1937 Cigarette Ad with Gold Medal Skater Maribel Vinson

While unpacking a box today I ran across a Notre Dame Alumnus Magazine dated January 1937. To my surprise the back cover had this Chesterfield Cigarette ad with this illustration of a figure skater dressed in a gold figure skating outfit with matching gold ice skates. Instead of figure eights, the illustrator chose to write Chesterfield Wins on the ice. What is amazing is the fact that she is seen holding a cigarette while doing so! Times have certainly changed, this ad would never run today.

I couldn't help but wonder who this skater might be. I've come to the conclusion that this skater was Maribel Vinson. She won the Gold medal that same year for the North American championships in Boston and she also received a Silver medal in the pairs competition.

Sadly, her life ended tragically in 1961 when the plane she was traveling in as the coach for the US team at the 1961 World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia crashed in a field in Belgium. Her two daughters who were competing as well as everyone else perished in the crash. The games were canceled that year.