Women Smoking

[Tracy Smith]

I seem to remember Amelia Earhart was used to advertise cigarettes as well.

Then I think they also used to advertise cigarettes as a diet aid: "Reach for a Lucky, instead of a sweet", or something to that effect.

 

[Kris Muhvic]

You've come a long way baby!

Ha Ha! Remember those old Virginia Slims ads, depicting 1900's ladies doing just about anything to hide a smoke?!

Anyway, yes, women smoked back then. And way before also. I think smoking was considered more of a relaxing treat, rather than an addictive substance. Recall the women who complained of men smoking in a lifeboat..."at a time like that!".

There are advertised in period catologues, and examples in today's antique stores, of dainty cigarette cases made for women. I think the First World War really got the "rolling" of smoking among women, of all classes, under way.

I notice the ashtrays from Titanic, with the matchbox holder in the middle (fire hazard?!?), could probably be easily purloined to a stateroom for privacy...most staterooms had fans...or a request for one from the steward would suffice in accomodating one's smokey-treat.

Also, a little last thing: if seeing a woman smoke was offensive to some- many, if not most, would simply just turn away and ignore the spectacle.

Take care-
Kris

 

[Dave Gittins]

An interesting curiosity from 1909 is Wolf-Ferrari's opera Il Segreto di Susanna. A husband's suspicions are aroused when he notices the smell of cigarette smoke in his house. Has his wife found a lover? After various comic complications Susanna's dreadful secret is revealed. She smokes! As he also smokes, all is forgiven and they join in celebrating the awful weed.

While I'm being operatic, there are those dreadful hussies in Carmen, who make cigars and smoke cigarettes.

 

[Andrew Maheux]

I guess back then, the effect ciggarettes had on your health wasn't widely known.

A.M.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

Perhaps not widely known, but I would hardly call it an unknown. Hell, King James the First figured it out back in the 1600's. For more, click on Counterblaste to Tobacco

 

[Kris Muhvic]

Of course, never forget the ..."well, whatever, I just don't care!" effect that is probably more influential than science, heads-of-state, pulpits, etc. could ever have!

Now, regarding a health conscienceness at this time, what with the many of hazards to deal with (one example: imagine every house on your block billowing coal smoke 24/7!), a cigarette seems quite innocent!

I don't know...I would rather take my chances with second-hand smoke than having a chamber pot under my bed!

Please...take care!
Kris

 

[Yuri Singleton]

Yeah, or emptied out the window from the floor above you. "Look out below!!"

Ahhh, the good ole days.

Yuri

 

[bob hudson]

well, I know women smoked back then, because Marlboro was originally marketed to women...
real men didn't use filters...
Love the site!

 

[D. M. Pogue]

As Randy above has stated, it was not improper. In fact, it was the latest thing. See, it wasn't so much that the smoking room was exclusively for men because women shouldn't smoke, It was just the men's place to get away. Seeing a woman in there would compare to seeing a woman in an "All Female Strip Bar." It's a club for men, and women are not supposed to be seen in there, (With Exception {The Strippers Themselves})It would be discracful.

 

[Randy Bryan Bigham]

London musical comedy star - and Lucile clothehorse - Lily Elsie having her cigarette lit in a scene in "The Dollar Princess," Daly's Theatre (1909).

 

[Randy Bryan Bigham]

Singer Gertie Millar (in private life Mrs. Lionel Monckton) "lighting up" in 1912. She wears a Lucile gown from the London stage musical "Gipsy Love."

 

[Randy Bryan Bigham]

So far nobody has included Rene Harris among Titanic's "Ladies Who Smoke."

I don't know if Rene smoked in 1912 but she's one of the few women survivors (maybe the only one)who mentions going to the generally all-male smoking room on Titanic. She wrote about it in her 1932 Liberty Magazine article. So it seems probable she smoked en route.

She definitely smoked in later years. Playwright Moss Hart paints quite a rollicking character study of his long-suffering producer in his autobiography "Act One" (New York: Random House,1959). The book is a treat of a read and the section on Rene is hilarious.

 

[Inger Sheil]

Randy, I'll be digging up that autobio - sounds tremendous.

Many thanks also for the photos of lovely ladies lighting up. I'm reminded of that wonderful scene in the Edith Wharton novel 'The House of Mirth' when Lily Bart is determined not to let a suitor knows she smokes, only to have a friend let the cat out of the bag when she asks Lily for a cigarette.

 

[Shane Kurup]

Just another note to add- I do believe that it was the royals who set the stage for "fashionable" ladies to smoke. King George's (1910-19?? the husband of Queen Mary) mother Alexander I think? (Please correct me if I am wrong- but I'm not hot on royal history!) used to smoke.
At the Edwardian royal functions, most of the fashionable ladies would smoke publicly with their white gloves and cigarette holders, with the men while they were watching entertainment etc. after dinner. This was shown in the recent BBC production "The Lost Prince".
It gave them an air of sophistication and was percieved to be a practice of the elite. (Unlike today!).

Shane

 

[Lee Gilliland]

If I recall correctly, Mrs. Harris stated somewhere (I'll have to dig for it) that the ladies were allowed only in the vestibule of the smoke room, where there were chairs especially for that purpose.