The Cigarette Century

by Allan Brandt

  15 Lisa Rosner, ed., The Technological Fix, Hagley Perspectives on Business and Culture (New York: Routledge, 2004).

  16 Hugh Cullman, Interview by R. C. Hottelet, CBS Evening News, January 11, 1964.

  17 “Richards Calls ‘Digest’ Cigaret Article ‘Unfair,’” Advertising Age, June 30, 1958, 1.

  18 Richard Kluger, Ashes to Ashes (New York: Knopf, 1996), 170.

  19 Representative John A. Blatnik, “Making Cigarette Ads Tell the Truth,” Harper’s Magazine, August 1958, 45-49.

  20 Representative John A. Blatnik, “False and Misleading Advertising (Filter-Tip Cigarettes),” House Committee on Government Operations, 1958.

  21 Blatnik, “Making Cigarette Ads Tell the Truth,” 45-49.

  22 M. B. Neuberger, Smoke Screen: Tobacco and the Public Welfare (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1963), 57.

  23 Clarence Cook Little, [letter to Timothy V. Hartnett re: increased filter consumption], January 30,1959, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/otf1aa00.

  24 “Filtered for Safety,” Time, July 29, 1957, 28.

  25 Clarence Cook Little to Henry R. Luce, August 3, 1957, Bates No. 1005039176/9177, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ccp94e00.

  26 Henry R. Luce to Clarence Cook Little, August 9, 1957, Bates No. 1005039186/9188, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/atv74e00.

  27 “Tobacco: End of the Tar Derby,” Time, February 15, 1960, 93.

  28 Robert Alden, “Advertising: Shift in the Cigarette Industry Stirs a New Dispute,” New York Times, February 8, 1960.

  29 Fritschler, 69-71; and Walter Sullivan, “Cigarettes Peril Health, U. S. Report Concludes; ‘Remedial Action’ Urged,” New York Times, January 12, 1964.

  30 “F TC Tries to Kick the Habit,” Business Week, January 25, 1964, 28.

  31 Ibid.; “To Smoke—or Not to Smoke? The Individual Ponders the U.S. Health Report—and the Industry Reels from Tough FTC Proposals,” Newsweek, January 27,1964, 70-73; and “Tobacco: The Washington Hearings on Cigarette Labeling,” Time, March 27, 1964, 79-80.

  32 Beginning in the early years of the New Deal, a tobacco price-support program was undertaken to stabilize tobacco prices for farmers under the provisions of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. The program comprised two principal provisions: first, quotas that limited tobacco growing to those holding specific rights to do so; and second, guarantees of a minimum price to farmers within the quota system. This program, by reducing the acreage committed to farming tobacco, had the desired effect of raising prices and the overall economic well-being of the farmers. See Anthony J. Badger, Prosperity Road: The New Deal, Tobacco, and North Carolina (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980). On the history and culture of twentieth-century tobacco agriculture, see also Pete Daniel, Breaking the Bond: The Transformation of Cotton, Tobacco, and Rice Cultures Since 1880 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1985); and Peter Benson, “To Not Be Sorry: Moral Life in North Carolina Tobacco Country,” Harvard University PhD dissertation, 2007.

  33 David G. Altman et al., “Tobacco Farming and Public Health: Attitudes of the General Public and Farmers,” Journal of Social Issues 53, no. 1 (1997): 113-128; Fritschler; H. M. Sapolsky, “The Political Obstacles to the Control of Cigarette Smoking in the United States,” Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law 5, no. 2 (1980): 277-290; “Tobacco Farmers Protest Tax with ‘Tea Party,’” New York Times, June 10, 1994; and Henry West et al., “Tobacco Bill Will Aid Farmers,” Lexington Herald-Leader, May 17, 2004.

  34 See especially Howard Wolinsky and Tom Brune, The Serpent on the Staff: The Unhealthy Politics of the American Medical Association (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1994). Relevant industry memoranda include: Helmut Wakeham, “AMA Education and Research Foundation Fund—Tobacco and Health Committee,” December 9, 1965, Bates No. 680911531/1532, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/fgk93f00; and William Kloepfer, “Report on Meeting at AMA Re: ERF Tobacco Program,” September 3, 1971, Bates No. 680911522/1524, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/bgk93f00.

  35 On the history of the AMA-ERF scientific efforts, see Kluger, Ashes to Ashes, 360-362.

  36 F. J. L. Blasingame, “Full Text of AMA Letter of Testimony to F.T.C.,” JAMA 188, no. 1 (1964): 31.

  37 Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson, The Case Against Congress: A Compelling Indictment of Corruption on Capitol Hill (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1968), 329-330.

  38 “Congress Urged to Act as F TC Hits Cigarets,” Advertising Age, June 29, 1964, 59.

  39 Richard A. Wegman, “Cigarettes and Health: A Legal Analysis,” Cornell Law Quarterly 51, no. 4 (1966): 678-759.

  40 E. A. Darr, [letter to Paul Hahn re: TIRC], July 30, 1957, Bates No. 961000327/0328, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ags94f00.

  41 Carl Thompson, “Meeting with Representatives of TIRC Members, Thursday, June 7, 1956,” June 12, 1956, http://tobaccodocuments.org/ness/4637.html.

  42 Covington & Burling, “Confidential Report Prepared by TI Outside Counsel Reflecting TI Outside Counsel’s Advice and Thoughts Regarding Industry Strategy,” January 1963, Bates Nos. MNATPRIV00024887-900, http://tobaccodocuments.org/bliley_atc/MNATPRIV00024887-4900.html.

  43 Philip J. Rogers and Geoffrey F. Todd, “Report on Policy Aspects of the Smoking and Health Situation in the U.S.A.,” October 1964, Bates No. 2048925980/6014; http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/prq74e00, 6.

  44 Ibid., 3.

  45 Ibid., 8.

  46 Elizabeth Brenner Drew, “The Quiet Victory of the Cigarette Lobby: How It Found the Best Filter Yet—Congress,” Atlantic Monthly, September 1965, 76-80.

  47 Three other legal subcommittees reported to this group. One centered attention on medical- legal issues, CTR oversight, and congressional analysis, as well as “making certain that no assurances of any kind relating to the safety of smoking are given by any manufacturers (e.g., in advertisements).” The industry sought to walk a fine line between denying the medical harms of smoking and, at the same time, avoiding any guarantees of safety. Another committee centered its attention on the F TC and its evolving regulatory proposals, and a third on litigation.

  48 Frederick P. Haas, “Re: Summary of Meeting of Executives of Various Tobacco Companies,” February 20, 1964, Bates Nos. LG2000133-8, http://tobaccodocuments.org/youth/FtToLIG19640220.me.html.

  49 Rogers and Todd.

  50 “Re: Meetings of January 17, 20, 1964,” January 23, 1964, Bates Nos. LG2008157-64, http://tobaccodocuments.org/youth/AmToLIG19640123.Me.html (emphasis added).

  51 “Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health,” Consumer Reports, October 1965, 488-491.

  52 D. R. Hardy, Shook, Hardy, and Bacon “When to Warn—Why—and How,” April 20, 1970, Bates Nos. 502083233-60, http://tobaccodocuments.org/rjr/502083233-3260_D1.html.

  53 Emerson Foote, Smoking and Health Newsletter, July-August 1965, Bates No. 1005036558/6565, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/cun94e00, p.2.

  54 “Biographical Sketch of Earle C. Clements,” 1973, Bates No. 521044984, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/hjl24f00.

  55 Drew, 77.

  56 Michael Pertschuk, The Giant Killers (New York: W.W. Norton, 1986), 34.

  57 Jonathan Kwitny, “Defending the Weed: How Embattled Group Uses Tact, Calculation to Blunt Its Opposition Tobacco Institute Manages Cigaret Firms’ Strategy,” Wall Street Journal, January 24, 1972.

  58 Robert A. Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate, vol. 3 (New York: Knopf, 2002), 624, 630-631.

  59 Drew, 76-80; Oren Harris to P. R. Dixon, August 19, 1964, Bates No. 680534985/4986, http://legacy.library.ucsf./tid/iyl93ff00; and William McGaffin, “Smoking: Politics and Pressures,” Chicago Daily News, February 15, 1965.

  60 Pertschuk, 37.

  61 “Re: Meetings of January 17, 20, 1964,” January 23, 1964, Bates Nos. LG2008157-64, http://tobaccodocuments.org/youth/amtolig19640123.me.html.

  62 “Cigarette Controls: A Sick Joke So Far,” Consumer Reports, February 1968, 98.


  63 Kluger, Ashes to Ashes, 289; and William McGaffin, “Smoking: Politics and Pressures,” Chicago Daily News, February 15, 1965.

  64 “8 Congressmen Ask Cigarette Bill Veto,” New York Times, July 17, 1965.

  65 Pertschuk, 33.

  66 Ibid.

  67 “Cigarettes vs. F.T.C.,” New York Times, July 9, 1965.

  68 Drew, 76.

  69 D. S. Greenberg, “Tobacco: After Publicity Surge, Surgeon General’s Report Seems to Have Little Enduring Effect,” Science 145, no. 3636 (1964): 1021.

  70 “Cigarette Controls: A Sick Joke So Far.”

  71 Beyond the above sources, see also Dan Cordtz, “Cigarets and Health: Congress Likely to Vote a Mild Law Requiring Warnings on Packages,” Wall Street Journal, March 22, 1965; Edward Schneier, “The Politics of Tobacco,” Nation, September 22, 1969, 274-279; and “New Label Bill Worse Than None,” Sarasota Herald Tribune, July 16, 1965.

  72 “Surgeon General Asks Stronger Smoking Warning,” New York Times, April 17, 1969; “F. T. C. Demands Cigarette Ads Include ‘Clear’ Danger Warning,” New York Times, July 2, 1971.

  73 Pertschuk, 50-81.

  74 “Cigarette Manufacturers Adopt New Code,” Christian Century, May 13, 1964; and “F. P. Haas to Mr. Toms, Mr. Harrington, and Mr. Horan, Re: Meetings at Covington & Burling with Regard to the Code and F.T.C. Problems,” May 8, 1964, Bates Nos. LG2008142-50, http://tobaccodocuments.org/ness/34703.html.

  75 “Text of Cigarette Industry’s New Code,” New York Times, April 28, 1964.

  76 Richard W. Pollay, “Promises, Promises: Self-Regulation of U.S. Cigarette Broadcast Advertising in the 1960s,” Tobacco Control 3, no. 2 (1994): 134-44; and J. W. Richards, Jr., J. B. Tye, and P. M. Fischer, “The Tobacco Industry’s Code of Advertising in the United States: Myth and Reality,” Tobacco Control 5, no. 4 (1996): 295-311.

  77 “Report of Proceedings, Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives,” June 10, 1969, Bates No. 968219048/9238, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/auwx94f00, p. 11.

  78 Ibid., 13.

  79 Ibid., 17.

  80 Ibid., 20.

  81 Ibid., 25.

  82 Christopher Lydon, “A Foe of Smoking Tells of TV Study,” New York Times, June 9, 1969; and Stanley Cohen, “NAB Cigaret Code Met Plenty of Resistance, Testimony Reveals,” Advertising Age, June 16, 1969, 93.

  83 Sam Blum, “An Ode to the Cigarette Code,” Harper’s Magazine, March 1966, 60-63.

  84 Ibid.

  85 After David Ogilvy retired in 1973, Ogilvy & Mather began accepting tobacco industry accounts.

  86 John Horn, “Cigarettes: Hard Look at TV Ads,” New York Herald Tribune, April 16, 1964.

  87 John D. Morris, “Cigarette Code on Ads Dropped,” New York Times, November 13, 1970.

  88 Leo Burnett, “The Marlboro Story: How One of America’s Most Popular Filter Cigarettes Got That Way” [as advertised in the New Yorker], November 15, 1958, Bates No. 2045214247/ 4249, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/dvp65e00; and Kluger, Ashes to Ashes, 73-74.

  89 Kluger, Ashes to Ashes, 179.

  90 Philip Morris, “Marlboro Copy History, 1982,” Bates No. 2080847898/7912, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/alr20c00; N. Hafez and P. M. Ling, “How Philip Morris Built Marlboro into a Global Brand for Young Adults: Implications for International Tobacco Control,” Tobacco Control 14, no. 4 (2005): 262-71; and Kluger, Ashes to Ashes, 179-180.

  91 Leo Burnett to Roger Greene, January 7, 1955, Bates No. 2040320959/0961, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/brp93e00.

  92 Ibid.

  93 Burnett, The Marlboro Story.

  94 Philip Morris, “Marlboro Copy History.”

  95 Leo Burnett to Roger Greene, January 7, 1955, Bates No. 2040320959/0961, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/brp93e00.

  96 Michael E. Starr, “The Marlboro Man: Cigarette Smoking and Masculinity in America,” Journal of Popular Culture 17, no. 4 (1984): 45.

  97 Elizabeth B. Drew, “The Cigarette Companies Would Rather Fight Than Switch,” New York Times Magazine, May 4, 1969.

  98 For illustrations of industry involvement in the production and distribution of the article, see “J. V. Blalock to A. Y. Yeaman, E. P. Finch, and J. W. Burgard, Re: Stanley Frank Article,” March 28, 1967, Bates No. 690012994; J. V. Blalock, “Re: B&W, Joseph Field, Stanley Frank, and True Magazine,” 1968, Bates No. 690012567/2569; and J. V. Blalock to R. Spangler, January 17, 1968, Bates No. TO12656.

  99 Stanley Frank, “To Smoke or Not to Smoke: That Is Still the Question,” True Magazine 1968, Bates No. 680241037/1044, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ydv08c00.

  100 Elizabeth Drew, “The Truth About . . . True’s Article on Smoking,” Consumer Reports, June 1968, 336-339.

  101 See Donald Cooley, “Smoke Without Fear,” 1954, Bates Nos. 11310873-908, http://tobaccodocuments.org/landman/11310873-0908.html; and Bert C. Goss to J. W. Hill, B. Littin, W. T. Hoyt, and R. W. Darrow, “Editorial Tour Idea,” June 8, 1954, John W. Hill Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society, Box 111, Folder 1, http://tobaccodocuments.org/ness/3467.html.

  102 Drew, “The Truth About . . . True’s Article on Smoking.”

  103 Jonathan Kwitny, “Defending the Weed; How Embattled Group Uses Tact, Calculation to Blunt Its Opposition Tobacco Institute Manages Cigaret Firms’ Strategy,” Wall Street Journal, January 24, 1972.

  104 Rogers and Todd, 32.

  105 “Cigarette Controls: A Sick Joke So Far.”

  106 Ibid.; U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Report to Congress Pursuant to the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act, 1966 (Washington, DC: Federal Trade Commission, 1967), 29.

  107 “Cigarette Controls: A Sick Joke So Far.”

  108 Matthew L. Myers et al., Staff Report on the Cigarette Advertising Investigation (Washington, DC: Federal Trade Commission, 1981), 20.

  109 Ibid.

  110 “Cigarette Controls: A Sick Joke So Far.”

  111 Norman I. Silber, Test and Protest: The Influence of Consumers Union (Teaneck, NJ: Holmes & Meier, 1983).

  112 Thomas Whiteside, Selling Death: Cigarette Advertising and Public Health (New York: Liveright, 1971), 55.

  113 Drew, “The Cigarette Companies Would Rather Fight Than Switch.”

  114 Whiteside, 56-57. See also Pamela Pennock, “Televising Sin: Efforts to Restrict the Televised Advertisement of Cigarettes and Alcohol in the United States, 1950s to 1980s,” Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television 25, no. 4 (2005), 619-636.

  115 Whiteside, 68-69.

  116 Ibid., 71.

  117 Ibid., 70.

  118 “How Goes the War on Smoking?” Medical News, February 14, 1969, 46. Yul Brynner would later film a similar ad before his death from lung cancer. See “The Late Yul Brynner in Anti-Smoking Ads,” New York Times, February 20, 1986.

  119 Kenneth E. Warner, Selling Smoke: Cigarette Advertising and Public Health (Washington, DC: APHA Health Policy Monograph Series, 1986), 26.

  120 Joseph A. Page, “The Law Professor Behind ASH, Soup, Pump and Crash,” New York Times, August 23, 1970.

  121 R. R. Millhiser to P. D. Smith, “Subject: Anti-Cigarette Commercials,” February 20, 1969, Bates No. 2012550207, http://tobaccodocuments.org/bliley_pm/22805.html.

  122 John D. Morris, “F.C.C., in 6-1 Vote, Seeks Ban on Broadcast Cigarette Ads,” New York Times, February 6, 1969.

  123 Drew, “The Cigarette Companies Would Rather Fight Than Switch.”

  124 “New Medium for the Message,” Consumer Reports, May 1976, 277-279; and Pertschuk, 38-39.

  125 “Worldwide Increase in Smoking Found by Health Service,” New York Times, January 8, 1972.

  126 Jack Gould, “Networks Look for Lean Season,” New York Times, November 16, 1970.

  127 Kenneth E. Warner, “The Effects of the Anti-Smoking Campaign on Cigarette Consumption,” American Journal of Public Health 67, no. 7 (1977): 645-650; and Whiteside.

  128 Whiteside, 120.

  129 Ibid., 120-121.

 
; 130 Ibid., 122.

  131 John D. Morris, “Senate Opposes TV Cigarette Ads,” New York Times, December 13, 1969.

  132 “Agency Ruled Able to Curb Cigarettes That Are High-Tar,” New York Times, April 25, 1975.

  133 Colman McCarthy, “Cigarettes and Politics,” Washington Post, May 23, 1975.

  134 Horace Kornegay, “Remarks at Annual Meeting of the Tobacco Institute,” January 29, 1976, Bates No. TIMN0067698/7714, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/mox92f00.

  135 Richard Doll, “In Memoriam: Ernst Wynder, 1923-1999,” American Journal of Public Health 89, no. 12 (1999): 1798-1799; Richard Kluger, Interview with Ernest L. Wynder, April 1, 1991, Bates No. 83724553/4567, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/mso34c00; and Richard Kluger, Interview with Dietrich Hoffman, May 31, 1991, Bates No. 96746924/6928, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/qsw44c00.

  136 Mark Parascandola, “Science, Industry, and Tobacco Harm Reduction: A Case Study of Tobacco Industry Scientists; Involvement in the National Cancer Institute’s Smoking and Health Program,” Public Health Reports 120, no. 3 (2005): 338-349.

  137 Victor Cohn, “Some Cigarettes Now ‘Tolerable,’ Doctor Says,” Washington Post, August 10, 1978.

  138 U.S. Public Health Service, Office on Smoking and Health, Smoking and Health: A Report of the Surgeon General (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, 1979).

  139 A. Fairchild and J. Colgrove, “Out of the Ashes: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of the ‘Safer’ Cigarette in the United States,” American Journal of Public Health 94, no. 2 (2004): 192-204. See also Kluger, Ashes to Ashes, 428-434; Richard Kluger, “Gio B. Gori” [background and published works], April 4, 1989, Bates No. 96746917/6923, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/psw44c00; and Richard Kluger, “Gio B. Gori: Questions and Answers,” March 1989, Bates No. 2015002615/2620, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/gnk68e00. For more on Gori and his relationship with the industry, see Murray Senkus, “Meeting with Dr. G. Gori Deputy Director, Division of Cancer Cause and Prevention National Cancer Institute, May 12, 1978,” May 17, 1978, Bates No. 2074658529/8531, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/drj66c00; Murray Senkus to Gio Gori, March 17, 1973, Bates No. 501990170/0171, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/bmn29d00; I. W. Hughes to Gio B. Gori, March 28, 1972, Bates No. TIFL0539459/9460, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/tex02f00; I. W. Hughes to Gio Gori, May 31, 1973, Bates No. 680143028, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/eou04f00; Murray Senkus to Gio B. Gori, March 17, 1973, Bates No. 955018146/8147, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/htt41a00; R. B. Seligman, “Meeting with Gio Gori—July 20, 1977, National Cancer Institute,” July 21, 1977, Bates No. 1005072118/2122, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ttt38e00; and I. W. Hughes, “Meeting with Gio Gori—January 18, 1972,” January 21, 1972, Bates No. 680231771/1775, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/owq04f00.