Connecticut’s Hotchkiss School Has Famous Pop Culture References

There are so many interesting things that I'm just discovering about Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut. Like the Three Bulls bronze statue that my wife recently photographed on the Hotchkiss campus. Mrs. Large works there, and a couple of other local prep schools here in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

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I've been getting a crash course about Hotchkiss, Salisbury, Kent, and Choate over the past couple of months from my wife. Did you know that there have been numerous pop-culture references to Hotchkiss School in major American novels, tv shows, and movies over the years? References to Hotchkiss have appeared in novels such as F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise, Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, and a character on Mad Men went to Hotchkiss on the show.

In Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho was released in 1991. In it, the main character Patrick Bateman's fiancee Evelyn is a Hotchkiss graduate. I wonder if she ever listened to Hip To Be Square while driving along Interlaken Road/Lime Rock Road? Hotchkiss is mentioned several times in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1920 novel This Side of Paradise, and also in his 1932 short story Six of One. The main character in 1996's Primary Colors by Anonymous (Joe Klein), Henry Burton, is nicknamed Hotchkiss in the novel due to the character being a graduate.

My favorite Hotchkiss pop-culture reference was on one of the best tv shows of the past few decades - Mad Men. In season 5, episode 12 - "Commissions and Fees" the character Glen Bishop, Sally Draper's little boyfriend on the show, sneaks off the Hotchkiss campus to visit Sally in New York.  See Lime Rock Park? You're not the only one in Lakeville that creates rolling thunder that reverberates far and wide.