The Marlboro Man Got Shocked When This Happened In 1964

Before I say more, it is my understanding that the Marlboro man later got lung cancer and did television commercials to stop people from smoking. This is a clip from a one hour primetime television documentary that I made in the 1980s on smoking. The narrator was my friend and colleague, the great Peter Thomas. At the time, about 30 percentage of Americans smoked cigarettes even though it was clear starting with the 1964 Surgeon General’s report, that smoking provoked a variety of illnesses and in fact, was killing Americans. The debate over smoking had divided physicians, scientists, governments, smokers, and non-smokers since Tobacco was first imported to Europe from its native soil in the Americas. A dramatic increase in cigarette smoking in the United States in the early 20th century provoked anti-smoking movements. Reformers, hygienists, and public health officials argued that smoking brought about general malaise, physiological malfunction, and a decline in mental and physical effici