JFK+50: Volume 7, No. 2423
LITTLE GIRLS DRESSED AS NURSES RAISE MONEY FOR TRIBUNE'S TOBACCO FUNDChicago, Illinois (JFK+50) Two little girls, Marjorie and Virginia Swanstrom, dressed as Red Cross nurses, sat behind a table located along East 56th Street here in the Windy City one hundred years ago.
The sisters collected $1.70 for the Chicago Tribune's "Tobacco Fund" for U.S. soldiers serving in France.
The Tribune also had set up a "Dollar-a-week Club" where members would send in a "regular" contribution to the fund. As of early September 1917, the fund had raised $4787.00.
Mandel Brothers Hat Shop* of Chicago took out an ad in the September 6th edition of the CDT which included the following...
"Mandel Brothers have arranged with Harrod's of London to have your orders of assorted packets of tobacco (and other items) sent directly to the front from London..."
JFK+50 NOTE
According to www.substance.com/, American tobacco companies gave free cigarettes to the soldiers while the military encouraged smoking "to relieve stress and boredom."
The Bull Durham Tobacco Company's slogan was...
"When our boys light up, the Huns will light out."
World War I "hugely boosted smoking rates...transforming the tobacco industry, the cigarette and the health of Americans."
*Mandel Brothers, located on State Street in downtown Chicago, had been a major marketing force since 1855. In 1960, Wieboldt's Department Store acquired the Mandel Bros store on State Street.
SOURCES
"Chicago Millinery History: The Millinery Staff of Mandel Bros Department Store, March 29, 2017, www.froufrou4youyou.wordpress.com/
"Wee Red Cross Nurses Lay Siege For Smokes Fund, Chicago Daily Tribune, September 6, 1917.
"Wieboldt's", The Department Store Museum, www.thedepartmentstoremuseum.org/
"World War One's Deadly Tobacco Legacy", www.substance.com/
Durham Tobacco Ads
Photo by Alexisrael
www.wikimedia.org/
