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• 'If men can take it, so can we': Young GOP women take up cigars, spittoons, and endless rounds of poker to enjoy low-key 'smoker' on doorstep of WWII  

And so, the Young Women's Republican Club of Milford set to have a night like no other in May of 1941, indulging in traditionally male pastimes like cigar smoking, poker playing, and wrestling. The night confused the majority of Milford's male population.

Formal entertainment for the night included a striptease, a wrestling match, and several Vaudeville musical numbers.

The article, called Life Goes to a Women's Smoker, originally appeared in a June 1941 issue of LIFE magazine and examined the then unfamiliar concept of women exploring the carefree social gathering.

Women donned flesh-coloured boxing suits that they stuffed comically with fabric to over-emphasise their muscles. Bushels of fake hair topped their heads, and the young fighting Republicans were also moustachioed.

The women proved they were not tobacco shy - throughout the smoker, they consumed 20 cartons of cigarettes, four dozen tobacco pipes, and 30 cigars.

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