A smoky past: Tobacco and American life
Those of us who grew up in the 1950s or earlier can remember when a pack of cigarettes (or perhaps a cigarette case) was as much a part of a well-dressed person's ensemble as a suit and tie or matching purse and shoes.
In those days before 1964, when the U.S. Surgeon General issued a report about the health hazards of smoking, tobacco use was so ubiquitous that even a non-smoking gentleman always carried a pack of matches or a lighter, in case he met some lovely lady who needed a light.
In the 40 years since the Surgeon General's report, the nation has seen a major shift in societal attitudes. Smokers, who once were welcome almost everywhere, now find themselves relegated to street corners and back alleys or quarantined in their own homes.
Ted Wright, 66, owner of Ted's Tobacco in Lincoln, recalls those days when "people smoked wherever they wanted."
Scarcely any restaurants had designated smoking or non-smoking sections, and those that did usually segregated the non-smokers to the cramped booths back by the kitchen. Doctors' waiting rooms provided ashtrays. Customers smoked while shopping for groceries. Every motel room had an ashtray and a smoky smell.
In movies and television programs, smoking was the order of the day. Comedian Garry Moore, whose variety show topped the CBS lineup in the early '50s, smoked during his monologues and advised viewers that "Winston Tastes Good Like a Cigarette Should."
Cigarette maker Phillip Morris sponsored "I Love Lucy." Even folksy, ukulele-playing Arthur Godfrey smoked and touted Chesterfields.
Today, Rich Bailey, of Lincoln advertising agency Bailey Lauerman, proudly shows off a life-sized sculpture of the dancing Old Gold's cigarette package (complete with sexy legs from a department store mannequin) that graces the agency's lobby.
He remembers ads claiming that four out of five doctors recommended a particular brand of filter cigarettes. "The implication was that it was less damaging to you, or even outright healthy for you," he said.
Enlisting medical endorsements for tobacco products goes back decades. A 1939 magazine ad for Phillip Morris stated that the cigarette "brings a distinct advantage to the nose and throat, recognized by eminent medical authorities."
America's tight relationship with the tobacco industry dates from colonial times. When the Jamestown settlement in Virginia was founded in 1607, colonists were having a hard time scratching out a living until they discovered that it was an ideal climate for growing tobacco. Pipe smoking had already been popularized in England by Sir Walter Raleigh, who promoted it as both a healthful and enjoyable leisure activity.
Tobacco, introduced to Europe from the Caribbean in the 1500s, was thought to be a wonder drug that could cure all sorts of ailments, from skin cancer to rabies. In the 1600s, physicians in Europe believed that smoking could prevent someone from getting the plague. "During the plague years boys at Eton College were whipped if they tried to skip their daily smoke," reported Tara Parker-Pope in the book "Cigarettes: Anatomy of an Industry."
In Virginia, tobacco proved an economic life-saver, leading to creation of the Southern plantation system based on slavery. It became the major cash crop of the middle Southern states (Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee) and played a key role in forming the New South after the Civil War, reports Joseph C. Robert in his book "The Story of Tobacco in America."
During colonial times, the most popular form of tobacco use was pipe smoking, but snuff and chewing tobacco gained favor during the Revolution and the early 1800s. Spittoons were standard furnishings in bars, banks and courtrooms.
The Civil War was the first of many wars that boosted the use of tobacco, as many young soldiers, both North and South, took up the habit. By the end of the war, Congress decreed that tobacco rations be granted to soldiers.
The last half of the 19th century saw a rise in cigar smoking and the introduction of cigarettes, which at first were made from the "trash" leaves and sweepings left over from the manufacture of cigars and pipe tobacco. By the dawn of the 20th century, cigarettes had begun to outstrip other forms of tobacco, and the "trash" leaves became the most valuable part of the plant.
World War I brought about another big boost in tobacco use. Gen. John Pershing argued that tobacco was as important as bullets. "On the battlefield, a cigarette helps a soldier endure the tedium of war. It can steady nervous hands, calm the wounded and provide its user with a quick hit of courage," Parker-Pope noted.
Even organizations that opposed smoking, like the Red Cross and the YMCA, helped distribute cigarettes to troops in the trenches, she said.
The 1920s saw a dramatic increase in tobacco use, and for the first time the marketing of cigarettes to women as a stylish and sophisticated habit. Lucky Strikes originally came in a distinctive dark green package but eventually switched to white because women complained that the green clashed with their wardrobes.
A "Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet" campaign attempted to identify smoking as an aid to weight loss. "Many marketers believe that this ‘sweet' campaign created more women smokers than any other single advertising effort," said Juliana Sivulka in her book "Soap, Sex and Cigarettes."
Lucky Strikes also pioneered the use of movie stars and sports figures to promote their products. In 1930, however, the Federal Trade Commission ordered Lucky Strike to cease running testimonials by endorsers who had not actually used the product and to stop claiming that smoking could control people's weight.
Smoking got another big boost during World War II, when the largest number of young Americans in the nation's history went off to war. When America entered the war in 1941, the average consumption of cigarettes by Americans was 2,236 per capita annually, but by 1945 when the war ended, that had risen 48 percent to 3,449.
Harvard anthropologist Earnest A. Hooton explained the war effect this way: "The boys in the foxholes, with their lives endangered, are nervous and miserable and want girls. Since they can't have them, they smoke cigarettes. The girls at home, with their virtue not endangered, are nervous and miserable and want boys. Since they can't have them, they too smoke cigarettes."
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, famous for his ever-present cigarette holder, declared that tobacco was an essential wartime crop. Supplying cigarettes to the troops produced a tobacco shortage back home, which led some women to take up pipe smoking. Meanwhile, Army training manuals urged leaders to "smoke and make your troopers smoke," and Gen. Douglas MacArthur demanded a better supply of tobacco in the soldier's daily ration.
Harold Hartman, 79, a Lincoln man who served in the Navy in World War II, said he smoked a little bit before he joined but increased his habit while serving in the Pacific. "When we had guard duty at night, we smoked to keep us awake," he said. More than 60 percent of the ship's crew smoked, he recalled.
Dwaine Wilson, 70, adjutant quartermaster for VFW state headquarters in Lincoln, remembers that when he was in the Air Force during the Korean War the men received four-packs of cigarettes in their C-rations. "With every meal we got four cigarettes," he said.
Wilson was already a smoker before joining up in 1952, but his habit increased during the war.
He began smoking in his pre-teen years. "I had asthma real bad, and a doctor prescribed a cigarette that was supposed to help. I used to smoke 60 a month. They were pretty rotten, but that's what really got me started."
Dr. Melvin Hoffman, a Lincoln allergy and asthma specialist, confirmed that cigarettes were prescribed for asthma at one time. It was a special brand containing atropine mixed with tobacco, which was supposed to relieve asthma symptoms. Atropine is available today in inhalers, but not in cigarette form, he said.
Hoffman remembers ads showing physicians smoking to relax or women smoking to sleep better at night. "Cigarettes were advocated for calming and relaxation," he said.
Wright of Ted's Tobacco said he doesn't believe he was influenced by advertising or the prevalence of cigarettes in the media when he started smoking in the 1950s. He served in the Air Force and was stationed near the Canadian border. He began smoking Players Navy Cut, which had a bit of snob appeal at the time.
He smoked cigarettes for three years, then switched to a pipe on advice of his grandfather, a dentist, who told him that pipes were safer than cigarettes. Incidentally, his grandfather used to receive free samples of cigarettes to give to patients.
Recent decades have seen a decline in smoking and tobacco use in America and Europe, but not in developing countries. More than 5.5 trillion cigarettes are produced each year, nearly 1,000 for every person on the planet, Parker-Pope reported. The United States produces more than 1.4 billion pounds of tobacco a year, and the U.S. government continues to subsidize the tobacco industry through price supports for farmers.
Miles Johnston, co-owner of Cliff's Smoke Shop, had a long career as an attorney in Lincoln. He started smoking a pipe when he was in law school and remembered one of his first trials in 1965 as defense attorney, when he, the prosecutor and the judge were all smoking in the courtroom.
Lincoln's smoking ban, approved by voters last fall, has hurt Johnston's cigar business. Before the ban, he had cigar humidors in six Lincoln bars. Now he's tried placing them in offsale establishments instead, with less positive results.
While recalling with some nostalgia the days when smoking was everywhere and nobody complained about second-hand smoke, Johnston believes some restrictions make sense. "I don't like to be around smoke when I'm eating," he said.
With changing societal attitudes, it appears that the future will be a lot less smoky.
Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or at breeves@journalstar.com.
Tobacco milestones
1492: Columbus brings tobacco seeds from the Americas to Europe.
1613: Virginia colony sends its first tobacco shipment to England.
1775-83: American Revolution is partially funded by loans from France backed by tobacco.
1865: Congress grants regular tobacco rations to troops in Civil War.
1906: Lobbying by tobacco industry removes nicotine from the list of FDA-regulated drugs.
1935: Congress grants subsidies to tobacco farmers.
1941-45: Tobacco supplied to U.S. soldiers in World War II.
1964: First U.S. Surgeon General's report on smoking.
1966: Health warnings on cigarette packs first appear.
1971: Cigarette advertising banned from U.S. television.
1973: Arizona passes the first state law restricting smoking in public places.
1977: The first Great American Smokeout.
1987: Congress bans smoking on all flights of two hours or less.
1994: FDA declares its intent to regulate nicotine as a drug.
1996: Subsidies phased out for many agricultural products, but continued for tobacco
1997-98: Tobacco industry agrees to more than $500 billion in settlements over health hazards of smoking
2000: Supreme Court rules that FDA lacks authority to regulate tobacco; President Clinton signs law making all flights to and from the U.S. smoke-free.
2004: Lincoln voters approve smoking ban in all indoor workplaces.
2005: Nebraska Legislature defeats statewide smoking ban.
Sources: "Cigarettes: Anatomy of an Industry," by Tara Parker-Pope, and local news files
In those days before 1964, when the U.S. Surgeon General issued a report about the health hazards of smoking, tobacco use was so ubiquitous that even a non-smoking gentleman always carried a pack of matches or a lighter, in case he met some lovely lady who needed a light.
In the 40 years since the Surgeon General's report, the nation has seen a major shift in societal attitudes. Smokers, who once were welcome almost everywhere, now find themselves relegated to street corners and back alleys or quarantined in their own homes.
Ted Wright, 66, owner of Ted's Tobacco in Lincoln, recalls those days when "people smoked wherever they wanted."
Scarcely any restaurants had designated smoking or non-smoking sections, and those that did usually segregated the non-smokers to the cramped booths back by the kitchen. Doctors' waiting rooms provided ashtrays. Customers smoked while shopping for groceries. Every motel room had an ashtray and a smoky smell.
In movies and television programs, smoking was the order of the day. Comedian Garry Moore, whose variety show topped the CBS lineup in the early '50s, smoked during his monologues and advised viewers that "Winston Tastes Good Like a Cigarette Should."
Cigarette maker Phillip Morris sponsored "I Love Lucy." Even folksy, ukulele-playing Arthur Godfrey smoked and touted Chesterfields.
Today, Rich Bailey, of Lincoln advertising agency Bailey Lauerman, proudly shows off a life-sized sculpture of the dancing Old Gold's cigarette package (complete with sexy legs from a department store mannequin) that graces the agency's lobby.
He remembers ads claiming that four out of five doctors recommended a particular brand of filter cigarettes. "The implication was that it was less damaging to you, or even outright healthy for you," he said.
Enlisting medical endorsements for tobacco products goes back decades. A 1939 magazine ad for Phillip Morris stated that the cigarette "brings a distinct advantage to the nose and throat, recognized by eminent medical authorities."
America's tight relationship with the tobacco industry dates from colonial times. When the Jamestown settlement in Virginia was founded in 1607, colonists were having a hard time scratching out a living until they discovered that it was an ideal climate for growing tobacco. Pipe smoking had already been popularized in England by Sir Walter Raleigh, who promoted it as both a healthful and enjoyable leisure activity.
Tobacco, introduced to Europe from the Caribbean in the 1500s, was thought to be a wonder drug that could cure all sorts of ailments, from skin cancer to rabies. In the 1600s, physicians in Europe believed that smoking could prevent someone from getting the plague. "During the plague years boys at Eton College were whipped if they tried to skip their daily smoke," reported Tara Parker-Pope in the book "Cigarettes: Anatomy of an Industry."
In Virginia, tobacco proved an economic life-saver, leading to creation of the Southern plantation system based on slavery. It became the major cash crop of the middle Southern states (Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee) and played a key role in forming the New South after the Civil War, reports Joseph C. Robert in his book "The Story of Tobacco in America."
During colonial times, the most popular form of tobacco use was pipe smoking, but snuff and chewing tobacco gained favor during the Revolution and the early 1800s. Spittoons were standard furnishings in bars, banks and courtrooms.
The Civil War was the first of many wars that boosted the use of tobacco, as many young soldiers, both North and South, took up the habit. By the end of the war, Congress decreed that tobacco rations be granted to soldiers.
The last half of the 19th century saw a rise in cigar smoking and the introduction of cigarettes, which at first were made from the "trash" leaves and sweepings left over from the manufacture of cigars and pipe tobacco. By the dawn of the 20th century, cigarettes had begun to outstrip other forms of tobacco, and the "trash" leaves became the most valuable part of the plant.
World War I brought about another big boost in tobacco use. Gen. John Pershing argued that tobacco was as important as bullets. "On the battlefield, a cigarette helps a soldier endure the tedium of war. It can steady nervous hands, calm the wounded and provide its user with a quick hit of courage," Parker-Pope noted.
Even organizations that opposed smoking, like the Red Cross and the YMCA, helped distribute cigarettes to troops in the trenches, she said.
The 1920s saw a dramatic increase in tobacco use, and for the first time the marketing of cigarettes to women as a stylish and sophisticated habit. Lucky Strikes originally came in a distinctive dark green package but eventually switched to white because women complained that the green clashed with their wardrobes.
A "Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet" campaign attempted to identify smoking as an aid to weight loss. "Many marketers believe that this ‘sweet' campaign created more women smokers than any other single advertising effort," said Juliana Sivulka in her book "Soap, Sex and Cigarettes."
Lucky Strikes also pioneered the use of movie stars and sports figures to promote their products. In 1930, however, the Federal Trade Commission ordered Lucky Strike to cease running testimonials by endorsers who had not actually used the product and to stop claiming that smoking could control people's weight.
Smoking got another big boost during World War II, when the largest number of young Americans in the nation's history went off to war. When America entered the war in 1941, the average consumption of cigarettes by Americans was 2,236 per capita annually, but by 1945 when the war ended, that had risen 48 percent to 3,449.
Harvard anthropologist Earnest A. Hooton explained the war effect this way: "The boys in the foxholes, with their lives endangered, are nervous and miserable and want girls. Since they can't have them, they smoke cigarettes. The girls at home, with their virtue not endangered, are nervous and miserable and want boys. Since they can't have them, they too smoke cigarettes."
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, famous for his ever-present cigarette holder, declared that tobacco was an essential wartime crop. Supplying cigarettes to the troops produced a tobacco shortage back home, which led some women to take up pipe smoking. Meanwhile, Army training manuals urged leaders to "smoke and make your troopers smoke," and Gen. Douglas MacArthur demanded a better supply of tobacco in the soldier's daily ration.
Harold Hartman, 79, a Lincoln man who served in the Navy in World War II, said he smoked a little bit before he joined but increased his habit while serving in the Pacific. "When we had guard duty at night, we smoked to keep us awake," he said. More than 60 percent of the ship's crew smoked, he recalled.
Dwaine Wilson, 70, adjutant quartermaster for VFW state headquarters in Lincoln, remembers that when he was in the Air Force during the Korean War the men received four-packs of cigarettes in their C-rations. "With every meal we got four cigarettes," he said.
Wilson was already a smoker before joining up in 1952, but his habit increased during the war.
He began smoking in his pre-teen years. "I had asthma real bad, and a doctor prescribed a cigarette that was supposed to help. I used to smoke 60 a month. They were pretty rotten, but that's what really got me started."
Dr. Melvin Hoffman, a Lincoln allergy and asthma specialist, confirmed that cigarettes were prescribed for asthma at one time. It was a special brand containing atropine mixed with tobacco, which was supposed to relieve asthma symptoms. Atropine is available today in inhalers, but not in cigarette form, he said.
Hoffman remembers ads showing physicians smoking to relax or women smoking to sleep better at night. "Cigarettes were advocated for calming and relaxation," he said.
Wright of Ted's Tobacco said he doesn't believe he was influenced by advertising or the prevalence of cigarettes in the media when he started smoking in the 1950s. He served in the Air Force and was stationed near the Canadian border. He began smoking Players Navy Cut, which had a bit of snob appeal at the time.
He smoked cigarettes for three years, then switched to a pipe on advice of his grandfather, a dentist, who told him that pipes were safer than cigarettes. Incidentally, his grandfather used to receive free samples of cigarettes to give to patients.
Recent decades have seen a decline in smoking and tobacco use in America and Europe, but not in developing countries. More than 5.5 trillion cigarettes are produced each year, nearly 1,000 for every person on the planet, Parker-Pope reported. The United States produces more than 1.4 billion pounds of tobacco a year, and the U.S. government continues to subsidize the tobacco industry through price supports for farmers.
Miles Johnston, co-owner of Cliff's Smoke Shop, had a long career as an attorney in Lincoln. He started smoking a pipe when he was in law school and remembered one of his first trials in 1965 as defense attorney, when he, the prosecutor and the judge were all smoking in the courtroom.
Lincoln's smoking ban, approved by voters last fall, has hurt Johnston's cigar business. Before the ban, he had cigar humidors in six Lincoln bars. Now he's tried placing them in offsale establishments instead, with less positive results.
While recalling with some nostalgia the days when smoking was everywhere and nobody complained about second-hand smoke, Johnston believes some restrictions make sense. "I don't like to be around smoke when I'm eating," he said.
With changing societal attitudes, it appears that the future will be a lot less smoky.
Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or at breeves@journalstar.com.
Tobacco milestones
1492: Columbus brings tobacco seeds from the Americas to Europe.
1613: Virginia colony sends its first tobacco shipment to England.
1775-83: American Revolution is partially funded by loans from France backed by tobacco.
1865: Congress grants regular tobacco rations to troops in Civil War.
1906: Lobbying by tobacco industry removes nicotine from the list of FDA-regulated drugs.
1935: Congress grants subsidies to tobacco farmers.
1941-45: Tobacco supplied to U.S. soldiers in World War II.
1964: First U.S. Surgeon General's report on smoking.
1966: Health warnings on cigarette packs first appear.
1971: Cigarette advertising banned from U.S. television.
1973: Arizona passes the first state law restricting smoking in public places.
1977: The first Great American Smokeout.
1987: Congress bans smoking on all flights of two hours or less.
1994: FDA declares its intent to regulate nicotine as a drug.
1996: Subsidies phased out for many agricultural products, but continued for tobacco
1997-98: Tobacco industry agrees to more than $500 billion in settlements over health hazards of smoking
2000: Supreme Court rules that FDA lacks authority to regulate tobacco; President Clinton signs law making all flights to and from the U.S. smoke-free.
2004: Lincoln voters approve smoking ban in all indoor workplaces.
2005: Nebraska Legislature defeats statewide smoking ban.
Sources: "Cigarettes: Anatomy of an Industry," by Tara Parker-Pope, and local news files
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