For fans of the hit AMC series Mad Men, or for fans of the ’40s and ’50s in general, here is a splendid little video called “The Girl on the Magazine Cover” that briefly investigates the world of modeling and magazine advertising photography around the 1940s.

Not only is it a glimpse into the harrowing business of commercial photography in those days when view cameras were the best you could get and subjects were all shot under hot lights, but also an entertaining look at the male-dominated professional world familiar to anyone who lived through those decades (or at least watched Mad Men).