Your Doctor Wants You to Smoke

The Second Opinion
Small-town doctors are fine, but if you want an opinion with weight, you have to bring on the "noted throat specialist." This doc is distinguishable from the general practitioner in that he's older and whiter and he holds a tiny mirror on a stick. And he comes with a celebrity endorsement: one of those tiny pictures is of Michael Douglas, who went on to become a talk-show icon (and who died at 81 — not of lung cancer). Opera singers, clergymen and politicians — anyone who had to use their lungs — were also hired as pitchmen. Joan Crawford, notes Sackler, endorsed several different brands over the course of her career.

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