GEHRIG, LOU | Typed document signed ("Lou Gehrig") agreeing for a period of one year to license his name, portrait, and agreed-to statements for the promotion of Camel cigarettes

Property from the Collection of John M. and Elly B. Beard

GEHRIG, LOU

Typed document signed ("Lou Gehrig") agreeing for a period of one year to license his name, portrait, and agreed-to statements for the promotion of Camel cigarettes

One page (9 3/4 x 7 1/4 in.; 248 x 185 mm), [New York,] 2 March 1935, being a legal release to William Esty and/or R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company for the use Gehrig's image and statements for advertising purposes and further agreeing not to endorse any other tobacco product for the duration of the agreement, witnessed by Jos. A. Bihler; light stain and staple hole at upper left, two internal tears, lightly worn at folds. Matted, framed, and glazed.

Baseball's Iron Horse on the benefits of smoking. The agreement includes an example of the type of "conversational statements" that can be used in the campaign: "I haven't missed a ball game with the Yanks since 1925. That's over 1500 straight games. There are plenty of times when I feel tired after a game. Then I 'get a lift with a Camel' … Pretty soon the tired feeling goes and I feel refreshed … for steady smoking I prefer Camels … so mild they never interfere with my wind or my 'fighting trim.'" Gehrig's streak of consecutive games played eventually reached 2130 before he was sidelined by the disease that now familiarly bears his name.