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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Theresa St. Romain, MA, Suzanne R. Hawley, PhD, MPH, Elizabeth Ablah, PhD, MPH, and Craig A. Molgaard, PhD, MPH. Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, 1010 N. Kansas, Wichita, KS 67214-3199, 316-293-2627, shawley@kumc.edu

Much research has been done into portrayals of tobacco and alcohol use in film since the middle of the twentieth century, but the earlier years of Hollywood history have been completely overlooked. Yet the first decades of the twentieth century marked a time of great change in tobacco and alcohol use: annual per capita cigarette consumption increased from under 100 in 1900 to 1500 in 1930, while Prohibition put a halt to the legal manufacture and sale of alcohol from 1920 to 1933. The current study looks at frequency and context (i.e., gender, age range, SES, positive/negative portrayals) of alcohol and tobacco use in 20 top-grossing silent films spanning the silent feature era (1915-1928). Incidences of tobacco use per hour of screen time varied greatly by film genre, but mean use was higher than on-film use rates from mid-century, when per capita cigarette consumption was more than twice as high. In general, tobacco use was associated with positive characterizations, masculinity, or physical attractiveness. Alcohol use was present in contemporary films despite Prohibition, but appeared more frequently in period films (more than half of the sample). Women were rarely portrayed using either substance. Previous research has verified the influence of the film industry on tobacco and alcohol consumption in modern years, and this potential connection should not be ignored for the silent film era. Top-grossing silent films set a precedent for positive media portrayals of substance use that have persisted to the present day; implications are discussed.

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