How to Get More Fun Out of Smoking
Ram
1941
What’s not to love about smoking? The cancer! The excise taxes! The inability to light up anywhere you want! Finally, a book to bring back the fun of tobacco.
This book is a hoot. It does belong in archives or special collections as it is a great insight into the tobacco culture of yesteryear. I still laugh that even back in the day, someone would think there needs to be a book about smoking. Imagine sitting in the pitch meeting for that book. “I don’t know if the kids will take to smoking if we don’t really convince them of the fun.”
Take a look at the second and third scan below. Pregnant moms can light up with no problems. Reported heart/lung issues also haven’t been proven, so live wild! Perhaps this might be a nice choice to promote “balance” in the collection.
Mary
Actually I think the book makes sense for the time. Smokers might want to know how to care for a pipe or to observe cigarette etiquette. But it looks more like a reassurance book–see, all those bad things you’ve heard about smoking are false! Nothing to worry about!
Pregnant women, light up, you’re smoking for two.
Sidney P. Ram was in the tobacco business: http://books.google.com/books?id=xiADAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=sidney+p.+ram&source=bl&ots=nJOkYoSaDN&sig=H9eG3Ic0BenA9Wpw3sKYP1w6hF8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JLCSUfTzMYmi4APp4YCYCw&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=sidney%20p.%20ram&f=false
Silly smokers, smoking doesn’t cause cancer, incorrect smoking techniques cause cancer! Learn how to smoke correctly, and you’ll be just fine.
The title, “How to get more fun out of smoking,” made me think at first that they were going to talk about smoking substances other than tobacco!
Is it bad that even though I am a confirmed “Enemy Of Smoking,”* I still think this book is awesome?
* Is this like being a Communist? “Anti-smokers Under The Bed” doesn’t really have a snappy ring to it, I have to say.
Angel, that doesn’t surprise me. Tobacco companies pushed seemingly objective reassurances about how safe smoking is for years.
Why does the cover have an inhaler stuck onto a toothbrush? Oh, wait, I guess that does have to do with smoking…
Ah hah…and just what was the life expectancy of the average person in 1941, again?
@Amy Padden: In the middle of WWII? Probably not very high, but more due to shrapnel than smoking.