I watch a lot of old movies and TV shows, and smoking was ubiquitous up until ca. 1970, when the Surgeon General’s report started to have an impact. Even Rob and Laura Petrie lit up every now and then. Sgt Saunders and the squad in Combat! would light up whenever they took five. And every member of the IMF had a cigarette in their hand as they planned the next mission.
Going back to the '40s, one of he few joys in the life of Lana Turner’s husband in The Postman Always Rings Twice was having a smoke while he read the paper in the evening. Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck lit up as they plotted her husband’s murder in Double Indemnity.
And those are just some examples off the top of my head.
The Longest Day may be an anomaly simply because the troops didn’t have time for a smoke while they were invading Normandy. But I remember the movie ended with Richard Burton and an American GI sharing a smoke.
(Eisenhower, BTW, was a heavy smoker. Not showing him with a cancer stick in his hand was definitely a historical inaccuracy.)
Yes. But for an example- The Glenn Miller Story . A few guys smoking in the background in many scenes. Miller being handed a congratulator cigar- but not lighting it up. Chummy does have a cig in his hand sometimes.
Yes, there was a very smokey bar scene, with lots of smoking but the point there was that Helen was not used to so much noise and smoke and had to get out.
Very few of the modern smoking scene, where the camera lingers lovingly on the cig being lit up and each puff.
And they do not show many scenes of soldiers taking a piss or a shit, either, do they, but I guarantee you they did. Or rubbing one off, etc.
I think the worst offender for anachronistic hair has to be Little House on the Prairie–especially Pa Ingalls and his frontier water perm, and Almanzo’s big Beatles mop-top. It’s funny–the women and girls had relatively period-appropriate hair (or at least it looked like it) but the boys and men were Seventies extravaganzas.
Come on, people. Enough with the hair complaints. Though the setting is Korea, in both the movie and the film, producers wanted to make a parallel between the war in Vietnam and the war in Korea.
Wikipedia: " Although the Korean War is the film’s storyline setting, the subtext is the Vietnam War— a current event at the time the film was made."
One way they blurred the line was by making haircuts and styles (and women’s makeup) typical of the 70s.
Another interesting case is the original Hawaii Five-O (1968). Steve, Chin, Kono, Ben and all of the HPD officers never smoked, but Danny did on occasion in the first couple of years. By 1972, he had kicked the habit as well
In The Day the Earth Stood Still, I laughed out loud when the two US Army physicians lit up after examining Klaatu. Yes, it made them look like a couple of witch doctors all right!
Watching Barbara Bain light up while she seduces Emil Scarbeck et al. on Mission: Impossible has always made me go “Yeccch!” I’ve never understood why everybody thought women who smoked were so sexy and sophisticated.
Yes, I knew there were segregated black units in the military, including combat troops. (Hey, I saw Glory!) I was surprised to find an African-American surgeon in an integrated MASH.
Thanks. I wasn’t sure about that, because I remembered the Bloom County character. But I didn’t want to use his racist nickname from the movie, so I relied on the paper I cited about Dr. Blount. Which got it wrong.
As long as we’re 'fessing up, I don’t remember Dr. Jones ever being referred to by his whole name in the TV series – IMDb says his TV middle name is Harmon but how often are they right? Your
source being wrong is unforgivable and I’d hunt him down and make him fix it. And then credit the SDMB – “Your source for all useless nollij.”
Don’t some writers create biographies for their characters to help them (writers) keep from contradicting themselves later etc.? It could be that this character was just sort never took off but they had already worked up the bio.
Radar did smoke in one episode that I remember…it was like a spy signal in the night darkness to others, like they were setting up Frank or something. Just a few puffs.
Slow_Moving_Vehicle hinted at something that I’d bet was more likely: everyone (with a few exceptions) was referred to by nick-name; Dr. Jones’s would be troublesome. Plus, a third doctor (the series already excised Duke Forrest from the novel/film) would interfere with the Hawk/Trap dynamic. He never stood a chance.
Definitely – the term “series bible” or “show bible” refers to a document where details about the characters (and important events which transpire over the course of the series) are maintained, to ensure consistency.
It would not surprise me to learn that, while MASH had a bible, it was either skimpy, or not adhered to the way it would be on a modern TV series. I mean, we’re talking about a series where they established that Henry was married, but then changed the name of his wife – she was “Mildred” in the first season, and then “Lorraine” from then on.
Wikipedia confirmation
I’m trying to remember him referencing her as Mildred…Lorraine I remember. It seems like actors would get into their roles and catch these things, but maybe McLean Stevenson didn’t?
Of course Blake’s replacement (Potter) was married to Mildred so you remember hearing it but there’s confusion about who said it.
The hair was too long for Vietnam. Soldier’s hair in Vietnam was longer than WWII and and Korea but it certainly wasn’t what it was in MASH. In the Army in Germany in the 80s we were allowed to grow our hair much more than a high and tight as long as it was still in regulations but not close to MASH. Some of them had Civil War hair.
First season Radar liked his cigars. Episode 4 had a scene where General Barker walked into Henry’s office and found Radar at Henry’s desk, feet up, smoking a cigar and sipping Henry’s brandy. Out of a snifter no less!
Not worth much. He sold the rights to the book, which means the producers, et al, could do whatever they wanted with it. He made a poor deal money-wise, but them’s the breaks.
I liked the show a lot, other than the Klinger character. My only real dislike is Alda’s voice, which always comes across as whiny to me in every role I’ve seen him in.
I’ve never understood why everybody thought women who smoked were so sexy and sophisticated.