T206 Wagner and Plank - They both didn't want their image on Tobacco cards

[G1911]

Originally Posted by JustinD

Most people tend to ignore the reference of history and use only a magnifying glass of current knowledge. During the T206 production, doctors would have been often touting the health benefits of smoking and the chance of your doctor walking into your exam room with a lit cigarette was likely very good. This continued well through the 30's, 40's , and 50's. To say that these 2 took some elite stance while ignoring of other tobacco releases seems questionable.

At the time of T206 production, there was a very vocal anti-tobacco segment of the public. Journals of the time are filled with anti-tobacco articles, largely focused on it's negative health impacts (both true and imagined) and the view that it was somehow morally damaging. It is nigh impossible to gauge how unusual this view was among the public, but it was very common in the press and papers, and amongst health and exercise centric publications, and seems to have played a not insignificant role in the government targeting of the ATC at the local, state and federal levels. It wouldn't have been an elite stance, or ahead of its time, for an athlete to either be against tobacco and it's use or to not want to take any part in the public dialogue about it either way. At least one other ATC short printed athlete subject wrote public articles about distaste for tobacco and it's negative health impact.