“TRICK CIGAR BLOWS MAN’S HEAD OFF!”
The WEEKLY WORLD NEWS covered smoking for laughs…The NATIONAL ENQUIRER wouldn’t cover it at all
This exhibition is drawn from the Center’s collection of supermarket tabloid newspapers with stories about smoking in the 40 years following the publication in 1964 of the Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health — when the few early anti-smoking messages by the American Cancer Society and other health organizations were being drowned out by the torrent of cigarette ads on TV (until 1971), on billboards, at sports events, and in newspapers and magazines. Because of the tabloids’ large circulation and their readers’ lower educational attainment compared to the major newsweeklies TIME, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report — which were heavily dependent on cigarette advertising and minimized their coverage of smoking and cancer — these publications could have played a life-saving role in educating the public about the devastating health consequences of cigarette smoking. Instead, they, too, passed the buck.
Through the years the WEEKLY WORLD NEWS (WWN) published hilarious headlines that rivaled those of the New York Daily News (“FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD”) and The New York Post: “HEADLESS BODY FOUND IN TOPLESS BAR”), such as these:
“12 U.S. SENATORS ARE SPACE ALIENS!”; “PIT BULL EATS MOBILE HOME”; “MUMMY FOUND WITH ARTIFICIAL HEART”; “When their check bounced for surgery that separated them…HEARTLESS DOC REJOINS SIAMESE TWINS”; “COLOR-BLIND MAN HAS NEVER STOPPED FOR A RED LIGHT IN 20 YEARS”; “PHOTO OF ELVIS CURED MY CANCER!”; “TOOTH FAIRY CAPTURED”; “BIGFOOT CRASHES WINE TASTING”; “MAFIA ORDERED TO ADMIT GAYS”; “ANOTHER METEOR FELLS POPE!”; “SADDAM’S MUSTACHE FOUND! U.S. confident DNA tests – and hummus residue — will prove Hussein’s a goner!”
But unlike another well-known humor publication, MAD Magazine, which published dozens of pungent parodies of cigarette advertisements and mocked tobacco industry executives who continued to deny the dangers of smoking (see the section on MAD in the Center’s exhibition, “Cartoonists Take Up Smoking”), the WEEKLY WORLD NEWS just aimed for the funny bone. The first part of this exhibition features the WWN’s over-the-top stories on smoking. The second part includes examples of the NATIONAL ENQUIRER’s front-page stories on how to reduce the risk of cancer… with back-page ads for cigarettes.
SCROLL THROUGH THE 23-PAGE GALLERY BY CLICKING ON THE IMAGE, AND TO ENLARGE PRESS THE BUTTON ON THE BOTTOM RIGHT OF ANY IMAGE
“Militant anti-smoking group blamed after…
TRICK CIGAR BLOWS MAN’S HEAD OFF!
‘He took two puffs and then –BOOM!’
says restaurant manager”
Article by Kurt Walter
WEEKLY WORLD NEWS
January 19, 1988
The same story was published again on June 27, 2000, as excerpted here:
“VITORIA, Brazil — Jorge Pressoa lit up a fat cigar after an elegant dinner at a restaurant — and the stogie exploded, blowing his head off!
“Police suspect an anti-smoking group planted the cigar, which had been offered to the victim by a friendly stranger just moments before the blast…
“The horrifying drama unfolded at table 13 in Borgo’s, one of the finest restaurants in Vitoria…
“‘My husband smoked two cigars of his own before dinner and there were so many complaints that we thought the man was sent by the management to apologize,’ sobs his grieving widow, Laura, 47.
“Detectives suspect a militant anti-smoking group called ‘Stop Smokers Now!’ in the terrorist attack.
“The group has claimed responsibility for the fire-bombings of three Brazilian tobacco shops in the past year and for the stabbing death of a man who refused to put out his cigarette on a city bus. Police believe more random attacks against individual smokers are planned in the group’s war against smoking in public, and they are stepping up efforts to identify and arrest the terrorists
“‘SSN members are extremely clever,’ [Police] Sgt. Mendes said. ‘But we are setting up a taskforce and we will stop them before another innocent smoker is killed!” (June 27, 2000)
From the original news story by Henry Weber on January 19, 1988:
“‘Georges loved his cigars and railed against anyone who tried to stop him from smoking. I wonder what he’s saying now,’ Mrs. Pressoa said.”
Other Weekly World News stories, without images:
“WORLD’S YOUNGEST SMOKER!
Baby born addicted to nicotine smokes 6 cigarettes a day – with his doctor’s approval”
November 4, 1997
“THE WILL FROM HELL:
Dead hubby orders wife: Smoke 15 cigarettes a day – or lose $800G estate!”
Undated
“12-INCH-LONG CIGARETTES!
When the boss says go have a smoke, this new brand lets you S-T-R-E-T-C-H that break!”
September 1, 1998
“WHY SMOKERS LIVE LONGER”
March 24, 1998
“Bizarre aging breakthrough from the Mayo Clinic…
Human cells soaked in Jack Daniel’s & snuff juice do not grow old”
September 12, 2000
“Questions for Serena Sabak, America’s Sexiest Psychic:
‘Is my daughter lying about chewing tobacco?'”
October 17, 2000
“2-MINUTE TEST TELLS IF YOU CAN EVER QUIT SMOKING!”
“Take a deep breath — and hold it. Watch a clock with a second hand and time yourself. If you can’t hold your breath for 90 seconds…”
February 22, 2000
“CALIFORNIA TEENS SMOKING CIGARETTES MADE FROM HUMAN FLESH!”
August 22, 2000
“WANT TO LIVE TO BE 100?
Then drink, smoke & eat like a pig…say controversial new studies!”
Undated
“OBAMA QUITS SMOKING, STARTS DRINKING”
February 10, 2011
“JUUL Scraps Plan for Infant Vape Line”
September 26, 2019
SCROLL THROUGH THE 5-PAGE GALLERY BY CLICKING ON THE IMAGE, AND TO ENLARGE PRESS THE BUTTON ON THE BOTTOM RIGHT OF ANY IMAGE
The Weekly World News column “MY AMERICA by Ed Anger” was created by staff writer Rafael Klinger during the tabloid’s first year of publication in 1979. With the exception of “BANNING WORKERS FROM SMOKING AT HOME IS UNAMERICAN,” the selection in this gallery is of columns written by editor Eddie Clontz. From an obituary of Clontz published in the British newsweekly The Economist on February 19, 2005: “ [Ed] Anger hated foreigners, yoga, whales, speed limits and pineapple on pizza; he liked flogging electrocutions and beer.”
But the National Enquirer is no laughing matter…
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO VIEW 6 EXAMPLES OF FRONT-PAGE STORIES IN THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER ON REDUCING CANCER RISK… AND BACK-PAGE CIGARETTE ADS
The ENQUIRER originated in 1926 as the New York Evening Enquirer, a Sunday weekly funded by newspaper chain publisher William Randolph Hearst, Sr. In 1952 Generoso Pope, Jr, publisher of an Italian language daily in New York, bought the paper and increased circulation by focusing on morbid crime stories. Pope changed the name to the NATIONAL ENQUIRER in 1957. In the 1960s and 1970s as the paper built its readership at supermarket checkout counters, it turned to celebrity gossip, psychics’ predictions, and stories about space aliens and Bigfoot sightings. Circulation peaked at 5.7 million copies in 1978. Major national advertisers, led by cigarette makers, began appearing in the ENQUIRER in 1979, when it shifted to color. In 1994 the new owner of the paper changed the company’s name to American Media, Inc. (AMI).
Throughout the 2010s and to the present day, the partisan ENQUIRER has published dozens of cover stories smearing each of the Democratic nominees for President of the United States (for example, “Hillary: CORRUPT! RACIST! CRIMINAL!” –November 14, 2016). In July 2021, the Federal Election Commission fined AMI $187,500 for having violated campaign finance regulations by paying $150,000 to a former Playboy model to keep silent during the presidential campaign of 2016 about her alleged affair in 2006 with the then-married 2016 Republican nominee for president. In 2018, the public interest group Common Cause had filed a complaint against AMI, the Republican nominee for President, and his campaign over the payout to the model and a second $130,000 payment to another woman about her alleged affair with the nominee in 2006. The ENQUIRER’s purchase of potentially damaging stories about the nominee that it never intended to publish, a practice known as “catch and kill,” is the basis for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s 34-count criminal indictment of the likely Republican nominee for President.
Considering the dozens of front-page stories in the ENQUIRER touting ways to cure cancer or to reduce the risk of getting cancer — often appearing with back-page cigarette ads, the ENQUIRER is no different than Sports Illustrated, Playboy, WIRED, the major newsweeklies TIME, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report, and scores of other magazines that seldom pointed the finger at cigarette advertisers for perpetuating the nation’s leading cause of avoidable diseases and premature death (See the Center’s exhibition, Covering Cancer? How Magazines Promoted Cancer Research… and Cigarettes) — another kind of catch and kill, this one related to cigarette smoking and lung cancer, paid for by the tobacco industry.
“THREE MILLION CANCER VICTIMS SAVED
Top doctors say new drugs, vaccines and blood tests will save many more/
The Preferred Taste. Salem Lights. America’s largest selling low tar menthol cigarette. More and more smokers prefer the mellow flavor, cooling menthol and total satisfaction.”
Front page headline and back-page advertisement by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
The Star
April 17, 1979
Curator’s note: The Star was founded by Australian newspaper publisher Rupert Murdoch in 1974 after he immigrated to the United States. A less successful sensationalist tabloid competitor to The National Enquirer, The Star was sold to The Enquirer’s parent company American Medica, Inc. in 1990.
Coda…
“Discovered At Last:
CANCER-PROOF CIGARETTES
Experiments Reveal Big Breakthrough… “ (2 pages)
Article by Jerry Garcia
Midnight
May 5, 1965
“The search for a cancer proof cigaret is over! Soon you’ll be able to enjoy as many as two or three packs a day without being afraid of dying in 15 or 20 years from lung cancer.
“After years of intensive experimenting and many disappointments, an American research laboratory has finally developed a revolutionary new chemical compound that totally works!
“Called ‘Chemosol,’ the new compound literally takes the risk out of smoking, and gives millions of cancer-shy smokers a brand new lease on life.
“Mixed with regular tobacco, Chemosol reduces the health hazard just about to zero without effecting flavor and with absolutely no bad side effects.
‘It’s the answer to a smoker’s prayer,’ says Donald G.C. Thomas, the man who changed Chemosol from an obscure German scientist’s pipe dream to a happy reality for every cigarette smoker in the very near future. ‘Chemosol prevents smoker’s cough, eliminates that lousy morning after smoker’s hangover, and also makes it possible for heart patients and victims of lung diseases like emphysema to enjoy tobacco again without straining their health.”
“Doctors Cut Holes in Windpipes, Then…
FORCE DOGS TO SMOKE CIGARETTES” (2 pages)
Article by Hal Evans
NATIONAL ENQUIRER
August 8, 1965
“Dogs are now being forced to smoke cigarettes — which are stuck into tubes inserted into their windpipes and noses.
“They inhale and exhale the smoke and it sickens them, just as it would a child who tried to smoke.
“The dogs get diseased, too. And from time to time some of them are killed — so their lungs can be studied for the effects of smoking.
“The dogs are being used as guinea pigs in a medical experiment in the laboratories of the New York Medical College in New York City. There, 18 large dogs are kept puffing away under the direction of Dr. Edward Rockey, who is trying to find out if there is a relationship between cigarette smoking and the dangerous lung disease, emphysema, which impairs breathing.
“Some of the dogs smoke regular cigarettes, others smoke filters. But no matter what the kind, the dogs don’t go for them. Dr. Rockey explained to this ENQUIRER reporter on June 12: ‘As a rule, dogs don’t like to smoke. It nauseates them’…”
“Trick Cigar Blows Man’s Head Off!”
Curated by Alan Blum, MD
Professor and Endowed Chair in Family Medicine
Director, Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
College of Community Health Sciences
The University of Alabama School of Medicine, Tuscaloosa
“TRICK CIGAR BLOWS MAN’S HEAD OFF!” is Copyrighted 2024
ALL ITEMS IN THE EXHIBITION ARE FROM THE CENTER’S COLLECTION UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED.
Designed by Bryce Callahan
Undergraduate student majoring in computer engineering
IT Technician, College of Community Health Sciences
Technical Advisor to the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
The University of Alabama