Congress Urged to Prohibit All Cigarette Ads

Congress should ban all cigarette advertising to save lives and protect future generations of Americans from becoming nicotine addicts, a House subcommittee was told today.

“Captain Kangaroo,” Yul Brynner’s daughter and the grandson of tobacco magnate R. J. Reynolds joined the medical establishment in endorsing a bill to outlaw all promotion and advertising of tobacco products and to ban any tobacco company from using a brand name in sponsoring public events such as sports tournaments.

Patrick Reynolds, whose grandfather founded a tobacco empire in 1913, said his father, Richard J. Reynolds, “died from emphysema after years of heavy smoking.”

Reynolds, who said he sold his tobacco company stock years ago and claimed he is not estranged from his family over his militant anti-smoking stance, called cigarette advertising “the single biggest lie perpetrated on the American people.”

‘Proven Killers’

“To allow continued advertising of cigarettes when they are proven killers is plainly immoral,” Reynolds said.

Bob Keeshan, a former smoker and creator of the Captain Kangaroo television character, called tobacco use a threat to the well-being of the nation’s youth.

“The future of America is alive today, in the minds, the healthy hearts and the healthy lungs of today’s youngsters,” Keeshan said. “I implore you . . . to . . . take steps to assure the continued health of our young people.”

Victoria Brynner, a professional model who lives in Paris, showed the subcommittee a videotaped statement by her actor-father before he died of lung cancer last year.

Now being aired, the segment features Brynner saying heavy smoking caused his fatal illness and urging others to stop smoking.

The subcommittee did not hear today from Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, who supports the advertising ban, but a presidential spokesman said Koop will testify Aug. 1.