Okay, so this isn’t a traditional Free-For-All-Friday blog post (FYI: a FFAF blog post is when readers say whatever they like in the comments–I mean, you’re more than welcome to do that, if you please), but I thought it would be fun to take a day off from my usual wordy critiques (as well as giving my brain a rest) and do a weekly post that contains fun classic movie related items. So for this first FFAF post, I give you a sampling of classic movie stars shilling beer, booze and Chesterfield cigarettes.
In the good old days of Classic Hollywood, famous actors and actresses lending their name to products wasn’t a big deal. If anything, it was the standard. Unlike today’s actors who go overseas to do commercials because they don’t want you to know they’re doing them, you could flip through any popular magazine from the 40’s and see Barbara Stanwyck recommending Chesterfield cigarettes to her friends and fans. Imagine her doing that in today’s PC age! She’d be hit with lawsuit after lawsuit by fans who claimed that she encouraged them to smoke and since they’re dying of cancer, she should foot their bills. Complete and total madness.
One more interesting thing I’ve noticed is that in the majority of the cigarette ads, there’s also a promotional line for whatever movie they’re appearing in at the time. So of course, it begs the question–were these stars really smoking Chesterfields, or were they just sold out to the company by their home studio or agent? Look at Claudette Colbert–she’s practically Chesterfield’s poster girl, appearing in no less than 4 ads during a span of 6 years! Either agent must have been getting good money from the Chesterfield people or Claudette really loved her smokes.
And of course, look how glamorous they look while smoking and drinking! Honestly, I haven’t smoked in about…ten years and I could kill someone from a cigarette right now. For some reason, I’m thinking if I lit up a Chesterfield, I’d somehow look like Rita Hayworth. Yeah, if I had a face lift maybe. And even that’s pretty suspect.
But on a personal note, my mother told me that my grandfather’s favorite brand of smokes were Chesterfields and he lived well into his 90’s, the miserable old coot.
Enjoy!
Chesterfield ads (click on thumbnail for larger version):
Rosalind Russell, Ethel Merman, Tyrone Power, Rita Hayworth
Virgina Mayo, Jane Wyman
Beer (click on thumbnail for larger version):
Edward G. Robinson and wife, Arthur Kennedy, Dan Duryea
Smirnoff Vodka and Jim Beam (click on thumbnail for larger version):
Joan Fontaine and Collier Young, Tony Randall, Harpo Marx, Robert Wagner and Bette Davis
For those of who abstain from vice – Cola and Gum! (click on thumbnail for larger version)
Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford for RC COLA (she’s rolling over in her grave), Van Heflin
Note: I collected all these ads over the years off ebay, where you can find many of them for sale. The only thing I did was straighten them out and color correct them
*According to this article, that advertisement of Joseph Cotten is supposed to be aimed at the 1950’s gay market. Uh, I really didn’t get that. I just thought there was two Joseph Cotten’s in one ad. I wonder if he would have posed if he knew that. Hmmmm.
There were other contributing factors of course, but one of the reasons I started smoking was how cool Bogie looked doing it. The fact that he died of lung cancer didn’t faze me — I figured that if I could be half as cool as he was it was worth the risk. Of course, I’ve never been a millionth as cool as he was, and it’s a horrible habit. So the good news is that I quit a couple of months ago, and I’m doing great.
I have an old RC bottle like the one that Stanwyck and Crawford are holding.
That’s really funny about the Joseph Cotten ad. I’m straight, and when I looked at it the first time it was just an ad. After reading that, I went back and looked again and wondered how I missed it — it’s VERY blatant. I’m probably a case study in how these things worked.
Funny how some of my fondest memories of actors are of their stints as pitchmen. Bert Lahr trying to eat just one Lay’s Potato Chip is as memorable to me as “The Cowardly Lion”.
But my favorite is a larcenous Jack Gilford walking through a railway sleeper car where a box of Cracker Jacks is being passed between upper berths. Who could blame him for helping himself to a few handfuls. Of course, I didn’t want to go out and buy a box of Cracker Jacks. That was an easily fulfilled desire. What I really wanted was to take a train trip and sleep in an upper berth.
Kyle In Hollywood
Jon, I’m so glad to hear you quit smoking and that you haven’t gone back. Did you just go cold turkey or are you using some kind of program? I really hope you keep it up and I’m sure you feel better as well. I don’t really think people are phased by cancer–my grandmother was a heavy smoker and died of breast cancer, but I still smoked. You always think, “it’s never going to happen to me.”
I’ve never been influenced by celebrities to start smoking. I did it in college because all the people I hung around with were smokers. I only quit because 1. I couldn’t taste my food anymore and 2. By the time I made it up three flights of stairs to my art history class, I was huffing and puffing as though I ran a marathon. I’m glad I quit when I did, because those things are expensive as hell now.
Re: the Joseph Cotten ad–I wonder if people just looked at it in the 50’s and thought, “Hey, there’s two of him!” I know I thought that. Maybe it’s because I’m straight, but sometimes I need someone to hit me over the head with things such as gay subtext in movies or ads. I’m very dense at times. It’s sad to even admit it, but I am.
Kyle–perhaps the Cracker Jack people were in cahoots with the train business! But what I want to know is if you ever fulfilled your dream of a train trip and sleeping in an upper berth. There’s a train station by where I live and I’ve always held romantic visions of just traveling on one. I’ve never had a reason to and with my luck, I’d be on the one that would crash or something.
I once read an old Time magazine article from the 50’s where they lambasted actors and actresses for doing commercials. How times have changed–most of the celebrities now start their own lines so they can endorse something. I’m not easily swayed–usually, if I see a celebrity endorsing something, I tend to shy away from it.
Great collection of ads. I often wondered if in this period the stars themselves actually signed off on the ads, or if the studios managed the exploitation of their likenesses without their participation.
Alas, I’ve never been on a train (my daily trip on the LA subway doesn’t count) let alone slept in an upper berth.
That’s OK. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve decided a train trip without “The Ale and Quail Club” or “Sweet Sue’s All-Girl Jazz Band” on board would be as disappointing as an Cracker Jack box without a prize inside.
(Which month is TCM saluting train travel?)
Kyle In Hollywood
I suspect that some people did, and some did not. I have a Ginger Rogers cigarette ad, and I know she didn’t smoke!
I wonder if people were paid/encouraged to smoke only the brand advertised? What if people were caught smoking the “wrong” brand?
Jacqueline, I remember reading something (I can’t remember where I read it) about how the actresses were always endorsing Lux Soap, but hardly any of them ever used it since they were always using fancy, expensive face products.
Do you ever listen to some of those Lux Radio Theater shows? I love how they always talk about how so-and-so uses Lux soap for their beautiful radiant complextions! Yeah, right. I don’t think I would have bought it even back then.
Ron, I never knew Ginger Rogers was a non-smoker! I’m always shocked when I find out who *didn’t* smoke, because everyone seemed to be a walking cigarette machine in those days.
I’m guessing if people got caught smoking the wrong brand, maybe they got a stern lecture and a slap on the wrist. Maybe.
I have several of the Lux Theater shows that Gary Cooper did and the commercials for the product are too funny. I’ve thought the same thing that most of those celebs probably used more expensive, fancy stuff.
One of the commercials has two women seeing Ann Southern getting off a plane at the airport. One girl says ‘that’s some snappy outfit’ then the other says ‘that’s some snappy complexion’. What I want to know is, what exactly is a snappy complexion? Ha!
Angie, I love those Lux Theater Shows. It’s so great to hear all those stars on the radio! I have the one for “Midnight” with Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche and there’s a point where they start laughing in the middle. It’s wonderful. I’m so glad archive.org has so many of them to download.
I’m not sure what a snappy complexion is though. Honestly, it sounds like something you’d go see a doctor about.
I’ll have to check out archive.org. You probably know already but in case you don’t, Midnight is coming out on dvd in April. There are quite a few good classics coming out in April and May including Easy Living with Jean Arthur who, along with Barbara Stanwyck and Clara Bow, is one of my very fave actresses. Also we get three of Gary’s films new to dvd in May: Man of the West, Garden of Evil, and The Westerner.
It’s a great time to be a classic movie fan!
I get tickled too when the stars mess up doing those radio shows. You know I love Gary, but he was clearly made for films, not radio – ha!. For the most part he does a good job but he seems nervous sometimes and stumbles over his words. It’s adorable though.
I am interested in watching old classic movies, but don’t know of any sites.
Could anyone suggest the best ones out there?
Much thanks for your time,
Emily