Fun Fact #60 How much was a pack of regular cigarettes in 1959? (or for that matter a walking tour in 1906?)

Slabtown Tours Fun Facts , , , , ,

Fun Fact #60 How much was a pack of regular cigarettes in 1959? (or for that matter a walking tour in 1906?)

Clyde Besaw at the bar in front of register. Sign states cigarettes regular are 20 cents King Size are 23 cents filter tip are 25 cents
Clyde Besaw 1959 dressed for the 100th birthday of Oregon’s State Hood. Image courtesy Mike Ryerson. (Developed in April but possibly taken on 2-14-1959)

Clyde Besaw was selling regular cigarettes from Besaw’s Cafe on NW 23rd for 20 cents a pack. After Prohibition was repealed, Besaws was granted the first liquor license in the state of Oregon. Bars and smoking went hand in hand until public health awareness.  On occasion  find images of people pretending to smoke in old pictures. Bob Hilger a former resident of Guild’s Lake Housing Authority of Portland wartime housing wanted to make sure that his children and other descendants were aware that he was only faking smoking in this image taken at their home with Forrest Park in the background.  I was not alive to meet these lovely women of St. Patricks church but I assume they would be making the same request.

St. Patrick Church women courtesy Norman Gholston
Bob Hilger and his father at their home in Guild’s Lack c. 1944 Courtesy Bob Hilger
Oregon Journal Ad. "See Chinatown"
“See Chinatown” Oregon Journal January 25, 1906 page 3.

Walking tours also have also increased in price:

Seid Beck (sometimes spelled Back) was a merchant and labor broker in Portland. His son led walking tours of Chinatown. “Chinatown…is in the very heart of the city.”-Seid Back, Jr.,  A Trip Through Chinatown in Portland souvenir book and guided food tour sold for 75 cents.  His tours appealed to a popular desire to extend touristic travel beyond the fairgrounds where our Slabtown Tours take you today.