I spotted this photo on the RetroPlanet.com site. It brought to mind a story my sister shared with me about our English granny Fielder.
Apparently, back in the 60s somewhen, we used to visit granny Fielder in Ashton Under Lyne and my (lifelong non-smoking) sister recalls how one time granny gave her a few coins and asked her to nip to the corner shop to get her some cigs.
My sis would have been about 6 or 7 and holding the coins in her hand, she was rather unsure of where the corner shop was.
Granny pointed to the corner of the living room and there was her very own cigarette vending machine. My sister duly put the money in and out popped granny's fags.
Whether Granny's vending machine was like this one from the 1940s is most certainly a memory lost.