There was a lot of cigarette smoking in the 1950s and 1960s, so much so that bathroom fixture designers were on a competitive rampage to sell you special cigarette and ashtray holders that could fit right into your sleek, new bathroom. Above: A New Old Stock Hall Mack bathroom ash tray (listing now gone)
for sale on ebay right now, new old stock, is the most basic of what we see out there. Let’s take a closer look at this, and then, at 7 other designs of vintage recessed bathroom ash trays and cigarette holders that really dial things up a notch:
Hall-Mack Coronado Ash Tray
The ebay ash tray is the Hall-Mack Coronado design. I bet the Hall-Mack Coronado fixtures were #1 in America in the 20th Century, what do you think?
It’s always nice to see the original packaging and in this case, the original glass ash tray. Hall-Mack was based in Los Angeles 7, California. Who knows postal dates? When did more numbers come along? Thanks to ebay seller dave-gons41 for giving me permission to show these photos.
And golly, clicking around I see even more even MORE New Old Stock Hall Mack bathroom ash trays from other sellers. Hey, if there’s a no-smoking policy in your bathroom, these would be good for rings and such.
Rare mystery revolving toilet paper holder + ash tray
Above: A real rarity that I found in the bowels of the World of Tile. It’s revolving toilet paper holder that also revolves to present an ash tray. The ash tray is kind of like… a seat on a Ferris wheel. I traded my friend Ellen this woddity. I got her rare fish tiles, also found at World of Tile, which are now biding time in the bowels of my basement.
(Ferris wheel trivia: Who else read Devil in the White City? Magnificent, chilling true story!)
Hall-Mack Relaxation Units — two designs!
Hall-Mack Relaxation Units packed a lot of features into their recessed wall thingy holder, including a a niche for your smokes, matches and ash tray, along with space for reading materials so you could … sit back and not rush things.
And lookie this, I discovered this smaller horizontal Relaxation Unit, circa 1956, in an online catalog here. And now we count: Eight!
In all: 5 different brands of Relaxation Units, with rooms for your smokes
I actually have photos and other materials on five different brands of Relaxation Units — it was a Relaxation Unit Moonshot!
See all the designs in this story >> Hall-Mack, Satin Glide, Family Hospitality, Perma-Bilt, and a Mystery Unit.
Why did American need all these Marlboro-Ready Bathroom Escape Pods?
In our previous stories, readers conjectured:
Kim said:
…“designed with a man in mind” is making me laugh and laugh. I grew up with my single mom, sister, and grandparents in one household, and I suspect my grandpa, the lone male among three generations of ladies, could’ve used a Relaxation Unit. He used to go sit in his car in the driveway and read the paper, to get away from us!
LA573 said:
Did people use to smoke in bathrooms? I guess it was the only room other than the kitchen likely to have an exhaust fan in it Though bizarrely, I’ve rented an apartment that had a Nutone through-the-wall exhaust fan in the bedroom, and another with a exhaust fan hidden behind built-in shelving in the living room (which my stoner roommate loved).
Joe said:
I never could understand why anyone would want to spend that-much time in a bathroom. Especially enough time to read a magazine. I do know that some went there to smoke. (Almost-everyone smoked back then.) Then, one day, my dad explained it. He said that was often the only place husbands could go to “hide” from their wives.
Allison said:
In the 50s and 60s, families were getting bigger, but houses were actually getting smaller than those built in the early part of the century.
The bathroom was probably the only spot where one could reliably be alone for a while; hence the luxury of the Relaxation Unit!
^^I like this explanation a lot.
My grandpa could still go out to the outhouse we saved behind the garage at our family farm.
Yeah, the outhouse on my grandparent’s Kentucky farm, where I grew up, was sufficiently far away, behind the henhouse, for some good, quiet privacy. But “relaxation” there was in short supply between Oct. and May; during those months you were likely to freeze your _ss off if you lingered too long.
Oh, and in the summers, the wasps, green-flies and dirt-daubers buzzing around inside it were an occasional misery, too.
The only reading material, the Sears catalog, doubled as the toilet paper; now That’s ecology. And the little wooden house had its other strong points, for sure.
Good times.
Additional New Old Stock Hall-Mack treasures on ebay right now:
Note, I earn a small commission if you make a purchase after following some links, to ebay and amazon.
johanna says
Makes sense people would want an ashtray when you see how many burn marks there are on old vanity tops. Everyone was already smoking in the bathroom and just messing up the xisting fixtures.
Pam Kueber says
Good point.
Fun fact: Formica actually made a “burn-proof” laminate. There was some kind of special aluminum or other sort of metal layer underneath the top layer, as I recall. I don’t really understand the whole idea… but I remember reading about it once.
DJ Shoepe says
As soon as I saw the accommodations for the bathroom butts (cigarette butts, that is), my mind immediately went to the smell! Yes, there is a particular smell of bathroom combined with cigarette butts, both from home and public restrooms. It’s not a good smell, by any means, but it is a part of my childhood memories.
That said, I would love one of those “relaxation units”! My family was big on reading in the loo. Isn’t that what the Reader’s Digest was for?