Bonnie Magin at Weber & Fields, from the Actresses series (T1), distributed by the American Tobacco Co. to promote Turkish Trophies Cigarettes 1900

This chromolithograph of Bonnie Magin at Weber & Fields, was created in the United States as a promotional item for Turkish Trophies Cigarettes. Here we see the confluence of advertising, celebrity culture, and the theater. Actresses became sought-after figures for endorsements. This image speaks to a moment when mass media was rapidly expanding, and brands sought to capture public attention through association with popular performers. Bonnie Magin was a popular actress in Vaudeville, and Weber & Fields was a successful comedy duo who founded their own theatre company in New York. The image uses soft pastel colors to create an idealized vision of feminine beauty. As art historians, we can examine playbills, theater reviews, and advertisements to fully understand the relationship between performance, celebrity, and commerce in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Such research reveals the complex ways in which cultural values are produced and circulated.