Smoking and Drinking on Turner Classic Movies in Roundtrip Ticket to Paradise 2

Since moving into the long-stay motel in March 2012, I’ve been overdosing on Turner Classic Movies (http://www.tcm.com), as the motel provides television with a local cable carrier’s hotel cable lineup. If I had to pay for it separately, I wouldn’t bother, just as I did when I was living over in College Town near UAF up until January 2012.

Anyhow, as many know, a few years back the feds went after Big Tobacco for having an ‘arrangement’ with Hollywood to feature smoking prominently in movies, as well as downplaying the carcinogenic effects of smoking, which apparently were known quite early on.

I am interested in why the feds haven’t gone after Big Alcohol for the same reasons, as many of those older movies also feature a lot of alcohol consumption - and it was almost always the hard stuff.

In either case, I’ve noticed both smoking and drinking were written into the script as flirting. For example, a woman is interested in a man. She either asks him for a cigarette, or she takes out a cigarette of her own and asks him for a light, whether or not she has her own lighter or matches. If a man is interested in a woman, he offers her a cigarette, or offers to light her cigarette, or invites her somewhere for a drink (almost never for a cup of coffee, however).

And, of course, the perfect host or hostess would have a supply of both cigarettes and liquor on hand for guests. There often would be a small bar in the living room, and always an ashtray and matches in the living room as well in as the office.

Interesting… wish flirting were that easy nowadays. Smoking is not an option for me, and attempting to use it as a flirt will turn off the object of my affections in a big hurry if she doesn’t smoke. Meeting a woman in a bar for anything deeper than a one-nighter is likely to attract someone who is desperate, or is a mooch, a prostitute, or an alcoholic, I’ve found.

Of course, movies are movies, and real life is real life, and often ne’er the twain shall meet.

Last updated December 26, 2014