him that were similar to storylines represented on the show."

Lurie wants his grandfather's memoir published now in hopes that his real-life stories will appeal to the show's many fans that can't seem to get enough of Madison Avenue back in the day.

"I think we, as a society, have a pretty good idea about what the 1960s looked like from a social and political view. What 'Mad Men' has brought is an unveiling of what corporate America looked like back then," Lurie said.

"I think my grandfather's memoir provides a fascinating, accurate peek inside that world; a classic era in American business."

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