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Match Game 74, Charles Nelson Reilly, And Pipe Smoking On Television

ghostsofpompeiighostsofpompeii Master
in General
My have times changed. 
We here at PTL are lamenting the eminent death of the tobacco industry and the pipe smoking hobby while just a few decades ago one of the most popular TV game shows had a cast member who puffed his pipe on air without a care in the world. Proudly sharing his extensive pipe collection with the television public without fear of condemnation or the cross-eyed glare and hand wringing from a second hand smoker activist. 
Each afternoon (or morning depending upon when the show aired in your locale) the flamboyant peacock, Charles Nelson Reilly sat in the far right corner of the top row trading barbs and cracking jokes with fellow cast members of The Match Game, all the while puffing away at one of his many pipes. Something that would be unheard of in today's polite society. 
After all, scenes of smoking is one of the warnings for movie viewers, alongside gratuitous violence and sexual content. Please be advised ... there may be scenes of cigarette smoking.
I often wondered just what tobacco Charles Nelson Reilly smoked. It couldn't have been some strong English blend since no one ever bothered to comment on the pungent aroma. After all, they bickered about everything else, so it would have been far game. I figured it might be some pleasant smelling old codger blend or an aromatic. Then on one episode the camera was on Reilly for just a flash as he packed his pipe with ... drum roll please ... Borkum Riff. 
Don't know if it was his regular go to blend. But at least on that one occasion I saw the familiar packaging of Borkum Riff.
Not my choice ... but I still had to admire him for flying our Brotherhood Of The Briar flag each morning. It was a time when pipe smoking was still cool.
    
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