I've seen movies and tv shows about the 1940's and 1950's where the doctor is examining the patient and lights up a cigarette, for humorous and satirical effect. Did this really happen back then, or just make-believe?
2007-10-08 10:36:57 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
It wasn't a thing that happened all of the time but yes, doctors smoked and it was not uncommon for it to happen during an examination.
2007-10-08 10:41:01 · answer #1 · answered by Randy 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Back in 1985 I was slightly hurt in an industrial accident and had to go to the company doctor. There were no smoking signs all over his clinic. He walked through the waiting room smoking. Ten minutes later I was called in back to be examined. He had a huge overflowing ashtray on his desk and had a winston stuck between his lips. He must have smoked 3 cigarettes in about 15 minutes. Otherwise he was an excellent doctor.
There are still many countries where smoking isn't looked on as a sin. I stopped at a burger Joint off the interstate about a year ago and a busload of French tourists had also stopped.
After eating all of them were standing (and I mean all of them) in the parking lot smoking.
2007-10-08 18:07:29 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Worse than that, some doctors, along with famous personalities, also appeared in cigarette advertising well into the early 1960's. Smoking wasn't officially recognized as dangerous until the Surgeon General released a report in 1964. It was quite fashionable in many circles well into the 1970's. Motion picture/TV ads were not officially banned in the US until 1971.
2007-10-08 17:45:45 · answer #3 · answered by tuswecaoyate 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They sure the hell did and some of them, in fact most, were the best damn sawbones you could hope to find. They knew their patients, they took time to listen, they'd make housecalls, they'd let you pay with turnips if you had no money.
I remember Old Dr. Clark lancing a boil on my hand when I was about nine, he had an unfiltered Camel hanging from his mouth the whole time. He lived to be ninety-six. I guess those cigadettes finally got him.
2007-10-08 17:48:28 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
When I was growing up, the doctors smoked at the clinics and the hospitals and my teachers smoked in school. I can remember people smoking in the grocery store.
2007-10-08 17:51:30 · answer #5 · answered by staisil 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yep. And you could smoke in waiting rooms, hospital bedrooms also. How times change.
2007-10-08 17:44:57 · answer #6 · answered by Steffie 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, it really happened. It was not considered to be very bad.
2007-10-08 17:39:45 · answer #7 · answered by Mr Ed 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋