i was just wondering i dno if this is silly or not but id realy like to know : what kind of cigarettes does mike smoke in gf1 ?? i dno i just realy like to know theres a wallpaper in jgeoff site that has connie sitting on the floor next to him i think theres a pack but i couldnt tell what it is ... so any help would be apreciated thnx

I thought I saw him smoking Camels.

For some reason that's the impression I have as well.

I can't say that I ever actually saw the package, though.

Definitely filterless Camels... best tasting cigarette ever made!

Regal Filter is the best tasting cigarette ever, J Geoff.

Guys our age always do, plaw. It's what we rolled up in the sleeves of our T-shirts.

In the "Sicilian message" scene, where they bring in Luca's bullet proof vest, the pack of cigarettes Mike grabbed were definitely Camels.

Ahhh, filterless Camels were for wimps. Real men smoked Lucky Strikes!

I remember as a kid, the corner candy store used to sell Loose cigarettes. But by the time I was old enough to start smoking, they no longer did that. I do remember paying 40 cents for a pack of Marlboro cigarettes though.
And when I ran out of cigarettes, I used to grub Lucky Strikes off of my uncle or filterless Camels off of my father.


Don Cardi

What is/was it about taking cigarettes from someone that automatically inspires the use of the verb "grub".

I can't think of anything else that one "grubs" besides them.

I'm also wondering when filter cigarettes first made their appearance.

I seem to think around the late 40's or early 50's, but it might have been earlier than that, I guess.

Back in the pre-filter days there were what?

Luckies, Camels, Chesterfields, and Pall Malls.

I'm pretty sure there were also Old Golds, and possibly filterless Viceroys.

I also remember a filterless, "regular" size (yet still menthol) Kools.

I guess all of us oldsters fathers somoked filterless. Mine smoked Pall Mall.

I've never smoked, but personally have rarely heard of 'grubbing' a cigarette. The term I've usually heard used was 'bum' :

"Can I bum a cigarette?"

Apple

I never noticed the brand of cigarets either but thinking back to when I was a kid, it seems all the oldsters (well at the time they were oldsters ) smoked either Camel or Lucky Strike. Do they even make Lucky Strike anymore?

I can't stand the filterless. Way to strong, makes me gag.

Btw, I wonder how much Michael Corleone paid for a pack of cigarets back then??? The cheapest I remember is either 35 cents or 50 cents a pack.

TIS

Cigs were about a quarter a pack in the late Fifties, when I started buying them (surreptitiously), so Michael definitely paid less.
DC and plaw: I believe that the first filter cigs to be sold widely were Sano's. The candy store where I worked as a teen (formerly the HQ of Murder Inc. in Brownsville, Brooklyn) used Raleigh's as the "loosie" cigs. Reason: each carton and pack of Raleigh's contained coupons that could be redeemed for merchandise. By using Raleigh's as "loosies," the owner got to keep the coupons.

Wow! Raleigh cigarettes with the coupons! Boy did you just bring back memories of my mother. She smoked that brand and I can't tell you how many things she got from Raleigh through the redemption of those coupons!


Don Cardi

I remember Raleighs - they had a filtered version and an unfiltered regular size also.

And four extra coupons in every carton, too!

But did they always feature coupons? I seem to remember the coupon concept being introduced in the early 50's, when the trading stamps (remember those?) craze took hold.

You know, some people over here refer to cigs as f.a.g.s.

Don't you limeys have a different meaning for "bum" as well??

Thats what I smoked when I started smoking.... probably because of their billboard in Ebbets Field (see photo below - just down the right field line).

Bum, like f.a.g.s., has a few meanings. To bum something could either mean to borrow or get something for free. Or it could mean to take someone from behind. Bum/bottom/arse = same thing.

I've also noticed us slowly taking your bum meaning of hobo and using it as our own.

Well, that cofirms it. I always knew you guys were real men

Light up a Lucky, it's light up time
Be happy, go Lucky, it's light up time
For the taste that you like
Light up a Lucky Strike
Relax....
It's light up time

Remember?

The word "bum" has more negative connotations than just being a hobo. It can relate to someone who avoids work OR it can relate to someone who does a job poorly (in baseball you can call an umpire a bum after he makes a bad call).

Coincidentally, the Brooklyn Dodgers were lovingly called "Bums" by their fans when they played at Ebbets Field (pictured above).

Don't remember that, but I do remember their slogan: LS/MFT ... Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco.

Hey.... check out this link (below) for some great old cigarette jingles:

OLD CIGARETTE JINGLES

Cool....that The Lucky Strike jingle is there!

Wow! I forgot all about Oasis, Tareyton, Kent. I remember the Phillip Morris guy/kid; and that song and dance for Lucky's was quite elaborate. The announcer was from where? Jack Benny?

Of course the Virgina Slims "You've Come A Long Way Baby", was from the seventies(?). That slogan was big for a while.

Didn't see "Take a breath of springtime." Remember which one that was?????

TIS

Speaking of smoking in general...I was talking to my daughter a few days ago about how cool it looks as opposed to how bad it is for health.

We were briefly watching a tv movie where a very elegantly dressed lady was sitting at a very elegant bar with a drink in front of her and very elegantly lighting, holding and smoking a cigarette. Being 7 I suppose, she asked why the lady was smoking if she knows they're bad for her...I answered that it just happens to look 'good' in the movies, better than if the woman was just sitting there doing nothing with her hands in between sips of her drink.
We did agree though, that all that smoke must 'smell' aweful...both when making a movie and in real life.

One of the most romantic, sophisticated scenes every filmed was the one in 'Now Voyager', when Paul Henreid lights the two cigs between his own lips and then hands one to Bette Davis.

I wonder what brand that was....????

Apple

Yeah, kids have a way of cutting through all the foibles of adult life. After I joined the local "Y" many years ago, I took my then-3-year-old son for a tour. I showed him the steam room, which I'd been raving about. I opened the door and a blast of heat and steam came out. "If it's hot, why do you want to go in there?" he asked.

Mad Magazine once had a takeoff on cig ads. When they got to Raleigh, they said that for 2 million coupons, you could get Mr. Raleigh's daughter...

...but did the Abe Stark sign--"Hit Sign, Win Suit"--make you want to dress better?

L.S.M.F.T.--Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco.
--Andre Baruch

(note to younger members: this is something old people do. Just ignore us.)

I don't know if you'll remember this or not, TB, because I believe Andre Baruch was best known as a newscaster, but he also did the radio broadcasts of Dodger games along with "The Ol' Redhead", Red Barber, who himself later (perish the thought) switched sides and joined the Yankees broadcast team along with Mel Allen and Phil Rizzuto (I know you remember them - I'll bet even a youngster like Don Cardi remembers that trio, who worked together until the mid or late 60's, I guess)

(Edit: I just Googled Baruch, and it seems as though he was Red Barber's replacement when Red moved to the Yankees in 1954.)

Hey....I resemble that remark.