Some people are just more observant than I am.

The Improvement Era issue for January 1951 contained this two-page spread, a talk apostle John A. Widtsoe had given on a radio program. Billed as “A message for the New Year … a word of hope to a confused and fear-filled world,” the talk is illustrated by a picture of a farmer on some horse-drawn piece of equipment and the assurance that “the needs of men will be supplied by Mother Earth”; there is also an uncaptioned photo of a young man, in a suit coat and tie, his chiseled jaw the epitome of resolute courage. The page also features a couple of pull quotes: “Men who lay aside fear become the masters of the day,” and “History reveals that in every struggle evil has gradually been defeated and at length has been beaten down.”

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Notice anything peculiar? Me neither. There simply isn’t anything odd. It’s a perfectly normal two-page spread in the Church magazine, mid-century, and a few thousand people must have seen it, read it, were cheered by its message, and moved on.

Gil Wood, a member living in London, Ontario, Canada, was one of those who saw the article. He also happened to read a Toronto newspaper. Whether he read the newspaper before he read the Era, or whether he read the Era before he read the newspaper, I cannot say. But this observant man read both, and thought about what he saw, and after two weeks of pondering he wrote a letter to the editor of the Era, enclosing a clipping he had taken from that Toronto newspaper.

“Two weeks ago this night I discovered the enclosed clipping in a Toronto newspaper. Unless I am mistaken, it is the same young man whose picture appears on Page 20 of the January Improvement Era,” he wrote.

Who does that? Who looks that closely at routine advertisements, or who remembers strangers’ faces that well when seen once in magazines. Well, Brother Wood did. And, apparently concerned that a Latter-day Saint was hawking and perhaps using tobacco, he wrote to alert Church officials.

“It seems odd that the same young man’s picture should also appear for a Tobacco advertisement. How explain you this?”

Brother Wood even assured the Era’s editor that he had kept this matter to himself, apparently to protect the Church’s good name, or the reputation of the unknown man. “To the best of my knowledge no one save myself has noticed it but it has aroused my curiosity. I have not indulged my discovery with anyone. wisdom has thus advised me.”

It fell to the lot of Doyle L. Green of the management and editorial staff of the Improvement Era to explain the situation to Brother Wood, and incidentally describe a phase of publishing Church magazines in the 1950s for us of a later generation.

There are a number of photograph companies which sell photographs commercially to publishers and advertisers. The picture of the Young man which we used on page 20 of the January 1951 issue of The Improvement Era was purchased from one of these commercial photo houses and was selected by our artist because he thought the face represented courage which was the theme of the article. It was picked out of a photo catalog and ordered by number. Most of the photographs of this type which we use are purchased the same way, and this is the first time in many years I have been connected with The Improvement Era that we have run across a situation of this kind.

These photographic companies do not identify the people in their photographs for obvious reasons, so there is no way for us to know what type of a young man this one actually is in real life. There is certainly no indication from the ad in the newspaper that he actually does use Buckingham tobacco. In fact, there are ninety-nine chances out of a hundred that he has never even heard of this particular brand of “Canadian tobacco.” He didn’t know that The Improvement Era was using his picture, and he would undoubtedly be quite surprised to learn that it was being used in connection with tobacco advertising in Canada. He is undoubtedly a professional model and signs away to the photographic house all rights for use of his picture.

We hope this explanation is satisfactory to you and the Saints and investigators in the area where the ad has appeared. We do appreciate your calling it to our attention. Our only desire, of course, is to present material in a meaningful and readable manner.

Reminds me of the situation Mormon actor Kirby Heyborne found himself in a few years ago, when his acting work in a beer commercial called forth similar consternation from Mormon viewers.

Me, I’m just not that observant.