Fame is a bee. It has a song. It has a sting. Ah, too, it has a wing.
- Emily Dickinson (1898) in Thomas H. Johnson, ed., The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (1960)

Sometimes I want to look at the stars and just see the Heavens. Other times, I want to know more about them. Some are old and some are new, but they all shine brightly.

Let's begin with The Gallery of Famous Smokers (three pages).

Now go for some Famous Smokers and Songs About Smoking.

Also, check out the famous folks in Good Company from The Smoker Magazine.

The UK Smoking Ban - The triumph of a Nazi idea begins with a vintage commercial with doctors promoting smoking and includes many famous people who smoked. WARNING: The video is a bit hard-hitting and the comments, not surprisingly, contain some antisemetic remarks. (WebMistress: Actually, the commercial was for the health benefits of Camel cigarettes. Interestingly, I had a grandfather-in-law who smoked unfiltered Camels until he has in his late 60's when his doctor told him to quit for his health. He died shortly before his 100th birthday. No cancer.)

Feast your eyes on the not-so-famous or very famous--but always beautiful--at Smoke and Dresses - Beautiful Women Smoking in Dresses and Skirts

Dreyfus blazes at smoking ban. James Dreyfus, who was in The Thin Blue Line and My Hero, is quoted as saying, “I won’t be pushed into a corner by this government. It may tell you to smoke outside but I won’t stop..... They’ll be banning booze in pubs next!” Dreyfus will be in Double Time by Christmas.

Walt Disney was known as a chain-smoking workaholic. He died of lung cancer. (Webmistress: I wouldn't know enough about the cause of his lung cancer. Clearly, other factors were involved. He died shortly after his 65th birthday.) One of his legacies, Walt Disney World, has opted for the more Draconian antismoking policies. Well, as we know, smoking is an adult activity; although recent PR campaigns have advertised otherwise, the policy makers for Walt Disney World must believe that the place is primarily for children. Even so, this seems to be somewhat contradictory and irreverent toward their benefactor. But...wait a cotton pickin' minute! It's A Sad Day When Disney Starts Banning Children.

Put That in Your Pipe from ReasonOnline contrasts a peace-loving genius (Albert Einstein) with the most famous antismoker (Adolph Hitler). Einstein is quoted in the article:

"I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs," he said in 1950 at age 71, when he became a lifetime member of the Montreal Pipe Smokers Club.

Rush Limbaugh in "Bush Vows to Veto Cigar Tax" (July 18, 2007).

Listen and watch Dr. Michael Crichton "The Phony Science of Secondhand Smoke." More videos from Freedom2Choose can be found here.

Joe Cool! A sight more good lookin' than Joe Camel!

See what Joe Jackson has to say about smoking bans and antismoking hysteria. He has researched the topic and written a booklet, Smoke, Lies, and the Nanny State . His original essay was entitled "The Smoking Issue".

I don't think there should be a total ban," Drew Carey said through a cloud of smoke inside Barney's Beanery, a bar, restaurant and pool hall in West Hollywood. "It should be up to each bar owner and patron to decide if they want to smoke or not."

Other famous people who smoked: Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas McArthur.

This might belong in the Funnies File or Fun Stuff! Compare and contrast antismokers with famous people who smoke in AmericansAll! Seriously, you have to see this! On a related note, you can see The Gallery of Human Perfection...oh, my.

Rocker Weller Flouts Smoking Ban Onstage!

SEX PISTOLS - SEX PISTOLS FLOUT U.K. SMOKING BAN

For quotable quotes from famous people, peruse the Smokin' Good Quotes.

Many of us have fond memories of Father Christmas smoking a pipe, much like many fatherly figures. However, this was a new twist for me! So, I thought I'd share it here. How much more famous can you get than good ol' Santa Claus!

On A Sad Note
from "Did John Wayne die of cancer caused by a radioactive movie set? " (26-Oct-1984), Straight Dope Classic
Of the 220 persons who worked on The Conqueror on location in Utah in 1955, 91 had contracted cancer as of the early 1980s and 46 died of it, including stars John Wayne, Susan Hayward, and Agnes Moorehead, and director Dick Powell. Experts say under ordinary circumstances only 30 people out of a group of that size should have gotten cancer. The cause? No one can say for sure, but many attribute the cancers to radioactive fallout from U.S. atom bomb tests in nearby Nevada. The whole ghastly story is told in The Hollywood Hall of Shame by Harry and Michael Medved.
...
In 1953, the military had tested 11 atomic bombs at Yucca Flats, Nevada, which resulted in immense clouds of fallout floating downwind. Much of the deadly dust funneled into Snow Canyon, Utah, where a lot of The Conqueror was shot. The actors and crew were exposed to the stuff for 13 weeks, no doubt inhaling a fair amount of it in the process, and [movie financer] Hughes later shipped 60 tons of hot dirt back to Hollywood to use on a set for retakes, thus making things even worse.

Many people involved in the production knew about the radiation (there's a picture of Wayne himself operating a Geiger counter during the filming), but no one took the threat seriously at the time. Thirty years later, however, half the residents of St. George had contracted cancer, and veterans of the production began to realize they were in trouble. Actor Pedro Armendariz developed cancer of the kidney only four years after the movie was completed, and later shot himself when he learned his condition was terminal.

Howard Hughes was said to have felt "guilty as hell" about the whole affair, although as far as I can tell it never occurred to anyone to sue him. For various reasons he withdrew The Conqueror from circulation, and for years thereafter the only person who saw it was Hughes himself, who screened it night after night during his paranoid last years.

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