Victor Borge Quotes
...the elephant smoked too much.
Borge, Victor. Comedy in Music. Columbia Records, 1954.
Henry Ford had an absolute phobia about tobacco. Although the terrible carcinogenic effect of smoking was not known at the time, Ford was convinced that cigarettes deteriorated the brain and turned people into criminals. He banned smoking in all Ford plants and offices. This is a good example of doing the right thing for the wrong reason.
The. law was enforced and upheld by the Tennessee Supreme Court (Austin v State) which recognized the health danger of tobacco. Tennessee was an agricultural state where tobacco was grown and the law was repealed as the result of political pressure. But this is the first and only absolute state prohibition on tobacco that has been enacted in the United States.
This quotation not only illustrates Ford’s wide ranging concern about public affairs but illustrates that the addictive properties of cigarettes were known long before the cancer and other disease causing properties of tobacco were understood. Yet the addictive properties were the last deleterious effects of smoking that the tobacco companies would admit to. At the end of the 20th century, the CEO’s of the major tobacco company all lied to Congress in hearings, claiming that cigarettes were not addictive. Ford and millions of people knew better generations ago.
Marijuana had been made legal in a number of states at that time. Based on the example of New York City, many other cities of the world were just then passing ordinances to make it illegal to smoke in any public place or any private establishment that serves the public.
Børge Rosenbaum, known professionally as Victor Borge (/ˈbɔːrɡə/ BOR-gə), was a Danish-American comedian, conductor, and pianist who achieved great popularity in radio and television in the United States and Europe. His blend of music and comedy earned him the nicknames "The Clown Prince of Denmark", "The Unmelancholy Dane", and "The Great Dane".
