Tennis Tobacco & Virginia Slims – The Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society

Created in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1970, the Virginia Slims Tennis Circuit was a response to the underpayment of women athletes. It was also a marketing opportunity for cigarette maker Philip Morris to promote a new brand aimed at the liberated woman.

This exhibition tracks the evolution of the Virginia Slims tour and the decades-long efforts by Doctors Ought to Care and other organizations to throw tobacco sponsors out of sports.

Listen to the Introduction for Fault: Tennis Tobacco and Virginia Slims by Alan Blum, MD here on Youtube

A Century of Using Tennis to Sell Cigarettes

Tennis originated in France around the 12th century as a game that involved hitting a ball with a bare hand and later with a glove. By the 16th century, tennis was popular among European royalty, and the glove had been replaced by a racket. The sport was refined in the 1860s in England, and England’s first men’s championship event was at Wimbledon in 1877. In 1884 the ladies’ singles championships began. The first American national tennis tournament was played in 1880 in New York. The first U.S. National Men’s Singles Championship, now the US Open, was held in 1881 at Newport, Rhode Island. The first U.S. National Women’s Singles Championship was held in 1887 in Philadelphia. Thus tennis was one of the first sports to be played before large audiences, and in the first decades of the 20th-century tobacco companies capitalized on tennis’ popularity by using images of leading players in cigarette advertising and on trading cards that came with cigarette packs.

Source: History of Tennis. Wikipedia

“The right serve! Serve yourself LUCKY STRIKE–jiggle some into a paper, roll yourself

A refreshing cigarette.

It puts the right edge

Of relaxation

On your afternoon’s exercise.

She’ll like its glorious aroma, too!…”

Advertisement by the American Tobacco Company for Lucky Strike cigarettes
Review of Reviews
1915

“‘VINNIE’ RICHARDS, FAMOUS TENNIS STAR, says: ‘I smoke only Luckies’–‘They’re mild and mellow.’ The Cream of the Crop. ‘It’s Toasted’ No Throat Irritation, No Cough“

Magazine advertisement by the American Tobacco Company for Lucky Strike cigarettes
1928

“VINCENT RICHARDS, Popular Tennis Star, Writes: ‘Immediately before and after my important tennis matches, I obtain the greatest possible comfort and satisfaction from Lucky Strikes. A tennis player must guard his throat carefully, and that is why I smoke only Luckies.'”

Magazine advertisement by the American Tobacco Company for Lucky Strike cigarettes
1928

**“What Cigarettes Do To WOMEN” (13 pages)**

Article by Helen Van Camp
Physical Culture
November 1925

Cigarette smoking was widely advertised as a relaxing counterpart to the rigors of physical activity. Yet half a century before the Surgeon General’s Report on smoking and health, alarms were raised about the harmfulness of cigarette smoking, such as by Helen Van Camp in the popular magazine Physical Culture. The author frets as much about the diminished suitability of women who smoke as wives and mothers as she does about the health consequences of the persistent use of tobacco, which comprised a myriad of troubles with glands, nerves, and stomach, to wit: “…derangement of the thyroid…One symptom of a crippled thyroid was a flabby, sallow, wrinkly skin. A crippled thyroid would make one look old.” Also, “Tobacco tends to paralyze the sympathetic nerves, thus leaving the pneumogastric nerve to run wild.” Ms. Van Camp was ahead of her time in believing that smoking was ill-advised in pregnancy and in understanding that nicotine stimulates the adrenal gland to produce more adrenalin, which can raise blood pressure. She also surmised that smoking-induced adrenal insufficiency could produce fatigue that impaired one’s sex life. This in turn led her to shift the focus from risky to risque by suggesting, “Substitute petting for cigarettes.”