Pipe smokers on the silver screen and page
As well as Sherlock Holmes, on of the great English pulp crime fighters, Sir Denis Nayland Smith, was a pipe smoker. Nayland Smith was the creation of the novelist Sax Rohmer. If you read any of the Fu Manchu novels you'll recognize the name. If you haven't, read the first. But be aware that by today's standards the story is a bit racist and imperialist. Nayland Smith is always described as smoking a cracked, blackened briar. Apparently he had only one pipe. Rohmer was a pipe smoker, so he may have known something about cracked briars that we don't.
Ward Clever, the father character on "Leave It To Beaver", was a pipe smoker. IN one episode Beaver, for some reason tries to smoke Ward's brand new meerschaum pipe. Ward notices the burning and the start of coloring of the thing and soon discovers that The Beav had tried to break in the pipe. Hilarity ensues.
In Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe novels Marlowe is occasionally described as smoking a pipe. No word of what type or what brand of tobacco. Usually Marlowe is depicted as smoking a Camel cigarette. Chandler was a pipe smoker.
And let us not forget the favorite literary pipe smoker of the Missouri Meerschaum clan: Huck Finn. Finn smoked a corncob, as occasionally did Mark Twain. There is a photo of Twain smoking a calabash, but usually he was photographed smoking a cigar.
Comments
Here's a few screen shots:
House painter. Peterson perhaps?
The scene below captures everything wonderful about pipe smoking. At home, a selection of pipes at hand, tobacco humidor, a warm fire on a rainy night. This scene greatly influenced my desire to explore pipes. It just looks so relaxing and comforting. Perfect.
Evan Peters played the role of James Patrick March just last year, in the 5th season of American Horror Story Hotel. March is a likeable well mannered pipe smoker, who is the proprietor of the Hotel.
It's not that there's anything wrong with this, it's just that it may be misleading. Posing for a picture of oneself with a pipe is not the same thing as being a pipe smoker.
Have you ever noticed that whenever you go on a diet every commercial on TV seems to be advertising pizza, fast food, or snacks.
And a similar mind game occurs when you've recently purchased a new car ... you seem to spot dozens of the same make, model, or color when you're on the road as if they magically appeared the moment you bought your car.
Now we all know that's not the case. It's just some sort of tunnel vision we develop that makes it stand out and become more noticeable. Well a similar thing occurred to me during a month long marathon of Classic Horror flicks this past Halloween season.
Due to my wife's recent sensitivity to pipe smoke after a respiratory illness I no longer smoke in the house during the day when she's present; putting it off until late in the evening when she's asleep at the other end of the house. This may have put a bit of a damper on my pipe puffing during these day long couch potato horror marathons, but with nearly 50 years of marriage under our belt she's clearly more precious to me that my pipe smoking hobby. So it's not an issue. But during those periods of abstinence I found myself bombarded by a plethora of pipe smoking characters throughout the films.
And just as it appears to a dieter that every commercial is about food, and the driver thinks the road has become undulated with cars exactly the same as his ... I noticed an over-abundance of pipe smokers in these classic 30s', 40s' & 50s' horror flicks. So much so that they seemed to mock me! The films were awash with scientists, archeologists, scholars, explorers, newspaper reporters, bar keepers, Burgermeisters, constables, gypsies, heroes and villains alike, all happily puffing on a pipe, while I was denied mine.
The first three films I watched set the tone. In "The Mark Of The Vampire" two main characters sit across from one another at a desk when one character Sir Karell Borotyn (Holmes Herbert) pulls out a stack of new pipes from the drawer and offers his friend Baron Otto (Jean Hersholt) any three from the pile. The next film "Son Of Dracula" featured a scene with two characters Doctor Brewster (Frank Craven) and Professor Lazlo (J Edward Bromberg) both puffing away while discussing the existence of Count Dracula. Then wouldn't you know it ... Dracula himself appears in a cloud of smoke. Even Dracula was mocking me! But the movie that really took the cake was "The Wolf Man". No less than five main characters are seem smoking a pipe at any given time. Bela the gypsy (Bela Lugosi) can be seen early in the film smoking a long stemmed German pipe; Colonel Paul Montford (Ralph Bellamy) the town police official is seen constantly with pipe firmly clenched between his teeth; Dr. Lloyd (Warren William) the Talbott family doctor puffs blissfully away while discussing the concept of Lycanthropy; Frank Andrews (Patric Knowles) the game keeper of the Talbott estate walks into an antique store with a dog on a leash and pipe in his mouth. And the owner of the antique store is also a pipe smoker. Then once we get to the carnival scene and gypsy camp there are assorted extras puffing away as well.
Holy Smoke!
As the month long film festival continued there was no shortage of pipe smoking characters. Pipe smoking archeologists were a staple in the Universal Classic Mummy series. The Frankenstein Legacy was likewise populated by it's share of pipe smoking victims and town officials. And scientist explorers boating through the backwaters of The Black Lagoon had the comfort of a pipe to get them through their harrowing adventures.
Yes, we pipe smokers were well represented in the old horror and sci-fi films of the 30s', 40s' & 50s'. Whereas today, you could probably watch 100 movies in a row made within the last ten years and not see a single pipe smoking character in any. Much like real life today. But judging by those old movies, pipe smoking and torch wielding crowds were once a pretty popular pastime.
Roger Moore doing Sherlock