"Gifts For The Smoker" is the ad theme, so Santa's puffing on his own cheroot. While a similar ad would probably be unthinkable today, it very likely didn't raise too many eyebrows in the 1960s.
It's kind of interesting seeing the different brands of cigars, such as R.G. Dun, Kings Club, Perfectos and Wolf Bros. Crooks. The cigarette brands are interesting too: Old Gold, Viceroy, Winston, Lucky Strike (Don Draper's client on Mad Men), Camels, Belair and Philip Morris.
What, no Salem (Dad's favorite)?
Dad hardly ever smoked. It was something he started while in the Army during World War II. If you smoked, you got a break – so naturally he took it up as a habit. But as for Dad smoking while I was growing up, it was only done in secret, such as when he took my brothers and me fishing. He wasn't fooling Mom though; the peppermints more or less gave him away. In later years, he probably smoked one cigarette a day, and not even the whole thing. And when he no longer drove, I was his enabler – buying him his Salems. One pack lasted him forever.
But let's get back to the ad.
I had to chuckle at Viceroy being one of the brands listed. I still remember the Wacky Package version: Vicejoy.
"Vicejoy's got the taste that rots" is the Wacky version of "Viceroy's got the taste that's right."
The rest of the Gray Drug ad comprises various pipe tobacco brands (such as Sir Walter Raleigh), the pipes themselves and various accessories, including pipe racks and humidors.
Grandpa Bumke (my Mom's dad) was a smoker. He smoked pipes, cigars (we ended up with a few of his cool cigar boxes) and cigarettes. He used one of those long cigarette holders like the Pink Panther.
Grandpa even had an ashtray stand in his living room that we used to fiddle with. (We had to entertain ourselves somehow when we visited.)
I guess it's not surprising that Grandpa was smoking when he sat for this portrait. It's how I remember him.
