You'd call me 'wife' in rasping tones like those. Never! Before you dare presume, sir, learn what wonders, upon frayed vocal cords, are worked by honey-smooth, queen-leaf tobacco. Relieve my tortured ears and your tortured throat with Old Golds. Mellow your speaking voice, calm that crackling cough and soothe that squawk. Old Gold yourself, Sir Sidney. There's not a bark in a billion.
This ad encourages smokers to switch to Old Golds to ease throat irritation. The engraving in this ad was done by John Held, Jr., (1889-1958) well-known for his flapper era artwork which graced mainstream magazines of the period. He was also known for his woodcut cartoons, like the one included in this Old Gold ad, which embraced a 19th century style. On May 6, 1930, Held guest starred on the Old Gold Paul Whiteman hour alongside Broadway star Irene Dunne after he engraved this and other ads in a series of Old Gold ads. Held passed away from throat cancer at the age of 69. The engraving itself depicts a beautiful woman rejecting a man’s advances due to is “rasping tones,” supposedly caused by harsh smokes. The scene is derivative of the 1891 Thomas Hardy novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles, though the name is spelled “D’Ubervilles” in the advertisement. The story gained in popularity when it was made into a silent film in 1924. In the story, Tess initially refuses to marry Alec D’Urberville, her rapist, because she is in love with another man. However, this ad makes the situation comic by renaming Alec “Sir Sidney Sissingham” and altering Tess’s reason for rejection to be the suitor’s “frayed vocal cords,” his “cackling cough.” She advises him to “soothe that squawk” with Old Golds.
Cough, Health, Throat
