Fleming....about The Bond Author During W W 2 Etc....

[ToraToraTora]

I've been watching this mini series, quite enjoyable but one thing that struck me is that pretty much every character is a chain smoker. Every building must have stank to high heaven in those days. I know many people smoked in those days but it does look to me like they've overdone that aspect of it.

[douglas9401]

Well, they haven't. Everywhere DID stink to high heaven but it helped to mask the halitosis, B.O. and farts.

[Ellipsis]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fleming

Fleming was a heavy smoker and drinker for most of his life and succumbed to heart disease in 1964 at the age of 56. 

[ToraToraTora]

17:01, I know. It's not what I'm asking.

[gingejbee]

^you weren't "asking" anything...

[ToraToraTora]

I was inviting a discussion:

" I know many people smoked in those days but it does look to me like they've overdone that aspect of it."

 

[jackthehat]

Well, they haven't. End of.

[ToraToraTora]

I thought this was a discussion site, I expect snarling idiocy in news etc. This is a non contraversial post in film and TV. Perhaps if people could put aside their hatred of me for a second they'd join in.

[douglas9401]

How would you like your worms done, Tora? 🤣

[Hazi-Hammenuhoth]

Did more people smoke indoors than outdoors?  It seems that way from the old footage from those years.

[ToraToraTora]

well in this everyone was smoking everywhere all the time.

[david small]

The purest tobacco was used then no saltpetre and other noxious additives. Hence the stink wasn’t so noticeable.

Still horrible to breath the foul air though.

[douglas9401]

Just how it was before the great and the good took over our lives for us.

[Old_Geezer]

No one went outside to smoke. They took it as a right to indulge anywhere they were, and others simply had to put up with it. 

[Cloverjo]

People did seem to smoke all over the place. I wasn't born until the 70s, but even then it was normal.

I've done it myself, smoking at a lunch table when it would have been more polite to not. But yes, smoking was huge. I think I've seen footage of line judges at Wimbledon smoking a fag. 

[Toorak]

When I started my first two 'proper' jobs (I.e. not holiday jobs) ashtrays were provided on desks as a matter of course. 

[vulcan42]

There was a lot of heavy smoking in those days especially in the services. It was actually encouraged because the customs, having seized cigarettes would pack them into tea chests and send them to forces overseas, where they were distributed for free. John Players used to sell round tins of fifty cigarettes for about three shillings and six pence, about 17.5 new pence. They were so cheap that if we were out drinking, in a pub for example, the tin  would go round the  entire room and probably come back empty. I don't think showing everybody smoking is over doing it, virtually everybody smoked back then, the non smoker was the unusual one, again especially in the services and it was allowed everywhere. Sometimes in a packed cinema it was hard to see the film, but of course they were very different times, it just seemed normal to smoke.

[ToraToraTora]

thanks vulcan that's an interesting insight. I do remember smoking being common growing up but not the extent it was back then.

[douglas9401]

Can I ask if you have a number in mind as a tipping point for you to believe that the portrayal is accurate?

[ToraToraTora]

put the spoon away dougie, I'm not playing your games.

[douglas9401]

I ask the question to get an answer, not to stir.

You've been told it's accurate but you seem to know better even though you started out not knowing, merely opining.