“Camel City,” as Winston-Salem has been known, was home base for the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., maker of Camels, Winstons and Salem Lights.

Once the largest seller of cigarettes in the United States, RJR’s headquarters is still based in its famous tower on Fourth Street. The 25-story building design was the tallest building in the Carolinas until 1965 and is a major landmark in downtown Winston-Salem.

Camel once enlisted professional tennis players in advertising campaigns. An ad with Ellsworth Vines, 1931-32 U.S. Nationals Champion (now the U.S. Open), reads: “After 5 hard sets—and then he smoked a Camel.” It goes on to claim: “When you’ve used up your energy, smoke a Camel and notice how you feel your flow of energy snap back.”

And of course, like NASCAR which had its pinnacle for years as the Winston Cup, the women’s tennis tour from 1972-1994 was sponsored by Virginia Slims. The tour carried the banner of smokes for a full twenty-two years.

Tobacco kills more Americans in one day than terrorists do in a year. The American Cancer Society web site says, “Each year, a staggering 440,000 people die in the US from tobacco use,” and that “Cigarette smoking is the major single cause of cancer mortality in the United States.”

In 1997, the cartoon character of Joe Camel was banished by the courts for encouraging children to smoke. Today, the harshly realistic character of Joe Chemo encourages children not to smoke. His web site says, “Although Joe Chemo may seem like a joke, there’s nothing funny about chemotherapy. The site is dedicated to chemo patients and their family members, with the hope that it will reduce the number of people who smoke cigarettes and have to suffer through medical treatment.”

The game of tennis should wholeheartedly support movements like Joe Chemo and do everything it can to make up for the misguided support of smoking, particularly the WTA, for the more than two decades it took cigarette money and helped to spread the lies of tobacco.

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