July 7, 2008

This week on E Channel’s True Hollywood Story we have Joe Camel, of Camel Cigarettes, that legendary figure of popular culture who was a rich and successful mascot who fell into disfavor by the media and public.

The story starts with a British artist, Nicholas Price, and a French advertising campaign that also ran in other countries in the 1970’s.

Joe Camel said, "Believe it or not but go to Wikipedia on the internet and you’ll see that I was first pictured with a French Foreign Legion cap in an early advertisement. I had some money from those days but I was struggling financially and also had a deep sexual addiction problem. My sexual addiction was in control at that time because I was broke."

In 1988, in celebration of the 75th Anniversary of Camel Cigarettes, Joe Camel was rediscovered by Camel Cigarettes to promote their 75th Anniversary. Joe said, "At the time, I was on a high. The whole anniversary period was magical. The money started flowing in and I began to be overwhelmed by my sexual addiction and an increasingly huge drug problem. I was on every drug imaginable. I started getting out of control but being a popular mascot people took a lot of crap from me."

Sally Struthers, of "All in the Family" fame, dated Joe Camel in the 1990’s. "He was fun at first. Very attentive. But then the mascot money started pouring in and he went crazy. He’d be out for days on end and he’d never call. He became temperamental and would burst into drug fueled rages when he was home. Our relationship came to an end."

Corey Feldman said, "I got involved with Joe Camel when I was starring in the Lost Boys movie. He was a wild man and would tell Corey Haim and I of his many stories of how he would cruise Sunset Strip for prostitutes and drugs. This guy was always high and never in need of cash. He would brag of how it pays to be the only working camel mascot in Hollywood and said that Haim and I seemed to feel superior to him for being a camel."

"This guy would show up at our shows and be absolutely blitzed," said Slash of Guns N Roses. "I befriended him at a party given by Mel Gibson in the Hollywood Hills. He was hitting on a writer of a comedy television show and wouldn’t leave her alone. He started to become enraged and threw tables and chairs all over the place when she rejected him. He yelled at her saying something about her looking down on Camel mascots and said that he resented her feeling she was better than him."

Slash then added, "I told him that I thought the police were called and with all the coke, pot and pills that he had on him that he’d better get going. I drove Joe Camel to Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood. I got him a bungalow for a week and told him to call me when he slept his high off. That’s when our friendship started."

Slash and Joe Camel were a pair at every celebrity event and when every new club would open in LA. "He just got worse and the booze was starting to take over. He was drunk constantly and I never knew how he earned a living being so out of it all the time. Even I was sober once and awhile," said Slash.

Joe Camel said, "I was able to hide my booze, coke, pills and sexual addictions by my charming personality. People love that Joe Camel image and I gave it back to them. It allowed me to get away with everything."

Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac said, "I met Joe Camel at my lowest point. I was out of a relationship and hurting. He came up to me at a party opening up one of those trendy LA bars one night and with the smell of booze and pot reeking from him along with coke on his mouth said, "Baby, you need a real camel to get you over this mess and I am Joe Camel, the most famous of them all."

"It was a crazy three months. He was so manly and yet being the camel that he was he remained cool and aloof. One thing I remember of those days was his sensitivity to my needs and how caring he was about anything that concerned me. But the pressure of being a mascot for Camel cigarettes started to get to him. It got into our relationship and he began to drink more and use more blow. He started screaming at me over anything and everything. I had to leave," said Stevie Nicks.

Another example of his decline was at a doughnut shop in Butte, Montana. Danny Noble, a baker at the doughnut store, said, "It was late at night and I saw a couple come into the store. I didn’t realize at first who it was but then I soon recognized it was Joe Camel. As I approached him he started telling me how he and his lady had a good time the night before and asked me if I knew what he meant. He started winking at me. His lady giggled. His woman told him that he knew how to treat a lady and he said doubtless."

Slash said, "He felt a lot of rejection over that American Medical Association Study that said he was encouraging smoking for children. He and RJ Reynolds took it hard but Joe was devastated about being accused of leading children to smoking. The RJ Reynolds Company tried to refute the American Medical Association Study but it was useless. They kept charging in 1991 that Joe Camel was more recognizable to 5 or 6 year olds than Mickey Mouse or Fred Flinstone. What was worse was the Flinstone would call and gloat over Joe Camel’s problems. It was a tough time for him."

The most difficult phase for Joe Camel was when he had to field questions about leading children to smoking.

He also had a celebrity feud with Fred Flinstone on a regular basis as often Flinstone would appear on the cartoon channel and blast Camel for his lifestyle. Flinstone felt that Camel was not a legitimate performer and was being overly paid for his, "cheap good looks and morally loose lifestyle and attitude."

Flinstone added, "I am tired of his trading on being a camel and his asking how many camels do you see on television and in print media? Joe Camel is a media whore."

The charges about Joe Camel getting children to smoke also lead to bizarre behavior as noted by a man from Cincinnati, "I was sitting on my front porch having a smoke when all of a sudden a limo pulls up in front of my house. A man rolls down a window and asks me if I knew where a liquor store is and, if so, would I get in the limo and show him. It was Joe Camel. I got in the car and he started telling me he was a fallen cultural icon and that he had to suffer from a snotty public who looked down on him for being a successful camel mascot. He said that there were people in the public who did not want camels to succeed in the mascot business. He started crying. I looked on the floor of the limo and saw bottles of Jim Beam and also saw roach clips all over the place. The car had an overwhelming marijuana odor."

Finally, the end came in July of 1997 when RJ Reynolds gave in and dropped Joe Camel as a mascot.

"Slash and I were the only ones there for him when it all ended, "said Sally Struthers. "In fact, he still drops by our homes and asks for a room every now and then."

The phone calls stopped and nobody would return a call from Joe Camel. "I was washed up according to anybody in this town. If it wasn’t for Slash and Sally Struthers I’d have committed suicide," said Joe Camel.

Joe Camel was touched by the kind gesture of Anne Heche who taught him the secrets of the Kaballah. Camel said, "It was a very spiritual afternoon. After we went to bed we got up and she taught me the deepest secrets of these ancient teachings. I recall the Kaballah as taught to me by Anne Heche had a real close resemblance to the old Milton Bradley game Twister."

These days Joe Camel still struggles from his sexual addiction, "Hey, I like the ladies. What can I say?" But he is up for a part in a major motion picture that he hopes will bring better days. "It’s a remake of the movie Ishtar that Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman made years ago in 1987. This time the two main stars are Philip Seymour Hoffman and Tobey Maguire. I got a good part and am optimistic."

Whether or not Joe Camel can crawl out of that pit of being a mascot who supposedly encouraged children to smoke is something that remains to be seen. Until then we have our memories of a Hollywood mascot who made us think smoking was a cool thing to do no matter how old we were whether it be 5 or 51. This is something we will never forget.

This is E Channel’s True Hollywood Story of the life and times of Joe Camel.