Young people have little idea how pervasive smoking was in American culture up until a generation ago. When I first went to work as a copy boy at The Post in the late ’60s, the copy desk consisted of a series of card tables that were propped up with newspapers underneath. Since virtually all of the copy editors chain smoked, part of my job was to extinguish the inevitable smoldering blazes that were touched off by their dangling ashes. A couple of decades ago, I was dating a woman who was giving up smoking. She suggested I rent a movie and she would rent one and we’d make it a double feature. We ended up with “The Big Sleep,” which actually opens with a shot of Bogie and Lauren Bacall (pictured) lighting up over the opening credits, and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” in which Audrey Hepburn stylishly brandishes a cigarette holder in virtually every scene. Bogie and Audrey of course died of cancer, but my date thankfully managed to finally quit smoking a couple of years later. And she didn’t need the MPAA’s help to do it.