Speed-Boat Driver Dies at Wheel Bidding for Lead at Mile a Minute
Scull Collapses in Hydroplane During the First Heat of Race at Pleasantville
Started With Outboards in 1917
By Clarence E. Lovejoy, Special to the New York Times

PLEASANTVILLE, N. J., May 31 [1953] — C. Mulford Scull of Ventnor, N. J., one of the country’s best-known speed-boat drivers, collapsed today in the tiny cockpit of his 48-cubic-inch hydroplane Shooting Star while bidding for the lead at nearly a mile-a-minute speed on the second lap of the four-lap initial heat of a race on Lakes Bay. When his craft was overtaken and boarded, Scull was found to be dead.

His wife, Mrs. Ruby Scull, another racing headliner and champion, and their two small daughters, Barbara Jean and Mary Ellen, were among the spectators thronged on the shore.

Scull, gray-haired and past 50, had been a speedboat daredevil since 1917, when he began as an amateur in outboard ranks, later becoming a professional and still later graduating into inboards.

He was largely responsible for the fleet of speedboat pilots developed in his home town of Ventnor. Scull was a member of one of South Jersey’s best-known families, for whom the nearby community of Scullville was named and also an arm of the inland waterway known as Scull’s Bay.

Out of respect to the popular pilot, Referee Fred Hahn of Philadelphia and Commodore Joseph W. Bennett Jr. and Race Chairman Les Higbee of the sponsoring Yacht Club of Pleasantville decided to cancel further racing heats.

The tragedy occurred in the first of the inboard events. Scull, crouching over the steering wheel of his rainbow-hued craft, was overtaking Jim Davis of Red Bank, N. J., driving Gene di Falco’s newly built Forty-Eighter.

As the fleet tore past the officials’ float anchored in front of Oxford Academy, Scull was seen to slump in his driver’s scat. With the throttle released, Shooting Star slowed down.

Higbee darted out in a rescue craft and helped transfer Scull to a United States Navy boat from the Atlantic City Naval Air Station and handled by Lieut. Comdr. Charles McAree of the Naval Reserve Training Center.

Two physicians, Dr. David Latta of Pleasantville and Dr. Sterling Brown of Northfield, went aboard the Navy ship. But injections of adrenalin and use of a resuscitator sent over from a nearby hospital and manned by police failed to revive Scull and after an hour he was pronounced dead of coronary occlusion.

"Mully" and "Ruby" were America’s best-known husband-and-wife team of speedboat pilots. In recent years he favored the 48-cubic-inch hydroplanes and she the runabouts. Her Mickey Mouse established a world record last Christmas week at Miami. This spring Mrs. Scull moved upward into the 136-cubic-inch class and until today’s regatta was halted she had expected to drive her new Mickey Mouse Too.

In the earlier events for outboards, Ed Shields of Pleasantville won the Class B stock hydroplane event, ahead of Bill Hayden of Avenel, N. J., and Don Riedel of Hasbrouck Heights. John Honan of Deposit was the high point winner in the Class CU event for runabout utilities, beating Dan Barrett of Lusby. Md., and Bill Mitchell of West New York, N. J.

Bill Boerner of North Plainfield, N. J., can tell his grandchildren about a stunt that may never be duplicated. While driving his BU craft No-Mo-Shun over the choppy, rough course he was bounced overboard. With the safety throttle released, No-Mo-Shun made a few slow circles and Boerner was able to swim alongside, climb over the combing, get back into the driver’s seat, give her the gas and resume the race.

Camel is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in the United States and by Japan Tobacco outside the U.S.^[1][2]

Most recently Camel cigarettes contain a blend of Turkish tobacco and Virginia tobacco. Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the city where R. J. Reynolds was founded, is nicknamed "Camel City" because of the brand's popularity.^[3]

History[edit]

In 1913, Richard Joshua "R. J." Reynolds, founder of the company that still bears his name, innovated the packaged cigarette.^[4] Prior cigarette smokers had rolled their own, which tended to obscure the potential for a national market for a pre-packaged product.^[4] Reynolds worked to develop a more appealing flavor, creating the Camel cigarette, which he so named because it used Turkish tobacco^[4] in imitation of then-fashionable Egyptian cigarettes. Reynolds priced them below competitors,^[specify] and within a year, he had sold 425 million packs.^[4]

Camel cigarettes were originally blended to have a milder taste than established brands. They were advance-promoted by a careful advertising campaign that included "teasers" simply stating "the Camels are coming",^[4] a play on the old Scottish folk song "The Campbells Are Coming". Another promotion was "Old Joe", a circus camel driven through towns to attract attention and distribute free cigarettes. The brand's slogan, used for decades, was "I'd walk a mile for a Camel!"^{[This quote needs a citation]}

The iconic style of Camel is the original unfiltered cigarette sold in a soft pack, known as Camel Straights or Regulars. Its popularity peaked through the brand's use by famous personalities such as news broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, whose usage of them was so heavy and so public that the smoking of a Camel no-filter became his trademark.^[5]

In Europe, Camel is also a brand of cigarette rolling papers and loose cigarette tobacco, maintaining a top 20 roll-your-own rank in Northern Europe with yearly expansion into Southern and Eastern Europe according to the European Subsidiary's annual report.

In 1999, Japan Tobacco International gained ownership of the rights to sell Camel outside the United States. The tobacco blend of the non-American Camel contains less Oriental tobacco and a higher proportion of Burley.

On July 1, 2000, an "Oriental" variety of Camel was introduced, followed by Turkish Gold, a regular cigarette, in 2000, and Turkish Jade, a menthol, in 2001. In 2005 Camel added its name on the cigarette paper and changed the filter color and design on its Oriental version, which was subsequently discontinued, but then reinstated. Also in 2005, Turkish Silvers were introduced, an ultralight version positioned in strength below Turkish Gold "lights" and "full flavor" Turkish Royal. Various Camel Crush and Camel Click cigarettes have also been created and are some of the most popular Camel variants being sold.^[6]

In 2012, Camel was surpassed by Pall Mall as R. J. Reynolds' most popular brand.^[7]

In June 2012, Camel Filters were discontinued in the United Kingdom.

In 2013, Camel celebrated its 100th anniversary. Professor Robert N. Proctor of Stanford University commented on the occasion with an editorial in the Los Angeles Times, noting that over the last century, Camel sold over 4 trillion cigarettes and "have probably caused about 4 million deaths." In the same editorial, Proctor also stated that about half as many cigarettes are being sold to Americans in 2013 than in 1981.^[8]

Marketing[edit]

Graphic design[edit]

The photograph used for the Camel design was taken on September 29, 1913, by Andrew Jackson Farrell, a Winston-Salem based photographer. Farrell and Mr. R. C. Haberkern of the Reynolds Tobacco Company went to the Barnum & Bailey Circus to photograph a camel and a dromedary to use in the design for a "brand of Turkish Cigarettes which we [Reynolds Tobacco] are about to put on the market."^[9] "The label's background of temples, minarets, an oasis, and pyramids was much like it is today, but the camel in the foreground was a pathetic, one-humped beast with short, pointed ears, two-pronged hoofs and a drooping neck. Is this a camel? the Reynolds people asked each other. Consulting the "Encyclopedia Britannica", they learned that a one-humped dromedary could indeed be called a camel, although no one was too pleased with the creature's looks. Luckily, Barnum & Bailey came to town. Monday, September 29, 1913, Roy C. Haberkern, Reynolds' young secretary, went to investigate. With a photographer (Andrew Jackson Farrell), he visited the circus menagerie and found not only a dromedary, but a two-humped camel as well. When the animal's boss refused permission to photograph them, Haberkern pointed out that Reynolds had always closed offices and factories for the circus, a practice that could easily be discontinued. The trainer relented, but demanded a written release from the company. Haberkern raced back to the closed office building, climbed through a window, wrote the agreement, and signed Reynolds' name to it. Back at the fairgrounds the circus man conceded and brought out the two animals. The camel posed willingly, but Old Joe, the dromedary, wouldn't hold still. The trainer gave him a slap on the nose. Old Joe raised his tail, threw back his ears and closed his eyes as the shutter snapped. From that photograph an improved label was designed and Old Joe became the most famous dromedary in the world."^[10]

The Reynolds company commissioned Fred Otto Kleesattel in 1913 to draw the original artwork. The signature scene on most Camel cigarette packs shows a single dromedary, the smallest of the three species of camel, standing on desert sand, with pyramids and palm trees in the background. The back features bazaars and mosques. On European and some other non-U.S. versions, the desert motifs have been replaced by health warnings. On others, Kleesattel included "Manneken Pis", a historical figure of Brussels.^[11]

Known as "Fritz", Kleesattel was a highly sought after graphic designer living in Louisville, Kentucky. He was hired through his company, Klee Ad Art, to design the packaging for the new Camel cigarettes' line. Klee Ad Art was also integral in devising designs for Four Roses Distillery, Heaven Hill Distilleries, and many other now immediately recognizable U.S. brands. While serving in the U.S. Army during World War I, Kleesattel worked as a camouflage artist, disguising buildings, vehicles, and other potential targets by making them blend with their surroundings.

Ad campaigns[edit]

In an apparent attempt to counter Lucky Strike's popular "It's Toasted" campaign, Camel went in the opposite direction by boasting that Camel was a "fresh" cigarette "never parched or toasted."^[12]

In 1936, Camel used the slogan "For digestion's sake – smoke Camels." The ads ran from 1936 to 1939. In 1951, over a decade after the ad campaign ended, the FTC issued a cease-and-desist order prohibiting R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR) from claiming that Camels aided digestion in any respect.^[13]

In 1946, Camel advertised their cigarettes as being the favorite choice among doctors "from every branch of medicine", making smokers believe it was safe to smoke them.^[14] The slogan "More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette" became the mainstay of Camel advertising until 1952.^[14][15] Ads featuring the slogan were seen in a range of media, including medical journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association,^[16] television commercials,^[17][18][19] popular radio programs such as Abbott and Costello and magazines such as Life and Time.^[20] The slogan was claimed to be based on surveys by "three leading independent research organizations"; however, these surveys were conducted by R. J. Reynolds's advertising agency, the William Esty Company, and included free cigarettes for the doctors who were interviewed.^[14]

In late 1987, RJR created "Joe Camel" as a brand mascot. In 1991, the American Medical Association published a report stating that 5- and 6-year-olds could more easily recognize Joe Camel than Mickey Mouse, Fred Flintstone, Bugs Bunny, or even Barbie.^[21] This led the association to ask RJR to terminate the Joe Camel campaign. RJR declined, but further appeals followed in 1993 and 1994. On July 10, 1997, the Joe Camel campaign was retired and replaced with a more adult campaign which appealed to the desires of its mid-20s target market. Camel paid millions of dollars to settle lawsuits accusing them of using Joe Camel to market smoking to children.^[22]