Classic Tobacco Deals

Hayworth, a screen siren, was portrayed as a smoker in films including Gilda (1946) and The Lady from Shanghai (1947). "I used to have to punch a time clock at Columbia," she later complained. "Every day of my life. Honey, I was under exclusive contract—like they owned me. Pose with that head of state, that kinda soap, this kind of cigarettes...and they get the stuff! I never saw any soap!"

Joan Crawford endorsed five different cigarette brands during her career.

While Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild (1947-52), he also appeared in Chesterfield cigarette ads. In 1948, Reagan plugged Chesterfield and another Warner Bros. movie, The Voice of the Turtle. Actress Jane Wyman, married to Reagan at the time, is seen in her own Chesterfield ads.

In the early 1950s, when TV overtook radio and cut into Hollywood's box office, tobacco companies began producing or sponsoring shows on the three national networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) including variety shows, Westerns and detective dramas. Steve McQueen starred in Wanted: Dead or Alive from 1958 to 1961. By 1970, tobacco commercials were barred from TV and radio in the United States.