Where the Flavor Was

     Keep reminding yourself, as we move into the fifth episode of a series on smokers on postcards which began with a statement that there AREN’T that many, that entire books can be written on smoking in the movies and on television.  So there.  Some postcard smokers were celebrities who needed tobacco to complete theirContinue reading “Where the Flavor Was”

Blowing a Cloud, Taking a Puff

     Considering that the original premise of this series of columns was the relative scarcity of postcards showing people indulging in tobacco, compared to movies and TV shows of the same era, we have been showing off examples for a while now.  But I maintain my original opinion.  Joe Friday or Paul Drake probably litContinue reading “Blowing a Cloud, Taking a Puff”

Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That CIgarette

     Now, as you’ll recall, in a blog titled “And Whiskey and Wild, Wild Women,” we examined the use od cigarettes on postcards.  Although cigarettes are everywhere in mid-century movies and television, we argued, on postcards they were primarily used to indicate a young woman who, like the one shown on this Seventies poster ofContinue reading “Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That CIgarette”

He Called For His Pipe

     As we have, in this space, considered the place held in postcard cartoons by cigarettes and cigars, it is only logical to move to the pipe.  (I dislike to throw spoilers into my text, but those of you who were planning to come around next Wednesday to read about snuff, snoose, or other similarContinue reading “He Called For His Pipe”

But a Good Cigar is a Smoke

     Last week, in this space, we considered what the cartoonists who worked on postcards had to say about the smoking of cigarettes.  The subject is a little larger than we could cover in one column (which gives us an excuse to return to it later) but we did see how often a woman whoContinue reading “But a Good Cigar is a Smoke”

And Whiskey and Wild, Wild Women

     This Seventies poster showing off a postcard from the Nineteen Twenties shows one of the matters of social history made obvious when one watches mid-century television programs. Everybody smoked.  This can be explained only partially by observing that many shows were sponsored by tobacco companies.  Those same companies had worked hard to make theirContinue reading “And Whiskey and Wild, Wild Women”