Chesterfield (cigarette)

Formula 1

The Surtees TS 19 driven by Brett Lunger. Notice the Chesterfield sponsoring on the front

Chesterfield was a sponsor of the Surtees team during the 1976 Formula One season and 1977 Formula One season. A second car entered in was sponsored by Chesterfield in 1977, while their main car was controversially sponsored by Durex.^[1][2][3]

Chesterfield also sponsored the BMS Scuderia Italia team in the 1993 FIA Formula One World Championship. They only sponsored the team for one season due to the retirement of the team from F1 to focus on the World Touring Car Cup.^[4][5][6]

Motorsport

Chesterfield was a sponsor of Max Biaggi's Aprilia RSV 250 from the 1994 to the 1996 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season in the 250cc World Championship. The livery of the bike was totally black with the mark on the side fairings.^[7][8][9] In the same years, Aprilia adopted the same livery in the series production of its RS road bikes (in the 50, 125 and 250 cylinder sizes). The success was so great that even today Italians are used to say "La Chesterfield" to refer to the Aprilia RS models of those years.

Dakar Rally

Chesterfield was the main sponsor of the motorcycle team "BYRD" (Belgarda Yamaha Racing Division) at the Paris-Dakar Rally from 1987 to 1994.^[10][11] The competition team "Yamaha Sonauto" was sponsored by the cigarette brand Gauloises.^[12]

In addition, under the name "Chesterfield Scout" a collaboration with the enduro sport on a more private level. For example, at Yamaha in 1989, there was a "Chesterfield DT" with 125 cc, for the Yamaha XTZ 750 Super Ténéré gave it in its first model year in 1989, the color variant "Chesterfield".

Radio and TV

In the 1930s through the 1950s, Chesterfield sponsored popular radio programs. An early one was the radio series Music That Satisfies which was broadcast in 1932-1933.

The Chesterfield Hour (1939–1944) featured big bands such as those of Paul Whiteman and Glenn Miller^[13] and Fred Waring.^[14]

It was followed briefly by Johnny Mercer's Chesterfield Music Shop (1944) and then the Chesterfield Supper Club (1944-1949) which featured Perry Como and Jo Stafford with Peggy Lee replacing Stafford on some episodes beginning in 1948.^[14] Johnny Mercer originally wrote the pop standard song "Dream (When You're Feeling Blue)" as the theme song for his Chesterfield radio program;^[15] the theme for Como's Chesterfield Supper Club was the basis for "Smoke Dreams", covered by Jo Stafford, k.d. lang, and other artists.

Liggett & Myers sponsored Dragnet, both on radio and on TV, during the 1950s. The 1954 theatrical version of Dragnet also had Chesterfield product placements, such as advertisements in scenes taking place at drug stores and news counters, or cigarette vending machines. Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday was seen smoking Chesterfields in the movie and TV series. The Martin and Lewis Show, on NBC radio from 1949 to 1953, was sponsored or co-sponsored for most of its run by Chesterfield. Also in the 1950s, Gunsmoke on both radio and TV was similarly sponsored primarily by Chesterfields and L&Ms.

In the 1940s and 1950s Ronald Reagan, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, and Arthur Godfrey were among Chesterfield's official spokesmen; Chesterfield being one of the primary sponsors of the radio and TV programs of these stars during that time.^[16]

Novels

Classic 20th century advertisement of Chesterfield cigarettes

Ian Fleming frequently makes references to different smoking products in his famous James Bond novels. The Chesterfield brand of cigarette are portrayed as one of Bond's favorites as seen in the 1959 book Goldfinger. In this novel, James Bond demands of Goldfinger's servant, "Oddjob, I want a lot of food, quickly. And a bottle of bourbon, soda and ice. Also a carton of Chesterfields, king-size..."^[20][21][22]

In numerous Stephen King novels, his characters frequently smoke Chesterfield cigarettes.

Television series

In the popular 2010 HBO TV series Boardwalk Empire, Agent Knox is seen giving three packs of Chesterfield cigarettes to Clayton.^[23]

In the first episode of the 2017 series Our Cartoon President, John F. Kelly gives President Donald Trump a motivational speech about the State of the Union address being used to push an "inspiring and unified vision for the future", mentioning Franklin D. Roosevelt and 'The New Deal', Lyndon B. Johnson and 'The Great Society', and Ronald Reagan and "the smooth taste of Chesterfield cigarettes".^[24]

Films

Humphrey Bogart frequently appeared in Chesterfield advertisements. A scene from the 1944 movie To Have and Have Not shows him with a pack of Chesterfields.

Chesterfield was made famous notably through Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 film À bout de souffle in which the cigarette smoked by the actress Jean Seberg is a Chesterfield.

Vittorio Gassman bought two packs of Chesterfield cigarettes in the movie Il Sorpasso.

In Jack Clayton's 1974 adaptation of The Great Gatsby, Gatsby (Robert Redford) splits the last Chesterfield in his pack with Nick Carraway (Sam Waterston) while the two chat on Carraway's porch. Nick Carraway is a thinly-disguised F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald's favorite cigarette was Chesterfield's, so the scene is an accurate adaptation.^[25]

Jake Blues (John Belushi) smoked Chesterfield cigarettes in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers. Near the end of the scene at Bob's Country Bunker, Jake is seen briefly flashing a flattened and nearly empty pack of Chesterfield cigarettes, pretending it is his musician's union ID card.

In Jim Jarmusch's 1984 film Stranger Than Paradise the main characters smoke Chesterfields, at times discussing where they can purchase them.

In the 1989 film Fratelli d'Italia, Jerry Calà draws a pack of Chesterfield Reds several times.

In Quentin Tarantino's 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs, Mr. White offers Mr. Pink a Chesterfield cigarette in an attempt to calm him. In another Tarantino-penned movie, 1993's True Romance, Clarence Worley's father, Clifford, smokes a Chesterfield before his execution at the hands of Blue Lou Boyle's consigliere, Vincenzo Coccotti.

In the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption, Red (Morgan Freeman) is seen giving a pack of Chesterfield cigarettes to Heywood (William Sadler) after losing the "Fresh Fish" bet. Heywood sniffs the cigarettes and says "Yes, Richmond, Virginia".

In the Coen brothers' 2001 The Man Who Wasn't There, a black and white neo-noir film set in 1949, the main character is an unfiltered Chesterfield chain smoker.

In the 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha, after Pumpkin has immersed herself in World War II American soldier culture, she tells Sayuri that she only smokes Chesterfields now.

In the 2007 film Grindhouse, the actor Kurt Russell extracts a Chesterfield pack out of his pocket.

Music

The Chesterfield Kings are a rock band that started in 1979 and were named after the cigarette brand.

In Donald Fagen's 1982 title track of The Nightfly: "I've got plenty of java and Chesterfield Kings".

The 1992 Jawbreaker song "Chesterfield King" is named for the king-sized chesterfield. The song refers to the cigarette twice. First, the singer shares a chesterfield with a woman he meets in a parking lot. Later, at the end of the song, the singer gives a Chesterfield King to the woman he has been singing about.^[26][27]

In the song "Telling Stories" from the 1995 album Wrapped in Sky by Drivin N Cryin appears the lyrics, "Hooking up with John and Mark, At the playground, Chesterfields and bubble gum".

Celebrities

Rod Serling, creator and host of the series The Twilight Zone (1959-1964), smoked and sometimes promoted Chesterfield during his brief appearances at the end of each episode. In 1975, he died from his third heart attack in under two months, aged 50.

Longtime college football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant smoked unfiltered Chesterfields, often two to three packs per day. The habit was the main contributing factor to his fatal heart attack in 1983 at age 69.

Lucille Ball was known to smoke Chesterfields. Because I Love Lucy was sponsored by Philip Morris, she was not supposed to be seen smoking any other brand of cigarette on set. She still smoked Chesterfields, but put them in a Philip Morris box. She died in 1989 after her second aortic aneurysm in just over a week, aged 77.

Radiohead singer Thom Yorke lit up a Chesterfield Light cigarette in a 1997 video interview.