# John Wayne and cigarettes.



## Ardie/WI (May 10, 2002)

Roger was doing some research on John Wayne today after watching one of his movies last night. 

It said that he smoked FIVE packages of cigarettes a day.

My question is when did he find the time? He must have literally chain smoked from when he woke in the morning to when he fell asleep!


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## silentcrow (Mar 15, 2005)

I read a book about him once. That is what he did, chain smoked. I'm surprised he didn't always have one lit in his movies.


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## TexasArtist (May 4, 2003)

I could see him doing that with almost no problem. My grandma used to be a two pack smoker. It wasn't the actual smoking she was doing. She would have one in the kitchen going, then if she walked into tthe living room she'd light another then she'd sometimes have another in the hand or mouth so it's not always what it seems. Watch any heavy smoker and alot of times they'll have more then one going cause it become a habit more then a nic. need.


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## Becca65 (Jul 13, 2005)

Wow thats alot of smoking! What did he die of lung cancer?


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## suzfromWi (Jun 1, 2002)

Sadly, yes he did...


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## trappmountain (Jun 22, 2005)

My dad did the same thing. Doesn't mean he actually smoked all of those cigarettes. They were lit and then pitched because he started working on somethig. Lit another than needed his hands for something and pitched that one. He was rarely without one but he rarely smoked a whole cigarette


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## Farmerwilly2 (Oct 14, 2006)

If you want a good example watch the movie "The Quiet Man" and count how many times he lights up in that movie.


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## Peacock (Apr 12, 2006)

My mom did the same thing, lit one and walked away. I never understood it. I used to smoke, but maybe I'm too frugal not to actively smoke the one I lit!


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## Jerngen (May 22, 2006)

I don't understand the five packs tho. My grandmother was a chain smoker 'til I was 14. She would open a third pack a day so let's say 2 1/2 to 3 packs a day. She also would often light one, do something and forget about that one so would light another even tho she already had one going! Seemed like she ALWAYS had one going...... don't see how anyone could go through five packs :shrug:

2 1/2 packs equals 50 ciggies

16hrs a day the average person is awake...... equals one smoke every 3.125 minutes! 

Double that for five packs, lets say he only slept 6 hrs a night and it's one smoke lit every 5.55 minutes....... okay, I guess I could see how that happens especially if he would forgot about one already being lit like my grandmother often did.


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## Becca65 (Jul 13, 2005)

Thats right, I forgot he died of Lung cancer  My friends husband smoked like that, ended up having a stroke, still wanted to smoke and would sneak them, someone obviously was buying them.. He ended up having another stroke. Not sure how he's doing nowadays..


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## Reauxman (Sep 14, 2002)

Jerngen said:


> 2 1/2 packs equals 50 ciggies
> 
> 16hrs a day the average person is awake...... equals one smoke every 3.125 minutes!
> 
> Double that for five packs, lets say he only slept 6 hrs a night and it's one smoke lit every 5.55 minutes....... okay, I guess I could see how that happens especially if he would forgot about one already being lit like my grandmother often did.


I think your math is off. at 50 a day on a 16 hour day, its every 19.2 mins.

at 100 a day on 18 hour day its every 10.8 mins


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## Job's3dAnswer (Oct 17, 2004)

I remember hearing that Yul Brynner also smoked 5 packs a day. Reminds me of the anti-smoking commercial he did just before he died.


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## sammyd (Mar 11, 2007)

I had an uncle that smoked 5 packs a day, He actually only lit 5 packs a day. He had gotten to where the taste didn't agree with him but his mind told him he needed one. A couple of puffs and stubbed out.

Watch the Duke in his movies, a lot of cigarettes get lit but tossed after a drag or two.


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## Guest (Mar 10, 2008)

Yul Brenner's commercial

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNjunlWUJJI[/ame]


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## Jerngen (May 22, 2006)

Reauxman said:


> I think your math is off. at 50 a day on a 16 hour day, its every 19.2 mins.
> 
> at 100 a day on 18 hour day its every 10.8 mins


You're right, the numbers I had were just the number of smokes per hour, I forgot to actually translate them to minutes. Thanks for catching that :cowboy:


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## Quint (Nov 12, 2004)

He drank a lot of whiskey too. Partied like madman. Sailed around on his party boat. Rode horses. Ate meat. Loved women. Shot guns. Drank other actors under the table.


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## silentcrow (Mar 15, 2005)

He did have lung cancer in '64, but it was stomach cancer that got him in the end. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne#Death


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## hillsidedigger (Sep 19, 2006)

I have read that John Wayne was at a movie site in Utah one day back in the 1950's when an above ground atomic bomb was detonated in Nevada some 150 or more miles away. Shortly dust from that explosion swept over the movie location. Many of the people at that movie location died prematurely. Edit: I just read the link in the previous post and it says about the same thing.

So, its a wonder that John Wayne lived until 1979 inspite of his vices.

While on a 2 week drive around the country, I walked into a small cafe in Lone Pine, California one morning in September, 1978 and John Wayne was sitting there drinking coffee, not in the best of moods, and cussing at some kids who were harassing him. The waitress confirmed that it was actually John Wayne and that he was a part of some commercial being produced locally there that day.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

hillsidedigger said:


> I have read that John Wayne was at a movie site in Utah one day back in the 1950's when an above ground atomic bomb was detonated in Nevada some 150 or more miles away. Shortly dust from that explosion swept over the movie location. Many of the people at that movie location died prematurely. Edit: I just read the link in the previous post and it says about the same thing.
> 
> So, its a wonder that John Wayne lived until 1979 inspite of his vices.


I've read the same thing...


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## Ardie/WI (May 10, 2002)

I got to thinking about smoking today. I quit cigarettes and Roger quit cigars and his pipe about 25 years ago. Back then, it seems that more peopoe smoked!

I rarely smoked a cigarette during the day unless someone stopped over for coffee. It was a social thing. I usually smoked about five cigarettes in the evening and I think it was recreational. There just didn't seem to be time for me to smoke for some reason.


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## Quint (Nov 12, 2004)

hillsidedigger said:


> I have read that John Wayne was at a movie site in Utah one day back in the 1950's when an above ground atomic bomb was detonated in Nevada some 150 or more miles away. Shortly dust from that explosion swept over the movie location. Many of the people at that movie location died prematurely.


If I remember correctly that would be the Upshot-Knothole series. You see this series in lots of "stock footage" of weapon effects on the history channel and lots of it made it into "The Day After". They were 58ish? They were fairly dirty tests. Some of the dirtiest shots the US ever did in Nevada. The "Harry" shot was quite dirty if I remember right and I believe this was the one that supposedly dropped considerable fallout on Wayne's movie location. It didn't actually drop fallout on the cast and crew but the site got dusted fairly well and they filmed there a year or two after. Had troops there for that one too as I recall. Some footage exists of it and you see it occasionally as stock footage. Pretty important for biomedical research too as they staked animals out for exposure and such. 

Some of the most beautiful pictures of fission explosions were taken during Upshot-Knothole. The "Badger" shot in particular is breathtaking. I use it as wallpaper. As they did for many of the Upshot-Knothole series, they had troops observing "Badger" and they conducted maneuvers following the detonation.

Sorry for the unnecessary information-a family business of sorts and I find the history and the subject simply fascinating. Anyway, did the fallout kill John Wayne and everyone else. Possible but doubtful. If they had died of thyroid cancer I'd be more willing to entertain the notion. Many Americans may have died of cancer due to the above ground nuclear testing in Nevada. Statistically some probably did but you can't point to a cancer and say "nukes did it". On the upside everyone alive has some Strontium-90 in your teeth and bones to help keep them strong.


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## FourDeuce (Jun 27, 2002)

There's an interesting book about the American nuclear testing program and its effects on the surrounding area called American Ground Zero, by Carol Gallagher.


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