# 1950s smoking culture **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 1, 2003, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263 "2003-12-01T14:46:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ZebWalton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/fbc32d/32.png) [@ZebWalton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebWalton)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/21 "2003-12-02T05:37:03Z")
Smoking culture long ago? Let’s take a shorter trip back in time. I lived in a not-so-bad suburb of Cleveland for four years and I just left \*last year. \*In every convenience store and every city office I visited, the employees smoked at work. It drove me absolutely insane. I couldn’t believe that in this day and age, places like that still existed. Especially the city building. Sometimes you just \*have to \*conduct business there. Northeast Ohio still has one of the highest smoking rates in the nation. Not coincidentally, The Plain Dealer printed what I thought to be an anecdotally high number of obituaries of people who died from cancer in their 40s and 50s. It was just another reason I was pretty glad to be out of there. ---
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/22 "2003-12-02T07:19:09Z")
They still have candy cigarettes, by the way. I thought they didn’t, but my gf found me a pack. As late as 1991, they were still smoking in offices … ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Babbington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Mr.Babbington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Babbington)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/23 "2003-12-02T07:30:34Z")
I graduated High School in 1994. We had an area behind the school where we could smoke. “The Smoking Doors,” we called them. I remember reading once that on _The Hindenburg, for god sake_, a big balloon filled with a highly flammable gas, they allowed smoking. You had to go into a special room, closed off from the rest of the cabin. I think it was pressurized to keep out the hydrogen. Lighters were chained to the tables so you couldn’t take them out of the room. Apparently, you had to surrender all your own smoking material. ---
**Author:** ![Q.N.Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/3da27b/32.png) [@Q.N.Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.N.Jones)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/24 "2003-12-02T16:42:24Z")
Just the other day, Dad told me a 1970s smoking story: when he was working on Wall Street, one of the guys who worked in the bull pen was a dude who apparently never bathed. He sat right in the middle of the room and annoyed everyone who sat near him. So all the other guys in the bullpen went out at lunch, bought big cigars, and smoked them at work, blowing the smoke straight at their smelly colleague. I can’t imagine a workplace where everyone is smoking fat cigars at their desks. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/25 "2003-12-02T19:50:13Z")
From my memory (for whatever that is worth) > [@](#): > > \*\*\* Elevators had ashtrays, and it was perfectly acceptable to smoke in one.\*\* True - As a child I remember people smoking and dropping ashes on my head in elevators. > [@](#): > > \*\*\* Smoking in all areas of a hospital, including intensive care units and surgery theaters, was allowed.\*\* Not completely true - when I was in the hospital my father had to put his smoke out in the hall of the hospital before coming into my room 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.\*\* Limited truth - A number of my teachers smoked in class both male and female and the shop teacher would let a few of his buddy-students smoke (and at times drink too from his stash) but it was not officially sanctioned. I should say that while my school did not have an official smoking area I knew of schools that did. \*\* > [@](#): > > - 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.\*\* quite true - Cigarette girls used to wander the casinos with their wares displayed (and they used to have cigarettes too). If you were playing, the smokes were free. They used to come in smaller than usual packets though. My mother used to bring me the more unusual ones when she and my father used to return from Vegas. > [@](#): > > \*\*\* Smoking was acceptable on public transit. Seats on buses, subway cars, and commuter trains were equipped with ashtrays.\*\* Quite true - I remember it clearly. > [@](#): > > \*\*\* You could smoke in movie theaters, and buy cigarettes along with the usual snacks and beverages.\*\* For the most part true - I remember that some movie houses had special places for non-smokers while others did not. I remember sitting in the front row of an especially scary movie and looking back at the audience and seeing all the glowing embers of cigarettes in the darkened theater (it was quite eerie). That being said, however, I also remember in the 50s an usher telling my mother to put her cigarette out while in the theater proper since it was an older theater. > [@](#): > > \*\*\* 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.\*\* Quite true. > [@](#): > > \*\*\* When filtered cigarettes were introduced, they were considered a “queer’s cigarette.”\*\* True with an adendum - I don’t remember when filters were first introduced but I do remember the general reaction being that they were for women and not “real” men. I remember one friend of mine saying, “Why do you think the English call those things ‘fags’?” (referring to filtered cigarettes). I learned later they referred to all cigarettes that way for a completely different reason, but at the time I believed it. TV ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2003, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/26 "2003-12-02T23:56:35Z")
Here’s something I’ve thought about, and it is somewhat related. If I should take it to a new thread, **elmwood** – I’ll be happy to. Much like the smoking culture, what about the drinking culture? In old movies and TV shows you would always see men carrying flasks in their overcoats and drinking from them. Nowadays, carry a flask around and it screams “alcoholic!” and is extremely socially unacceptable. Why and when did this change, or was it a slow change? Other than the increased atention on drunk driving, I can’t see what’s different. Are “open container” laws a new thing? As long as I’m not driving, my day would be a lot more fun if I could carry my little flask-buddy around with me and not be a social outcast. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/27 "2003-12-03T00:16:36Z")
If you’re playing table games in Reno and Las Vegas, you can still get comp’ed a pack of smokes, even if your average wager is just $5. I get free cigarettes all the time… just ask the pit boss. I remember smoking culture from my toddlerhood in the late 60’s in the deep south. Everyone smoked. Everyone except those of such ill health that one cigarette would kill 'em. Ashtrays were the standard coffee table centerpiece, and end table, and bedside table, and just about every damn table. My mom had to open the house up regularly and let it air out, even on cold days. My mom would send me down to the store with a dollar and it would be enough for her pack of cigarettes, and cokes for both of us. And the clerks had no problems selling a pack of smokes to a 6 year old boy. (These days, it would be regarded as akin to child abuse to send your 6 year old son to the store alone, much less for a pack of cigarettes.) I don’t remember hearing about any classes for smoking, but I do remember stealing my mom’s cigarettes and sneaking out to smoke with my freinds, where we practiced smoke rings, french inhales, holding the smouldering butts, etc. In junior high school, the “bad kids” would hang out across the street from the school, in the woods next to the 7-eleven, where a pack of smokes cost 75 cents. We smoked many different things there… until some idiot burned the place up. I went to schools all up and down the east coast. In some, smoking was strictly prohibited, but in others, especially in North Carolina, students had a designated smoking area. In Denver, the high school I attended was an open campus on one of the seediest streets in town (E. Colfax - just down the street was Miss Kitty’s strip joint). Students could come and go as they pleased. But in Seminole, FL, smoking was strictly verboten and punishable by detention or even suspension. I got busted several times, and it was especially galling after coming from a school where it was allowed. Florida sucked all around, so this was no suprise. I recall vowing never to fly again after they banned smoking on domestic flights. I also recall smoking things other than tobacco on domestic flights… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/28 "2003-12-03T04:15:21Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by bughunter \* > \*\* In Denver, the high school I attended was an open campus on one of the seediest streets in town (E. Colfax - just down the street was Miss Kitty’s strip joint). Students could come and go as they pleased._\* I don’t want people to get the wrong idea of Denver. Kitty’s (no “Miss”) never was a strip club. It was a porn store and dirty movie arcade. The strip club was next door and it was the Climax (I always thought that was the perfect name for a strip club) Bar. And to be completely honest East High School was eight blocks away. Granted that was just a couple of minutes on the #15 bus, but it was eight blocks. It was much easier to go across the street from the school in City Park and smoke dope. (_a little side note here - They closed down East as a school and it later made a number of appearances in television shows as a school, hospital, police station and an apartment building in such television shows as the Father Dowling Mysteries, and the Raymond Burr rehab of Perry Mason._) TV ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/29 "2003-12-03T06:30:41Z")
I graduated HS in '77. We had an official smoking area, and if student’s smoked, they were allowed to do so there. I don’t remember smoking in hospitals, but it was allowed on airplanes. What’s funny is that they had smoking and non-smoking sections (oh bRUther). Smoking wasn’t allowed in stores, but was in theatres, and most other public places. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2003, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/30 "2003-12-03T23:18:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mouthbreather \* > \*\*Here’s something I’ve thought about, and it is somewhat related. If I should take it to a new thread, **elmwood** – I’ll be happy to. > > Much like the smoking culture, what about the drinking culture? In old movies and TV shows you would always see men carrying flasks in their overcoats and drinking from them. \*\* I think it’s perfectly acceptable in this thread … if you can get a mod to change the subject: linhe. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/31 "2003-12-04T04:11:10Z")
I get a kick outta seeing those circa 1950s black and white game shows on GSN. The sponsor always seems to be a tobacco company and everyone on the show smoked their brains out. A friend of mine recently told my loosies are making a comeback in bodegas throughout the area…the only difference is the price: 40 cents today vs the penny my Gradfather used to pay ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/32 "2003-12-04T04:22:18Z")
What are ‘loosies’? A ‘bodega’? ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/33 "2003-12-04T04:48:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kunilou \* > \*\*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. \*\* I think it was more that a vague notion. As a kid in the 1950’s, long before the surgeon general’s report, I can recall my father and the other guys on the job hanging out and asking for a coffin nail, or when someone would bum a cig being told “Sure pound another nail in your coffin” People knew that smoking wasn’t healthy, but I don’t think they knew just how unhealthy it really is. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/34 "2003-12-04T05:35:14Z")
I remember people smoking just about everywhere, except department stores. I remember when receptionists, bank tellers, heck, everyone smoked at their desks. Except department stores. It probably happened, but I don’t remember it. I do remember my thoughts, though, when I first saw the classic “Glen or Glenda” for the first time, probably in 1982. There is a scene where Ed Wood (credited as Daniel Davis) is smoking a cigarette in a department store, and I remember thinking that odd even back then. Again, it probably happened, but I don’t remember. Grocery stores, though, yes. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/35 "2003-12-04T05:51:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sunspace \* > \*\*What are ‘loosies’? A ‘bodega’? \*\* Single cigarettes. Small grocery, probably convenience store. ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy154](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ad7895/32.png) [@quiltguy154](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy154)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/36 "2003-12-04T13:12:05Z")
Loosies a penny? What a deal! I remember getting 2 for a nickel, which included 2 wooden strike-anywhere matches. So old, so very old. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/37 "2003-12-04T16:27:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CanvasShoes \* > \*\*I graduated HS in '77. We had an official smoking area, and if student’s smoked, they were allowed to do so there. I don’t remember smoking in hospitals, but it was allowed on airplanes. What’s funny is that they had smoking and non-smoking sections (oh bRUther). > > Smoking wasn’t allowed in stores, but was in theatres, and most other public places. \*\* I graduated HS in '75. I think it was in my senior year that a smoking area for students over 18 was established. When I got to college that fall, they had just taken the ashtrays out of the lecture halls. This was in California, where drive to eliminate public smoking no doubt started sooner than in most other places. I remember a professor in the psychology building had a poster on his door demanding the banning of public smoking. Which has just about come to pass. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/38 "2003-12-04T17:21:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mouthbreather \* > \*\*Here’s something I’ve thought about, and it is somewhat related. If I should take it to a new thread, **elmwood** – I’ll be happy to. > > Much like the smoking culture, what about the drinking culture? In old movies and TV shows you would always see men carrying flasks in their overcoats and drinking from them. Nowadays, carry a flask around and it screams “alcoholic!” and is extremely socially unacceptable. \*\* The use of liquor flasks arose mainly out of restrictive liquor laws. During Prohibition, obviously, when you were uncertain of the liquor supply while out for the evening, you took a flask with you. Apart from the era of national prohibition, there were other, not quite so restrictive models of liquor legislation; sometimes it might be legal to sell liquor by the bottle, but not in a tavern for onsite consumption. In those cases it was customary to carry your own booze in a flask and ask the waiter or bartender to give you a “set up”, which was the ice and mixer. I imagine there are still places like this, and it’s probably perfectly acceptable to carry a flask, at least among your circle of friends. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/39 "2003-12-04T17:31:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mouthbreather \* > \*\* > > Much like the smoking culture, what about the drinking culture? In old movies and TV shows you would always see men carrying flasks in their overcoats and drinking from them. Nowadays, carry a flask around and it screams “alcoholic!” and is extremely socially unacceptable. Why and when did this change, or was it a slow change? Other than the increased atention on drunk driving, I can’t see what’s different. Are “open container” laws a new thing? > > As long as I’m not driving, my day would be a lot more fun if I could carry my little flask-buddy around with me and not be a social outcast. \*\* You might find some kindred spirits (heh) at Modern Drunkard Magazine. Here’s an interesting article about the demise of the “Liquor Cabinet.” [http://www.moderndrunkardmagazine.com/issues/06\_03/06-03\_liq-cabinet.htm](http://www.moderndrunkardmagazine.com/issues/06_03/06-03_liq-cabinet.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263/40 "2003-12-04T18:54:23Z")
I just thought of another thing that seems very odd now. My father practiced medicine for about 45 years, ending around 1993, and throughout that time he kept ashtrays in the waiting room. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/1950s-smoking-culture/216263.md?page=3)