MovieChat Forums > Perry Mason (1957) Discussion > Smoking

Smoking

posted 8 years ago by wesperkins
57 replies | jump to latest

Did everyone smoke in shows back then as much as they do in PM? When was smoking not allowed on tv shows or is that a misconception? I've seem to gotten different results looking it up. I know it's against the law to advertise cigarettes but can characters actualky smoke on camera in tv? And I know maybe you can get around it by having a lit cigarette but never show a character inhale. But is it legal to inhale? My original post was only going to have the first question, but then the rest of it just popped in my head and I figured I would ask. I am a younger viewer of PM but love it.

[–] davetruman68 8 years ago

The only regular I didn't see smoking was Della (or Barb Hale). Did anyone else notice that or was it just me?

[–] rosarypliers 8 years ago

Yes, I did notice. TCOT Black-Eyed Blonde suggests that she smokes, though. A suspect asks Perry for a cigarette, and he's out, so Della opens her purse. Why would she keep cigarettes in her purse, except for smoking?

You may cross-examine.

[–] davetruman68 8 years ago

Redirect your honor. That testimony assumes facts not in evidence. We still never saw Della smoke through the entire run of the series.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] enrightco 8 years ago

Wes,
I'm old enough to remember when these episodes ran first run. Smoking was first banned from TV in or around 67 I'm going to guess (easily Googled). Warnings on cig packages came at about the same time. The number of people who smoked was staggering and very unfortunately. The guy who played the prosecuting attourney himself died of lung cancer I'm pretty sure (great actor).

[–] grizzledgeezer 8 years ago

That was William Talman. He was apparently the first actor ever to film a message encouraging people not to smoke.

[–] wesperkins 8 years ago

Thanks for info. I love watching these shows and seeing the little things, like the smoking and product placement at the end credits, etc.. Stuff you don't see these days. The my mind wonders why don't they do this anymore and why. I've also discovered and it's been talked about on other threads all the actors who would guest star on the various shows of the time. And I find it really interesting about how they will have the same actor portray new characters on the same show.

[–] rosarypliers 8 years ago

I noticed that everything is becoming more dynamic. Instead of showing several items, like "Beads of Bleach" during the closing credits, they rely on commercials during the show, because many people don't bother watching the closing credits. Plus, they are often cut off in syndication. I think TV show advertising is becoming more and more dynamic. When you watch on Hulu, they ask you "Is this ad relevant to you?" and if you press "No", you get different commercials. Just as annoying, but targeted at a different audience. When I started watching "Ironside" on hulu, they tried to gain my interest for a really huge refrigerator that apparently can do everything except cleaning itself, and a device called a "tread climber", which reportedly burns twice as much calories as a stepper or a treadmill. (Funny, I didn't know those devices burnt the calories for you…) When I kept pressing "No", I got car commercials.

You may cross-examine.

[–] mtevens 8 years ago

I was a little kid when Perry was first on (we watched it every week), and back in those days it seemed like almost everybody smoked, at least most men. Women smoked, but not as many. And on TV they usually were sophisticated type women. You didn't see moms like June Cleaver or Donna Reed smoke.

A well appointed living room or executive office would have ash trays all over, and a china or silver cigarette box and matching table lighter on the coffee table or desk for company.

Cigarette commercials hadn't been outlawed yet, some shows were sponsored by the big tobacco companies.

All dramas of that period had people smoking like chimneys. It didn't seem to happen so much on sitcoms, although Lucy & Ricky smoked because their sponsor was a cigarette company.

After William Talman died of lung cancer, I saw the commercial where he condemned smoking for the American Cancer Society. In our house it hit hard, because Dad was a long-time smoker.

[–] davetruman68 8 years ago

Some shows also had their stars do commercials for the cigarette companies right on the set. Beverly Hillbillies and The Dick Van Dyke show comes to mind.

[–] rosarypliers 8 years ago

Some shows (like "I love Lucy") make it look like non-smokers never existed. Which is definitely not true. There were, in fact, entire non-smoking households, but nearly all of them kept an ashtray in the kitchen cabinet in case a guest lit up. I remember that, when I was a child, most people didn't ask if they could smoke. By the time I had started smoking, etiquette was as follows: If you're a guest, ask if you can smoke. In your own home, you don't have to ask any guests for their permission. I handled it like that for most of my adult life. It wasn't until a few years ago that I started to reconsider. Maybe being a good host includes not to monoxide your guests without their permission.

You may cross-examine.

[–] mtevens 8 years ago

That's exactly how it was back then. Everybody had ashtrays, unless they were "those crazy health nuts". And then Public Smoking changed, thanks to public opinion and later by law.

Before the 1970s, you would be hard pressed to find a restaurant with a No Smoking area. After dinner coffee and a cigarette were almost the norm, never mind the people at the other tables.

We used to go to a restaurant that had two long dining rooms and a smaller one connecting the other two, in a sort of H shape.

When we started going there in the early 70s, the smaller room was the No Smoking area. As time went by, more and more people didn't want to breath other people's smoke, and by the time we stopped going there, the small dining room was the Smoking Area. Of course now you can't smoke in any restaurant. Hurray!!!

Now you can't even smoke in bars! Just look at the people standing outside bars, restaurants and office buildings. They'd rather be cold, or wet than give up there smokes.

[–] rosarypliers 8 years ago

I must admit that, even from a smoker's point of view, restaurant practices used to be really confusing. I remember my first visit to a restaurant without my parents. I was 13 at that time. My two friends were older. The restaurant looked "modern", from my young teen point of view. Many expressionist paintings at the walls. We had a small table for three close to the wall. There was only one table closer to the wall, and it had a card pinned to it that said: "Non-smoking table". My friends smoked up a storm. I didn't smoke at that time, but I already considered taking it up. Any way, I wondered about the purpose of making a single table in a restaurant a "non-smoking" table, when everybody else in the same room was free to smoke.
Then, eventually, smoking bans were implemented in many public businesses. It wasn't until all ashtrays on my floor were removed that I realized how many they were. The janitor had removed all ashtrays, but the pegs they had been resting on were still inside the wall. A peg every three feet. And it wasn't until the railways did away with the smoking cars that I realized what a paradise for smokers they used to be.
The only place were mandated smoking bans don't seem to be enforced: Mental hospitals. Schizophrenics are almost always smokers, and many of them are addicted to cigarettes to a point that they will try to short-wire electric appliances or get a spark out of an electric socket (with the aluminum foil from a pack) to light a cigarette, if ignition devices are forbidden.

You may cross-examine.

[–] lawson14 8 years ago

At the bowling alley, they used to have those snake shaped holders right at the ball return so smokers could park their cigarettes while they bowled.

[–] wesperkins 8 years ago

I have been the GM of a few restaurants and the smoking section used to be next to the non smoking section. It didn't really matter bc smoke would go everywhere. The oddest smoking and non smoking sections I found were on an airplane. It didn't matter where you sat if the plane wasn't huge, everyone got second hand smoke. It seems surreal these days post 9-11 and with all the smoking bans that smoking on a plane was acceptable.
PS- were movie theatres like this? Back in the day could you smoke while watching a movie? I remember some movie talking about this and saying there was a smoking section in theatres with upstairs seating, but I've never been to a movie theater like that or heard of smoking being allowed in a movie theater.

[–] rosarypliers 8 years ago

Nat Sherman came up with their Havana Ovals as a cigarette for people who are used to smoking cigars but could not do so on a plane because airlines did not allow cigars or pipes. If they came anything close to the real thing, Havana Ovals probably smelled up the plane just like a cigar would — it's not just the amount of smoke that counts, but how pungent it is.

In Britain, you could smoke in theaters (or "cinemas", as they call them there, lol) well into the 60s. You could also smoke on the upstairs platform of "roadmaster" buses. In Germany, you could smoke in movie theaters until the 1930s.

You may cross-examine.

[–] wesperkins 8 years ago

In Britain, you could smoke in theaters (or "cinemas", as they call them there, lol) well into the 60s. You could also smoke on the upstairs platform of "roadmaster" buses. In Germany, you could smoke in movie theaters until the 1930s.

Sounds like Hitler was an anti smoker lol

[–] rosarypliers 8 years ago

Actually, he was. He gave up smoking quite early in his life, claiming that it was unhealthy and a waste of money (he did have a point there, actually) and he promised everyone in his entourage a golden watch if they quit smoking. He actually gave away several watches. However, those who were closest to him, Goebbels and Goering, continued to smoke, and so did his mistress, Eva Braun.
The Nazis were especially against women smoking — it interfered with their understanding that a woman should be as healthy as possible, so she could give birth to as many healthy children as possible.

You may cross-examine.

[–] liscarkat (18373) 2 years ago

When I grew up in the '50s and '60s all the adults in my family, and all of their friends smoked constantly. It's a miracle that neither I nor my brother ended up smokers. Smoking was allowed in theater balconies, restaurants, grocery stores, libraries, and doctors' offices. I even had a couple of doctors who would smoke while they were in the tiny examining room with patients. It was a different world.