On the day of the 2011 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, here's the back-cover advertisement from the June 1954 issue of The American Legion Magazine, which I mentioned in yesterday's post.
Broadcaster Red Barber1 leads off this group of baseball all-stars who are endorsing Camel cigarettes (a brand offered by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company).2
An excerpt from the ad copy:
"Year after year, Camels increase their popularity-lead over the second-place brand! Listen to Major Leaguers - listen to smokers everywhere - and you'll know why more people get more pure pleasure from Camels' mild, flavorful blend of costly tobaccos! Try Camels for 30 days - see what you've been missing! See how well Camels agree with you!"Here's the all-star lineup of smokers, which includes Bob Lemon, Mickey Mantle, Harvey Kuenn, Mel Parnell, Ted Kluszewski, Virgil Trucks, Red Schoendienst3, Warren Spahn, Harvey Haddix, Gerry Coleman, Granny Hamner4, Eddie Lopat, Bob Porterfield and Mickey Vernon:
Footnotes
1. Barber's full name was Walter Lanier Barber. He and Mel Allen (aka Mordechai ben Yehuda Elya) were the first two recipients of the National Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award.
2. Randomly, and somewhat unrelated to R.J. Reynolds, this is my favorite YouTube clip from "The Insider".
3. Full name: Albert Fred Schoendienst
4. Full name: Granville Wilbur Hamner
WOWIE!! Look at how young Mickey Mantle is - I didn't recognize him!
ReplyDeleteIt's so weird to see cigarette ads like this - and how odd is it that something so ubiquitous has turned so 'evil' in a very short amount of time? Growing up ALL of my friends' parents smoked, including mine. I'd love to go back in time and be able to smell what our schoolrooms smelled like, not to mention restaurants and other people's homes. Yet I don't recall being bothered by the smoke smell as a kid.