Smokers in films

[Andykev]

The ads also said "I'll eat my hat"

The ads for Lucky Strike cigarettes also had the slogan about "I'll eat my hat" if the cigarette had no taste...when LS introduced filters.

Here is a bit more info"

"The brand's signature dark green pack was changed to white in 1942. In a famous advertising campaign that used the slogan "Lucky Strike Green has gone to war", the company claimed the change was made because the copper used in the green color was needed for World War II. American Tobacco actually used chromium to produce the green ink, and copper to produce the gold-colored trim. A limited supply of each was available, and substitute materials made the package look drab. Many argue that the white package was introduced not to help the war effort but to lower costs and to increase the appeal of packaging among female smokers.

In the early 1960s, Lucky Strike's television commercials featured the slogan "Lucky Strike separates the men from the boys....but not from the girls" set to music. When Luckies with filters were introduced in the mid-1960s, print and TV ads featured the slogan "Show me a filter cigarette that delivers the taste, and I'll eat my hat!" (usually sung to music on TV). Print ads showed smokers wearing hats from which a "bite" was supposedly taken, whereas TV commercials broke away from the smoker who issued that challenge, then came back to show the same smoker wearing a hat from which a "bite" was taken.

 

[Haversack]

Dixon Cannon mentioned the former ubiquity of spitoons. This was something that I recently noticed in watching a collection of Donald Duck shorts from 1941-1946. The background scenery in these shorts is pretty good. There are a lot of details of everyday stuff which does not enter the story. It is there for verisimilitude. Stores, army barracks, houses all seem to have ash trays and spitoons in the background. Of course chewing tobacco was still popular so there had to be places to spit. Even into the 1960s I can remember my grandfather's barn had a fading "Mail Pouch" sign painted on it.

Little four-packs of cigarettes were still in C-ration accessory packets in the late 1970s when I was in ROTC.

I also recall that having smoking accessories in one's house was standard even if you didn't smoke. It was the mark of a good host. My English grandfather, (the one who had been a butler and valet), didn't smoke but there were ashtrays on every side table in the living room and a cedar box with one unopened pack each of Camels, Chesterfields, and Lucky Strikes in it. This was in Montecito in the 1960s.

Haversack.

 

[Andykev]

Back on topic

The "throwing down" of burnt matches, or cigarettes in many films, esp. Film Noir, was to show disdain for the place, or the opposing character. Like when Robert Mitchum lights a smoke, and angrily throws down the match as the dialog heats...it is a "tough guy" thing. Or when Bogie flicks a cigarette, or the match, it is like whe he blows smoke in the face of the hood in the hotel lobby in The Maltese Falcon.

I have seen it countless times in old films where someone rubs out a citarette on the floor, grinding it with the sole of their shoe. It was akin to spitting on the floor, and extreme sign of disdain, and disrespect.

I assure you, in real life, inside a home or business/hotel, the ashtrays were used. In open areas, pool halls, and cheap dives...the floor was generally the "ashtray"....or the sidewalk.

 

[DancingSweetie]

Thanks Andy, that makes sense.

 

[Fedorista]

...I also recall that having smoking accessories in one's house was standard even if you didn't smoke. It was the mark of a good host...

Still is.

 

[RedPop4]

GREAT THREAD!!!!!
Andykev, nice link.

If you all notice, in The Quiet Man, John Wayne lights cigarettes the entire movie; and at times, when angry will fling it after only one drag.

As to the ashtray stands, I have two wooden ones that were made by the carpenter that built may parents' home in 1960. The top is the same "three-bevel" trim that they have on all the doorways in the house.

I also have a friend, a member of Cigar Weekly who routinely finds old ashtray stands and refinishes them.

See them here, in his gallery at Cigar Weekly.
http://galleries.cigarweekly.com/xrundog/Accessories

He also restores antique humidors, re-lining them with new Spanish cedar and refinishing them. They don't look brand new, but they're not shabby anymore.

 

[Wild Root]

L.S.-M.F.T... L.S.-M.F.T...

Yes, Lucky Strike means Fine Tobacco, so smooth, so firm, so fully packed!

Ah, Green package or white... they'll still kill ya! lol

It's very true that it was ubiquitous in movies as it was in real life. Everyone smoked! Everyone!

Well, yes and no... I've seen a few movies and have seen a few stars turn down a cigarette... saying: No, I don't smoke.

Also, they had Mormons back then too... plenty of them! They didn't smoke! There was people who were "Non smokers" because of religious obligations but, also folks who just didn't believe in taking smoke into their bodies. It turned them off at the thought!

It's true, there were plenty of smokers then but, not every one smoked!

=WR=

 

[scotrace]

I remember the barbershop where i got my first haircuts ('60's) had a spitoon, and the almost-toothless barber wore sleeve holders.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

L.S.-M.F.T... L.S.-M.F.T...

Yes, Lucky Strike means Fine Tobacco, so smooth, so firm, so fully packed!

Ah, Green package or white... they'll still kill ya! lol



Well, yes and no... I've seen a few movies and have seen a few stars turn down a cigarette... saying: No, I don't smoke.

Also, they had Mormons back then too... plenty of them! They didn't smoke! There was people who were "Non smokers" because of religious obligations but, also folks who just didn't believe in taking smoke into their bodies. It turned them off at the thought!

It's true, there were plenty of smokers then but, not every one smoked!

=WR=

You're right of course,...but it was most everyone! My mom tried it just to fit in with everyone else, but she didn't like it and so didn't do it. But pretty much everyone else around her did. lol

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Mom didn't smoke, and she made my Dad quit before I was born. Mom's first husband died in 1953 of lung cancer.

They still had ashtrays in the house for guests, though.

And I'd read somewhere that the Lucky Strike "L.S.M.F.T." slogan was turned into a nasty little slogan against Harry Truman. Anybody know?

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Mom didn't smoke, and she made my Dad quit before I was born. Mom's first husband died in 1953 of lung cancer.

They still had ashtrays in the house for guests, though.

And I'd read somewhere that the Lucky Strike "L.S.M.F.T." slogan was turned into a nasty little slogan against Harry Truman. Anybody know?

I could think of a couple of possibilities,...but I can't post them here.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

L.S.M.F.T

And I'd read somewhere that the Lucky Strike "L.S.M.F.T." slogan was turned into a nasty little slogan against Harry Truman. Anybody know?

Some say: "Living Sensibly Means Forgoing Tobacco"!!

...and something about sweaters, if I remember correctly! [huh]

Oh yeh, "Lord, Save Me From Truman." !!

-dixon cannon

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Thanks, Dixon. I, of course, was thinking along the lines of something far raunchier. lol

 

[Quigley Brown]

Here's a series of commercials for Camel cigarettes from the late 40s. I was shaking my head in disbelief at how they were endorsed by singers, dancers, athletes and even doctors. Did you know 'More doctors smoke Camels than and other cigarette?'

These were probably shown in movie theaters at that time. Enjoy!

http://www.archive.org/stream/tle13d00test/VTS_01_2_256kb.mp4

 

[Steve]

The "throwing down" of burnt matches, or cigarettes in many films, esp. Film Noir, was to show disdain for the place, or the opposing character. Like when Robert Mitchum lights a smoke, and angrily throws down the match as the dialog heats...it is a "tough guy" thing. Or when Bogie flicks a cigarette, or the match, it is like whe he blows smoke in the face of the hood in the hotel lobby in The Maltese Falcon.

I have seen it countless times in old films where someone rubs out a citarette on the floor, grinding it with the sole of their shoe. It was akin to spitting on the floor, and extreme sign of disdain, and disrespect.

Aside from that, there is the possibility of the actors doing it because studio and sound stage carpet is expendable and convenient.

 

[carebear]

I seem to recall an interview with Ron Howard when Apollo 13 came out where he remarked that when the NASA staff who were in the control room during the emergency were brought onto the set to see it and comment on its versimilitude they thought something was missing.

Finally, one of the engineers remarked that there were no ashtrays on any of the desks, though there actually were in the '60's. He added, if I remember correctly, that while it was uncertain that the astronauts would make it, everybody was smoking, even the non-smokers.

 

[DancingSweetie]

Ok, saw a couple more movies lately and witnessed cigarette flicking inside buildings, and there was no way they were aiming at an ashtray, nor was the character mad at someone.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Ok, saw a couple more movies lately and witnessed cigarette flicking inside buildings, and there was no way they were aiming at an ashtray, nor was the character mad at someone.

Labor was cheaper then; buildings had (usually black) janitors to clean up the mess on floors, including tobacco spit.

My dad remembers when the sides of the route 66 highway were strewn with garbage. In the 1950s, folks just threw everything out the windows of their cars.

.

 

[Paisley]

The attitude of my father (b. 1930, Wyoming) has always been that ladies do not smoke. He's always considered women who smoke to be trashy. He wasn't raised Mormon, nor was his family especially religious.

My father didn't smoke, nor did his mother or sisters. (His brother did briefly, i think.) My mother and her parents, brother and sister didn't smoke, either.

Sadly, my sister smoked, which no doubt aggrevated her heart problems. My other sister also smokes and looks older than our mother.

 

[Clyde R.]

I think Andykev's points about tough guys and disdain were right. Also, I think the convenience of just throwing the cigarette or match down versus having to put an ashtray in the set or reach for one, etc. should not be forgotten. Just like you don't often see people say, "goodbye" on the telephone in movies, I don't think it necessarily reflected reality.