Chesterfield

Chesterfield is a brand of cigarette made by Altria. It was one of the most recognized brands of the early 20th century, but sales have declined steadily over the years. It was named for Chesterfield County, Virginia. Chesterfield is still being made today; it is still popular in Europe, but has been absent from U.S. advertising for many years. It is currently the only Altria cigarette that is made without a filter in the USA.

For many years Chesterfield cigarettes were produced by the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company. In 1999, Liggett sold the L&M, Lark and Chesterfield brands to Philip Morris Companies Inc., now known as the Altria Group.

Trivia

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• In True Romance, a film written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott, Dennis Hopper's character asks Christopher Walken's for a Chesterfield.
• In a series of advertisements made many years before he took office former US President Ronald Reagan was a spokesman for Chesterfields. In one of them he is seen addressing cartons of cigarettes as Christmas gifts for "all my friends".^[1]
• Rod Serling advertised Chesterfield cigarettes in some of his Twilight Zone episodes.
• Chesterfield sponsored the Chesterfield Supper Club NBC radio series and television series, hosted by Perry Como.^[1]
• Leona Helmsley claimed that she appeared in billboard ads for Chesterfield cigarettes, but her claim remains entirely unsubstantiated
• Sponsor of Dragnet
• Being Lucille Ball's favorite cigarette brand, she put Chesterfield cigarettes in Phillip Morris boxes during the filming of I Love Lucy, so she could smoke her favorite brand without upsetting the sponsors.^[1]
• The 1958 television series Steve Canyon based on the Milton Caniff comic strip about an Air Force pilot, was sponsored by Chesterfield. Star Dean Fredericks appeared in print and televisions ads for the cigarette, and was seen smoking the brand in the series. Additionally, Chesterfield produced Air Force-themed ads, complete with matching jingles, to be shown in the episodes.
• In Jean-Luc Goddard's seminal French New Wave Film Breathless, the main character Michel Poiccard claims to only smoke Chesterfields.
• In the 1960s, print ads for Chesterfield featured color photographs of four smokers from various walks of life with the headline "Chesterfield People: They like a mild smoke, but they don't like filters."^[1]
• In the mid 1980s, Chesterfield was the main sponsor of certain primetime American television series shown in Argentina, such as The A-Team and Miami Vice, and presented them as "The Chesterfield Hour," or something to that effect. Each show would start with a musical Chesterfield intro.^[1]
• 'Sound off for Chesterfield' was the advertising slogan used in the Martin and Lewis radio show.
• James Bond's cigarette of choice when he was out of or could not obtain his usual Morland brand was Chesterfield.
• The cult '90s pop punk band Jawbreaker's song "Chesterfield King" off their album Bivouac makes several references to the brand.

• Independent film actor Matt Galdikas preferred Chesterfields. There is a pack seen in the 2001 film 1932: A Year to Remember.
• Stuntman Mike, the serial killer in the Quentin Tarantino movie Death Proof, is seen smoking Chesterfields.
• Harvey Keitel's character in Reservoir Dogs offers Steve Buscemi's character a Chesterfield.
• In the Stephen King novel Pet Semetary, the character Jud Crandal frequently smokes Chesterfield cigarettes.
• In Stephen King's short story Low Men in Yellow Coats, Ted Brautigan is said to smoke a lot of Chesterfields. This moves the character Bobby Garfield to also smoke a lot of Chesterfields later in life.
• In the title track of Donald Fagen's 1982 album The Nightfly, Lester the Nightfly mentions having "plenty of java and Chesterfield Kings."

References