America’s pastime and tobacco have been intricately related for 150 years, practically from the beginning of professional baseball. Tobacco companies were among the earliest and most visible advertisers at ballgames. This exhibition features examples of such promotional items from the University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society, which holds the most comprehensive collection on the tobacco industry, cigarette marketing, and anti-smoking advocacy at any university.
St. Louis Cardinals vs. New York Yankees Score book
Advertiements for Between the Acts Little Cigars and Liggett & Mysers Tobacco Company’s Chesterfield cigarettes
1926
Home Run cigarettes
Retail store advertising poster for the American Tobacco Company’s Home Run cigarettes
1910
Home Run Cigarettes
American Tobacco Company
1910
New York Americans
Fatima
Cigarette Card
1913
New York Nationals
Fatima
Cigarette Card
1913
Brooklyn Nationals
Fatima
Cigarette Card
1913
On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson (1919 – 1972) became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era as the first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Since the 1880s, African Americans had only been permitted to play in the Negro Leagues. In his ten-year playing career, Robinson won the first Rookie of the Year Award in 1947 and the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949. He was named an All-Star from 1949 through 1954. In 1955, he helped the Dodgers win their first World Series championship.
In 1997, MLB retired his uniform number, 42. Since 2004, MLB has held a Jackie Robinson Day when every player on every team wears number 42. Regrettably, like most of the baseball stars who played in the era before the 1964 Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health, Robinson endorsed brands of cigarettes. Although such endorsements faded beginning in the 1960s, cigarette advertisements continue to appear in baseball scorecards and programs until the 1990s. As recently as the 1980s, 22 of the 28 MLB stadiums had prominent billboards with cigarette advertisements.
“You get a change week-ends”
Advertisement for Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company’s Kool cigarettes
1939
“Give yourself a change on week-ends”
Advertisement for Brown and Wiliamson Tobacco Company’s Kool cigarettes
The Saturday Evening Post
1939
“So someone pitched you a pack of Kools”
Advertisement for Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company’s Kool cigarettes
The Saturday Evening Post
1940s
The American Tobacco Company sponsors of Dodger Baseball
Advertisement
The American Tobacco Company
Lucky Strike & Tareyton
1950s
Look for the Vantage Sports Puzzle
Advertisement
The Sporting News
R.J. Reynolds
Vantage
December 4, 1989
1981 U.S. Gov’t Report: Carlton Lowest
Advertisement
The New York Times
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
Carlton
June 6, 1981
Right Into the Stands
Advertisement
Chesterfield
1937
“Mild to insipidness or strong to harshness”
Advertisement
S. Anargyros Manufacturer
Murad
1910s
Scores every time…
Advertisement
The American Tobacco Company
Tareyton
Saturday Evening Post
August 27, 1955
Milwaukee Hero Lew Burdette
Advertisement
Lew Burdette, Milwaukee Braves
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
Camel
1958
Tareyton delivers the flavor…
Advertisement
Maury Wills, Los Angeles Dodgers
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
Tareyton
1963
Only Kool brings you real menthol magic!
Advertisement
Elston Howard, New York Yankees
Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.
Kool
1960
“With the Baseball Players in the Big Leagues, Chesterfield is Big Favorite”
Magazine advertisement for Liggest & Myers’ Chesterfield cigarettes, featuring Ted Williams and Stan Musial
1947
1962 Dual Filter Tareyton Baseball Guide and Record Book
Published by the American Tobacco Compan
The Sporting News
1962
“Viceroys are Smoother!”
Magazine advertisement for Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company’s Viceroy cigarettes, featuring Pittsburgh Pirates basebal player Dale Long.
1956
Professor,
Department of Family Medicine
Gerald Leon Wallace, MD, Endowed Chair in Family Medicine
College of Community Health Sciences
Director, Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
The University of Alabama
Collections Manager and Digital Archivist (2018-2022)
Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
The University of Alabama
Intern, Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society;
Graduate student, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alabama