1930's Night Clubs

Old movies from the 1930’s frequently show scantily clad “cigarette” girs-who walked around selling cigars and cigarettes.
When did this die out?

I have no idea at all. But noodling on it for a bit, I come up with two ideas:

As labor costs went up, it became less effective to have someone selling one product.

-or-

such concessions were underwritten by tobacco companies as a promotion, at some point they lost interest.

or not.

I can’t help you with “when it died out,” but I should point out that cigarette girls weren’t just from the 1930s. I myself did see a scantily-clad cigarette girl as recently as 1990 in an Atlantic City casino bar. Note that I only saw the cigarette girl–my ex, whom I was with, saw her too and so insisted that I go to the casino gift shop to buy her cigarettes. :frowning:

Into the 40s you saw the girls selling other items along with C&C, such as gum and souvenir postcards.

I see scantily clad girls in casino bars all the time, but they’re selling other things.

Missed the edit window. Anyway, here’s the rest of my post:

Some WAGS on why cigarette girls are no longer around though?

  1. Too many non-smoking bars and clubs.

  2. Fewer smokers than before, in places where you can smoke. It’s hard to make a living when people don’t want what you’re selling. Also, I believe a cigarette girl’s income depended heavily on tips–again, if few are buying, she’s not getting tips.

Couple of ideas anyway.

WAG, when it became cheaper to have cigarette vending machines, possibly coupled with more stringent regulations on the sale of tobacco. Plus, how many sit-down nightclub/supper clubs are there any more where smoking is allowed?

There’s at least one company that hires out cigarette girls, although they sell things other than cigarettes.

ETA: Every so often when I’m out at a bar I’ll see someone wandering around selling roses off a little tray, so the concept is still around in that way.

Another complete WAG: they arose during the Prohibition Era, when nightclubs had to offer something instead of the drinks they weren’t allowed to sell. When Prohibition ended, cigarette girls weren’t needed as much.

In Hong Kong you still get scantily clad cigarette girls, but they do cigarette promotions (often for Japanese brands like Mild 7, though I’ve seen one set of Lucky Strike girls). They offer you a cigarette from their pack in exchange for the one you’re smoking, and if you accept they give you a whole packet for free. Particularly good in a crowded bar with several girls working there, and particularly if you find some for whom all westerners look the same.

They were still fairly common in Las Vegas casinos in the early 1980s. By the mid 90s when I moved away they were pretty few & far between but did still exist. By then they ofen sold other novelties as well; casino-logo’ed trinkets & such.

Uh, during prohibition, night clubs served drinks. In fact, the entire idea of a night club derives from the speakeasies during prohibition. Of course, in 1933, prohibition was repealed so the drinks were sold openly.

You can still see them in South Beach as of last weekend. I don’t think they served any particular estabishment, but went from bar to bar with cigars and cigarettes.

I would guess you don’t see them as much today since its harder to make a living selling smokes. Although I don’t remember seeing any place on Ocean Drive where you could have bought cigarettes, so they may do ok there.