Among the family material that I am trying to catalog (not just on this blog but also in real time--in the limited space of my study) are magazine and newspaper clippings, recipes, greeting cards, canceled bank checks, and other such ephemera. Occasionally, I will load up some images that strike me as interesting. These images are from the cover pages of The Literary Digest. Only the covers remain; the pages of text were long removed. The image at above-left is from the inside back cover of The Literary Digest, dated February 21, 1931 (Vol. 108, No. 8), with price noted on the front cover as 10 cents. The next image, an advertisement for Chesterfields, is from the the back cover of the February 6, 1932, edition of The Literary Digest (vol. 112, No. 6). The third image is on the back cover of the April 23, 1932, edition of the same magazine (vol. 113, No. 4).
When I first began noticing cigarette advertising in the late-1960s and early-1970s, the images associated with cigarette advertising were rugged cowboys (the Marlboro Man) and women celebrating their sexual and cultural freedom ("You've Come a Long Way, Baby"). I did not realize that women were a target audience for cigarette companies as early as the 1930s. Notice that one of the ads is being endorsed by Betty Compson, an actress of the early-twentieth century. And, despite the note in tiny print about taking the advice of your physician, the first ad promotes cigarette smoking as an almost healthy exercise, associating the "toasting" of the tobacco to healthful sunshine. For a better view, click on the images.
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