It was the golden age of Doo-wop. The 1010 Wins radio station, (today it’s twenty
four seven news), which is on the Circle, was always playing the top 10 of the day. They played Lil Anthony, The tops, Five Satins, the Drifters. Which is what we were, drifting, smoking along to school, blowing smoke out of our noses, little Os into the air, and thinking we were so damned cool.
Damned indeed, we were starting life long habits that would kill so many of us.
Many of my pals from back then are now pushing daisies; thanks to all the movie stars; to the Hollywood studios in cahoots with tobacco; and to all of those damned TV commercials, that got us hooked on nicotine. The blood is on their hands, and their silly fatal television commercials. Those advs paid for all of our favorite shows. Shows like I love Lucy, Bonanza, Dina Shore, Route 66, Twilight Zone, the Ed Sullivan show, The Danny Thomas show, Peter Gunn, The Sid Caesar Show, the Honeymooners, and a whole bunch of others too many to mention.
Some of you may remember the call of Phillip Morris. It was a commercial in a
tony hotel lobby, where a smarmy, uniformed bell hop swaggers in, with his hand to the side his mouth, yelling:
“Call for Phillip Morris! Call for Phillip Morris!” He was supposed to be some rich, handsome, suave cat waiting for the call.
Many dudes wanted to be like him, and since they weren’t, they smoked Phillip Morris, and imagined they were cool, like him. What bullshit, uh!
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