Just discovered this late-50s TV interview with Vladimir Nabokov during his Lolita-era celebrity. Lionel Trilling somehow keeps a single cigarette going for two full video clips. People really knew how to smoke in those days. Notice how Nabokov at first tries to read from notecards but finally has to give it up and actually engage.
Pretty amusing how all three participants--Nabokov, Trilling, and the interviewer--all get up from the couch at one point without any apparent cue and move, en masse, to another set of chairs at the other end of the set, as if a waiter just told them their table was ready. They don't miss a beat as they relocate.
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In the 50's, all cigarettes were organic. Compare a Marlboro to American Spirit--the additive-free variety takes 2-3x longer to burn down, as there are no chemicals in the paper or tobacco to hurry it along. Since carbon monoxide is already so bad for you, it doesn't matter that these chems are also toxic to carbon-based lifeforms, does it?
ReplyDeleteSpoken like a true ex-smoker.
ReplyDeleteINDEED!
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