SHOWS&SUCH Wholly Sinoke Smokin' Cartoon A SAFERCIGARETTE Show Goes on the Road "Cartoonists Take Up Smoking," an exhibition of editorial cartoons about the tobacco controversies of the 20th century, debuted in April at the Ann Tower Gallery in Lexington, Kentucky in conjunction with the annual conven­ ReSiDr.r.11.SMol(e tion of the Association of American I IS essetlTiaLLY Cot-l'lolll~D HaRM!..e5'STo 1"t-1e Editorial Cartoonists. 2004 marks the TeSTiMoNVBY fosacco if'IPIISTRY. 40th anniversary of the publication of ToP e~ecu;wes iTWill STiLL F'lLTeRSou-r KILLYou, Smoking and Health, the landmark l?eM"311'1iNG of Co~e. report of the Surgeon General. Its T'Rll-rH unequivocal scientific conclusion that cigarettes cause lung cancer and other diseases should have ended a debate Ed Stein that had raged for decades, if not cen­ Medicine. The cartoons are supple­ Encouraged by past AAEC president turies, but the tobacco industry merely mented by more than 100 smoking­ David Horsey, he sought and received blew more advertising smoke in the related items, from front-page headlines the cooperation of AAEC members. eyes of the public and the politically about the events that inspired the car­ Lexington host Joel Pett and AAEC nai:ve health community. toons to outlandish cigarette ads president Mike Ritter came up with the Curated by AAEC associate member through the years with health claims idea to bring the show to the heart of Alan Blum, M.D., a professor of family like "Just what the doctor ordered" and tobacco country. medicine at the University of Alabama, "More doctors smoke Camels." In his spare, stark style, Kentucky "Cartoonists Take Up Smoking" is an Retracing the modern era of anti­ native son J.D. Crowe of the Mobile exhibition of original political cartoons smoking advocacy, many of these Register created an unsettling 2-panel on a single theme. The University of trenchant cartoons satirize tobacco cartoon for the exhibition that contrasts Alabama Center for the Study of company executives and political the quaint beauty of a family tobacco Tobacco and Society, which Blum cronies for sabotaging clean indoor air farm with the tragic deaths due to founded and directs, holds one of the legislation, airline smoking bans, and smoking. world's largest sociocultural archives on restrictions on cigarette advertising. But Cartoon historians Cullum Rogers, tobacco, including more than 300 origi­ others also poke fun at the intolerance Draper Hill, and Lucy Caswell provid­ nal editorial cartoon artworks on smok­ shown by some antismoking crusaders ed invaluable background material ing-related themes and 1000 newsprint and the hypocrisy of state attorneys about the history of political cartooning tearsheets of editorial pages featuring general seeking cash damages from an as well as about smoking as a subject of cartoons on tobacco. industry with whom the states had long pictorial satire. More than 80 American and been in cahoots. One recurrent theme Blum also visited with several artists Canadian editorial cartoonists are rep­ of the show is that the most addictive in the newsroom, including Chip Bok, resented in the show, which will travel thing about tobacco is money. Gary Varvel, Gary Brookins, Tony to several cities before concluding its The exhibition grew out of an invited Auth, Scott Stantis, and Kevin run in Washington, DC in 2006 at the presentation Dr. Blum gave at the 2001 Kallaugher. Numerous others provided National Museum of Health and AAEC convention in Toronto. advice and assistance, including Jim Page 10 AAEC Notebook Lange, Etta Hulme, Andy Donato, Roy Peterson, Vic Harville, Milt Priggee, Ed Stein, Steve Greenberg, Matt Wuerker, Rob Rogers, and Jeff Parker. Joel Pett created the show's logo. The timing of the exhibition could not have been better . On the day of the AAEC reception at the Ann Tower Gallery, an 84-point banner headline emblazoned the front page of the Lexington Herald-Leader, reporting the Kentucky Supreme Court's upholding of Lexington's clean indoor air ordi­ nance, one of the strictest in the coun­ try. The Herald-Leader also devoted its editorial and op-ed pages to reprinting 18 of the cartoons in the exhibition. Some of those attending the reception were convinced that the show, which had opened two weeks earlier, had Bruce Plante either influenced the judges or had been timed for the release of the deci- smoking and the tobacco industry was The rise in lawsuits against tobacco SlOn. Herb Block, several of whose pieces companies has also brought together The wide-ranging controversies sur­ were reproduced for the show. They are political opposites Ted Rall, of Universal rounding tobacco are captured in the in stark contrast to the old cigarette Press Syndicate, and Chuck Asay of the cartoons, from the misguided quest for advertisements in the exhibition featur­ Colorado Springs Gazette. In his cartoon a safe cigarette to the targeting of ing cartoonists Rube Goldberg and in the show, Rall conjures up a legal case tobacco advertising to women and Jimmy Hatlo endorsing Lucky Strikes. over exposure to "third-hand smoke" and minority groups. Cartoons on smoking Perhaps the most prolific cartoonist in even one about "fourth -hand smoke," have had an impact at parodying tobacco indus­ while Asay depicts trial lawyers as vul­ both the lo cal and try executives and their tures more interested in picking the wal­ national l evels. Editorial Editorial allies has been Wayne let in Joe Camel's pocket than in picking cartoonists practically cartoonists Stayskal of the Tampa over his remains. Several artists such as laughed Joe Camel out practically Trilmru:, who has pro­ Graham Mackay of the Hamilton, of town and helped pass duced mor e than 90 car­ Ontario Spectator point to the hypocrisy countless local clean laughed Joe toons on smokin g, of governments milking the cash cow of indoor air laws. Camel out of including the .first car­ tobacco taxes while branding tobacco as Addressing the proposed toon ever to appear on a poison. ban on smoking in bars town and helped the cover of a major "We are looking forward to hosting in New York City in pass countless medical j ournal. 'Cartoonists Take Up Smoking' at the 2003, Newsday's Walt local clean Not all cartoonists National Museum of Health and Handelsman showed have depicted tobacco as Medicine at the Armed Forces Institute two customers bypassing indoor air laws. an evil weed. Indeed, sev­ of Pathology in Washington, DC," said a crowd smoking on the eral could be described as Dr. Adrianne Noe, the museum's direc­ sidewalk outside a bar: "Let's go inside anti-anti-smoking, in part based on tor. "The assembled cartoonists' works for a breath of fresh air." their belief in the freedom to choose. rival any scalpel we have on display for Several AAEC members related in Clay Bennett of the Christian Science their sharpness. They span the humor­ their artist's statements for the show Monitor wonders if there also should be ous to the deadly serious and will allow that family members had died from laws against nagging and finger-wag­ visitors to relive a public medical and smoking. "My mother and father died ging. In a cartoon from 1979, the political debate about a health issue within a month of each other because Miami Heralds Jim Morin contrasted that continues to grasp us all, It's par­ of their inability to overcome their the harmfulness of smoking in restau­ ticularly fitting to host this wonderful addiction to cigarettes," wrote David rants with automobile and environmen­ collection at the nation's medical muse­ Fitzsimmons of the Arizona Star. "I tal pollution. New York freelance great um, where it will be seen amid other understand, firsthand, the impact of Arnold Roth and the New York Post's exhibits that inspire learning about tobacco on the lives of people." Sean Delonas foresee the advent of a medicine and health, including the real For half a century, the cartoonist smoke police force roaming sidewalks lungs of a smoker." most unapologetically opposed to and parks. Continued on page 12 September 2004 Page 11 Suffolk U. Hosts Editorial Cartoon Exhibit By Aiden Fitzgerald George W. Bush, the exhibit recalled jects such as the West Bank and the ludicrous moments of the Bush­ drastic levels to which governmental "Campaigns, Conventions and Dukakis, Clinton-Dole and Bush-Gore candidates will go to get a vote. Cartoons," a provocative exhibition of races. It also addresses trickle-down Among the artists whose work was original editorial cartoons, was on dis­ economics, foreign policy, the Red Sox- displayed were Paul Conrad of the Los play at Suffolk Angeles Times (who made University during the Richard Nixon's Enemies Democratic National List); locals Jerry Holbert Convention in Boston (Boston Herald illustrator), this past summer. Paul Szep and Dan The show's 83 illus­ Wasserman; Signe Wilson of trations, including work the Philadelphia Daily News; from 19 Pulitzer Prize Charles Barsotti of The New winners, proved that a Yorker; and Tony Auth of the single drawing - with ,-'.·- Philadelphia Inquirer. or without a pithy cut­ The exhibit, sponsored by line - can spin a the Moakley Archive and complex tale. Spanning Institute and the Boston several decades, cam­ Herald, commented equally on paigns and policies, the Kerry and Bush. A couple of images evoked laughter ,4v7H cartoons comment on Kerry's and reflection. '----- -- --- -- ---- -- ----- ----' indecisiveness and mixed Tony Auth According to guest messages, while others criti­ curator Robert Bedart, about one-third Yankee campaign and the timelessness cize Bush's blunders - both in lan­ of the show's illustrations are not "gig­ of politics.