Warning: Smoking Stars May Be Hazardous To Your Health

[CoffeeDan]

One thing I want to know is, is there a star who endorsed a cigarette brand and was a nonsmoker in real life?

In a series of ads he wrote for Bull Durham tobacco in 1925-26, Will Rogers freely admitted he did not use the product.

[mndean]

One thing I want to know is, is there a star who endorsed a cigarette brand and was a nonsmoker in real life?

In a series of ads he wrote for Bull Durham tobacco in 1925-26, Will Rogers freely admitted he did not use the product.

In the ad? You mean showing candor? That would be different.

[JFK]

In a series of ads he wrote for Bull Durham tobacco in 1925-26, Will Rogers freely admitted he did not use the product.

[CoffeeDan]

One thing I want to know is, is there a star who endorsed a cigarette brand and was a nonsmoker in real life?

In a series of ads he wrote for Bull Durham tobacco in 1925-26, Will Rogers freely admitted he did not use the product.

In the ad? You mean showing candor? That would be different.

That's correct -- not just once, but several times in the series. Here's the text of Will's first ad, which appeared in many popular magazines in January of 1925:

I know people are going to say,"What do you think of Will Rogers writing and endorsing 'Bull' Durham?" That's where you're wrong. I am not endorsing it. I never smoked any tobacco in my life, not even 'Bull' Durham.

If you want the real truth about why I signed up to write a lot of pieces for these people, it's because I love animals. Have you ever studied that picture of the bull carefully? . . . have you ever seen such a kind-looking animal? I thought this: -- certainly no one who cares about dumb creatures as they do would put out the best smoking tobacco possible -- so I said all right, I'll write your stuff. However, the money part of it didn't have much to do with it. That is, not very much.

Seriously, though, out where I come from, unless a male member of the population has got that 'Bull' Durham tag hanging from the shirt pocket, he's liable to be arrested for indecent exposure. And, you believe me, you can't sell those western hard-boiled eggs much and keep on selling them unless it's got class.

Guess maybe this non-smoking thing has sort of got me winging. Wonder if that's why things has turned out this way. Come to think of it, it may be a moral lesson to the youth of the country. The moral in my case being, if you want to grow up and know nothing but telling jokes and have people laughing at you all the time, don't smoke.

But who wants to go through life acting the fool?

Will Rogers (signed)

[mndean]

He certainly was no anti-tobacco moralist!

[entredeuxguerres]

He certainly was no anti-tobacco moralist!

Praise God!

Love his line, "Prohibition cost us more than the War, but we got the war!"

[JFK]

CAROLE LOMBARD - SINGER

[s.w.a.c.]

Here's a complete set of Player's Navy Cut Cigarette cards featuring Hollywood stars of the early '30s. Some of them are quite lovely.

[s.w.a.c.]

Here's an odd assortment of Lucky Strike caricature cards, with some rather unusual suspects.

[JFK]

JOHN BUNNY

[boblipton]

The John Bunny one is great. Does anyone have a date on it?

Bob

[entredeuxguerres]

Never heard of a product meant to be smoked OR chewed. Were there any stars man enough to promote Brown's Mule or Red Man? I doubt it, except for Beery & Bancroft, maybe.

[entredeuxguerres]

[JFK]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Kovacs#Death
"He may have lost control of the car while trying to light a cigar.
A photographer managed to arrive moments later,
and images of Kovacs in death appeared in newspapers
across the United States. An unlit cigar lay on the pavement,
inches from his outstretched arm."

[Bruce Long]

Here's a jaw dropper:

[Rollo Treadway]

Here's a jaw dropper

Whoa! Posed shot, one hopes.

As W.C. Fields cautions the kids in The Bank Dick after doing cigarette tricks for them: "Never smoked a cigarette myself until I was nine."

Speaking of kids and smoke, check out this bizarre late-1920s Norwegian commercial: