"Did people with allergies just keep their mouths shut....or disappear til it went away?"
I expect that's exactly what they did Rick, as they were most certainly a small minority of the population surrounded by smokers and fashionable images of smoking.
Future generations will undoubtedly look back at our toleration of exhaust emmissions and factory pollution with the same bewilderment.
For the record, I'm partial to the odd fat ceegar myself but I'm very careful about where and when I indulge.