11 Comments

1. 

   Mooney is probably Thomas Mooney, a labor leader who was framed for a bombing in 1916. It soon became obvious he had been falsely convicted, and he was a cause célèbre until he was finally pardoned in 1939. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mooney

   My best guess for the camels is that it means the cigarette. Magicians used to do tricks like producing lit cigarettes. Maybe there’s an intersection with that and some slogan for Camels around that time. With the setting all I can think of is a Wallace Tripp cartoon with some anthropomorphic animals in fine clothes praising a wine, while a mouse lies on the floor and says, “Tastes like camel drool to me. Grand Stuff.”

   In the last one, I think the suggestion is that the western fiddler even wears a union suit for authenticity.

2. 

   Are you sure the camel one wasn’t an advertisement for the other dominant cigarette brand? (Lucky Strike?) Otherwise, what? Rich man and heaven and a camel through the eye of a needle? One hump or two?
   As for the serving of cigarettes at a banquet, last year we went to the wedding of millennial friends (30ish), and for the after party they had rented out a Brooklyn bar their set all likes, and by the door, next to the book we were all meant to write in, was a bunch of loose cigarettes in a vase, party favor style. I was really confused by this, was it meant ironically? But to my chagrin, at some point almost everyone of their set gathered outside with a cigarette to smoke. As a gen X’er who grew up with no one of my cohorts smoking, this was quite a shock. I remember the tail end of the boomers smoking at the high school (the school bus picked up high-schoolers after middle-schoolers, so I could see), there was an area for it and everything; by the time we got to the high school, there were no more smoking areas, smoking was not allowed, and indeed none of the students smoked.
   So much for progress…

   As for the “riot” one, I guess back then it was OK to call a spade a spade as long as it was white people doing it…

3. 

   Regarding the magicians and Camel cigarettes, there were print ads run in the 1930s, in which a magician reveals the secrets to various tricks to young women, and then rejects the cigarette they offer him, as he prefers Camels. There were quite a few tricks revealed in these ads. Taglines were “It’s fun to be fooled”, “It’s more fun to know”, and “No tricks in Camels, just costlier tobaccos”.

   So, it would seem that magicians are mad at Camel for giving away their tricks.

   Here’s some examples of the ads:

   

4. 

   I assume the “long drawers” is an ancient Arlo, and the singer is a “panty dropper.” He’s so sexy and smooth that he’ll even make women lose their long johns in the winter.

   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/panty_dropper

5. 

   Max III, interesting way you’re reading “affect”, like “have some effect on”. I took it as the slightly less common but still familiar verb related to the idea of “affectation” — when you affect smthg in this sense you are adopting it as an affectation.

6. 

   Divad has it. I recall reading a book by a magician — John Mullholland? — that mentioned the campaign and added many magicians “still” refused to smoke Camels.

7. 

   I fear that the first comic has nothing to do with any “modern” techology: it simply reflects the inherent underlying racism of that era: “Behold the lazy primitive natives!” I had hoped to find a clearer image at the Conde Nast store, which might have revealed an exculpatory detail, but instead I found another disturbing comic by Robert J. Day, which seems to support the hypothesis:

   

8. 

   @ Divad 3

   Thanks for that. I love those goofy, old-time adverts.

   If anyone out there knows where I can get my hands on that “36-page illustrated magic book of cigarette, card and coin tricks”, I’d be eternally grateful. My wife, maybe not. But still, every trick’s a winner, so I have high hopes.

9. 

   Stan @ 9:

   https://www.ebay.com/itm/Camels-Classic-Book-Of-Magic-Vintage-Tobacco-Tricks-/254201140785?_ul=IL

   https://www.winklersmagicwarehouse.com/product/magicians-handy-book-of-cigarette-tricks-also-coin-and-card-magic/

   I looked to see if there was a pdf of it anywhere, but I’m not finding one. Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive have books explaining tricks, with diagrams, but not this.

   This one looks interesting, though: https://archive.org/details/CigaretteMagic

10. 

    evadgib, thanks so much for your efforts!!! Seriously, my weekends are now spoken for and I’m sure to be the life of every party from now on!

    (I’m not kidding. Thanks again!)

11. 

    When I was young, magazines for kids often had instructions for magic tricks. You could also buy magic sets with a wand and things like the cup and balls, but there were loads of tricks you could do with everyday objects. Although professional stage magic is alive and well, magic tricks for kids seem to have gone the way of piano lessons for kids. I can show the most elementary tricks to 20-year-olds and they have no idea how I did them.