1950s smoking culture

In My Humble Opinion
1

harins stories from my parents and others who lived through the 1950s, it seems as if everybody smoked in the 1950s. not just smoked, but smoked; it was a ritual that was just as natural as drinking water and eating.

I’ve wondered if some stories I’ve heard about 1950s-era culture and smoking were true, though. For instance:

  • Elevators had ashtrays, and it was perfectly acceptable to smoke in one.

  • Smoking in all areas of a hospital, including intensive care units and surgery theaters, was allowed.

  • High schools had smoking lounges, and proper smoking technique was taught in health classes; i.e. inhalation and blowing techniques, and how to hold a cigarette so nobody would mistake you for being gay or French. In some high schools, particularly then-all-male vocational schools, you could actually smoke in class.

  • You could get free cigarettes in Las Vegas casinos, and some had elaborate cigarette buffets; a huge rotating lazy susan containing every brand and variety imaginable.

  • Smoking was acceptable on public transit. Seats on buses, subway cars, and commuter trains were equipped with ashtrays.

  • You could smoke in movie theaters, and buy cigarettes along with the usual snacks and beverages.

  • Smoking was allowed in most stores. Nobody noticed that new clothes brought home from a department store smelled like smoke because … well, everybody smoked, so nobody noticed it.

  • When filtered cigarettes were introduced, they were considered a “queer’s cigarette.”

True? UL?

2

You don’t even need to go as far back as the 1950s.

Smoking culture I remember of 70s & 80s:

  • Smoking in hospitals.
  • Free cigarette promotions in shops.
  • Ashtrays in all types of public transport.
  • Smoking in the office workplace. The summer job I ever had was sitting beside an office worker who smoked like a chimney throughout the day. The office stank and I went home with smarting eyes. But it was just the way it was.
  • Sweetie cigarrettes. So the children could play at smoking!
3

Luckily I entered the workforce in the early 90s, by which time Smoke Free workplaces had become standard - my current workplace had a smoking room (which, unfortunately, was were the vending machine for tasty orange and apple juice was located, so the second hand smoke negated the healthy effect of the juices - it was a perpetual haze in there) - it was gone by the late 1990s, and all smokers banished outside.
I don’t remember public transport here (or in next door New York City) ever allowing smoking at all (although this probably didn’t stop people) - I think no smoking was definintely in effect in the 1950s (just with printed “No Smoking” signs, since the red circle sign hadn’t been designed yet).
Other than places with rather flammable material (both industrial, and theatres/movie houses etc.) I think smoking was allowed everyplace in the 1950s (I remember reading once that well over half the US adult population smoked at that time - why else would soliders be issue cigarrettes in their rations)
Smoking in Surgical theatres? Really? Didn’t anyone at the time point out the inherent contradiction between smoking and sterile environments?

4

I can’t say how it was in the 1950’s, but I can vouch for the 60s and 70s:

Free cigs? You bet, and not just limited to Las Vegas. Most of the time in bars, restaurants, and even convenience stores, the tobacco companies were giving away special little 5-cigarette “mini-packs” so you could sample their brands. That was especially handy for kids on an allowance, I’ll have you know.

Smoking in school? That’s pretty hard to imagine. My high school had a smoking-allowed policy, in the school courtyard during study halls, lunch periods, and passing time (between classes.) The only indoor smoking lounge was in the Teacher’s Lounge, and that was off-limits to students. There was a science teacher I had, though, that used to let me sneak a fast smoke in the prep room off the bio lab.

Smoking was allowed in hospitals and elevators, buses, trains, etc. But in surgeries? I can’t imagine how a surgeon would be allowed to smoke in an operating room, so I think that’s an urban legend. Ditto with smoking in ICU. They use oxygen there, and I don’t think smoking has ever been allowed near oxygen use areas.

By the time I worked in retail, in the 1970’s, smoking was starting to be discouraged in stores. In the store I worked at, we would ask customers not to smoke (though they certainly had the right to refuse.) I used to keep an ashtray by my cash register in my department so the customers wouldn’t toss their butts on the floor and “step them out.”

5

IIRC

  1. No smoking in elevators, though they may have had ashtrays so smokers could put out their butts. It was a fire hazard, not a health hazard.

  2. High schools did not allow smoking, if you wanted a smoke, you went into the Boy’s Room (see Thin Lizzy :wink: ) or outside. (Teachers could smoke in the teacher’s lounge.) There certainly weren’t any classes on how to smoke. College was different – there used to be ashtrays in classrooms. They were made out of paper with a layer of aluminum foil to keep them from catching fire. You dropped your ash and stubbed things out on the aluminum side.

  3. You could smoke in movie theaters, but only in designated smoking areas – usually the balcony. Again, this was to reduce fire hazard.

  4. Most stores allowed smoking. When I worked in retail in the late 70s, I had to tell people that there was no smoking in our store.

  5. Untrue for filtered cigarettes. The first (Viceroy) were introduced in 1936 and had been well accepted in the 50s. They were touted for their health benefits (“Not a cough in a carload”). Indeed, the dominant US cigarette in the 50s was Winston (“Tastes Good Like a Cigarette Should”), which was filtered and many national brands had both filtered and nonfiltered versions. Finally, people in the 50s didn’t worry about being perceived as being gay the way we do today.

6

Even in the early 80’s there were candy cigarettes and cigars. I remember Popeye Candy Cigarettes, complete with red dye at one end. Actually, I saw some the other day, and they’re now called Popeye candy sticks… I’m not sure if they still have a “cherry” at one end now.

Black licorice pipes with red sprinkles in the bowl were another favorite.

7

Worked my second summer job in 1975. It was 3 middle-aged female office clerks who chain smoked and non-smoking me, age 17. All in an office with room for 4 student desks, 4 chairs, 4 people and no wastebasket because it wouldn’t fit.

On day 2 on the job I screwed up the courage to ask if they always smoked all the time, with just hint of unhappiness in my vioce. That didn’t go over real well.

On day 3 I asked if they’d mind getting in snyc so at least they were all doing it or nobody was doing it, so there’d be at least a few minutes per day when they weren’t actively trying to poison me. They were not amused. (In retrospect I can’t blame them a bit.)

So on the 4th day I took up smoking the cheapest, vilest stogies I could get at the local discount drugstore. I could only handle about 3 per day, but they sure were effective.

On day 6 I got a new private “office”, actually a wide spot in the hall. But I was out of smoke hell and into a more-or-less smoke-free space. And I was able to cut back to 1 stogie a week during lunch break just to keep the lesson reinforced. I stopped smoking the day I left that job when school started up again.

So yes, smoking was 100% normal even if everyone didn’t do it and objecting to smoking was considered very weird, sort of like objecting to using the telephone. Only a true crank would object to anyone smoking.

8

I was a kid, but here’s what I remember.

You could smoke in a hospital waiting room, the cafeteria and most, but not all, patient rooms, but obviously not in surgery (mixing a lit cigarette and the ether used in anesthetics would make a rather annoying explosion) or any place where oxygen was used.

You could not smoke on public transportation, at least not where I lived. There was a no eating/drinking/smoking sign on every bus. However, you could smoke on airplanes and most trains. In fact, the “stewardess” passed out complimentary mini-packs of gum and cigarettes when the flight took off. It was said to help your ears pop.

Some high schools did have smoking lounges, but they did not teach proper smoking techniques. In fact, going back before my very first health textbook, we were taught that smoking was not good for us. You could not smoke in class (although you could in some college classrooms.)

I don’t remember anything about elevators, but movie theaters had built-in ashtrays the same way they now have built-in cupholders. My father would smoke his way through a movie.

You couldn’t smoke in department stores, at least not the areas where they sold clothes, but you could most certainly smoke in hardware stores, auto parts stores and some other places. I don’t know if it wqas because they were rugged, macho type stores, or because they sold things that cigarettes wouldn’t hurt.

Filter cigarettes were for women who didn’t want to spit out the loose tobacco that came out of the end of the cigarette. There was some vague claim that the filter made the cigarette “milder.”

I think most people had a vague idea that smoking wasn’t the best thing for their health – sort of like most people today have a vague idea that they should get more exercise and eat better – but they didn’t care much.

9

I certainly remember people smoking in the grocery store in the 60’s and 70’s. I remember the built in ashtrays in the movies and on coach type buses. I’m gagging just thinking about it.

10

That’s all very interesting. Slightly unrelated, but why can’t companies have a smoking lounge in the building? I’ve often thought about this. It could be closed off so that it didn’t bother the non-smokers. I see no point in smokers having to go outdoors in subzero temperatures to enjoy a smoke.

11

You have to remember that in the 50’s, most tobacco companies had “doctors” in their ads touting the smoothness of their cigarettes.

12

Indygrrl, I think the easy answer here is cost. While it’s “just a room”, using that square footage for something other than business will cost the company many with no obvious benefit. Just because some of the folks have to ride the elevator or whatever to go have a smoke and having a lounge might show some real time saving benefits doesn’t mean the company will do it.

And, besides, smoking is gross and it’s funny to see the addicts shivering in the cold. :wink:

13

“2. High schools did not allow smoking, if you wanted a smoke, you went into the Boy’s Room (see Thin Lizzy )”

You’d actually have to see Brownsville Station, not Thin Lizzy, but I’m sure Thin Lizzy had an opinion on the subject.

You could smoke on airplanes up into the 1980s (I’m a nervous flyer and I went through about a pack of Camels between Richmond and Pensacola the first time I met my ex-father in law in 1986).

14

Smoke bothers office smoke detectors. And you can’t not have smoke detectors in the room where fires are most likely to start.

Then there’s the whole HR thing about treating staff differently with different facilities. It’s just hassle all round.

15

My high school permitted smoking in the “senior court” (a courtyard in the center of our box-shaped school where seniors were permitted to hang out during study hall). This was in 1987.

16

Now most companies relixed that promoting healthier employees cuts down on medical insurance claims. So eliminating indoor smoking areas is a way they can subtly (or not so sublty) nudge folks to cut down or quit. In my building there’s no smoking indorrs and only one designated outdoor smoking area. We have a very well-stocked fitness center, however, with weights and machines and aerobics classes 3 times a day. And a wekkly massage therapist.

StG

17

Through the smoky haze of time…

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by elmwood *

  • Elevators had ashtrays, and it was perfectly acceptable to smoke in one.

Ashtrays, yes, but only for putting the butt out.

  • Smoking in all areas of a hospital, including intensive care units and surgery theaters, was allowed.

Not where oxygen was in use.

  • High schools had smoking lounges, and proper smoking technique was taught in health classes; i.e. inhalation and blowing techniques, and how to hold a cigarette so nobody would mistake you for being gay or French. In some high schools, particularly then-all-male vocational schools, you could actually smoke in class.

Smoking area, usually outside. Sneaking one in the Boy’s or Girl’s bathroom for those who liked living dangerously. No classes offered on the art of smoking.

  • You could get free cigarettes in Las Vegas casinos, and some had elaborate cigarette buffets; a huge rotating lazy susan containing every brand and variety imaginable.

Don’t know.

  • Smoking was acceptable on public transit. Seats on buses, subway cars, and commuter trains were equipped with ashtrays.

Yes.

  • You could smoke in movie theaters, and buy cigarettes along with the usual snacks and beverages.

Yes.

  • Smoking was allowed in most stores. Nobody noticed that new clothes brought home from a department store smelled like smoke because … well, everybody smoked, so nobody noticed it.

Allowed in most stores. Also Doctor’s office waiting rooms, etc.

  • When filtered cigarettes were introduced, they were considered a “queer’s cigarette.”

Called “Sissy Sticks”, IIRC. No reference to sexual orientation there though. The inference being that the filtered cigarette smoker was less of a Real Man than he who smoked unfiltered brands.

NOTE: The above comments are from what was then my little corner of the world (Miami, Fl.). Things may have been different in other areas.

18

Where do you work?

19

I graduated the final year that there was a designated smoking area for students in our high school. 1988. Not that long ago.

Even more ridiculous, our junior high school also had a smoking area. All you needed was a parental permission slip to nic your 13 year-old brains out.

20

Graduated in 2002. We had (and the school still has) a smoking section out by the teacher’s parking lot. The advantage was that the police could just pull up and intimidate the hell out of anybody that wasn’t supposed to be there. The disadvantage was that it was probably the most prominent area they could have chosen, so smokers became a very visible minority.