Pipe smoking in fiction (novels, TV, movies)

[Benzadmiral]

There is, I believe, a thread or two about this over in Shaving, so why not have a little fun? Post scenes from TV or movies, or from novels or short stories, which involve pipe smoking. Ideally they should be something specific, not just "a character carries or smokes a pipe."

For instance, in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'s first season, specific pipe scenes appear in at least two episodes. In "The Never-Never Affair," we are told that Mr. Waverly's favorite tobacco is something called "Isle of Dogs No. 22," and in fact an "errand" to pick up his tobacco embroils Barbara Feldon's character in a spy plot. Earlier, in "The Mad, Mad Tea Party Affair," an U.N.C.L.E. lab technician is seen with a pipe in mouth and in hand in a crucial scene. When the villain kills him, we don't see his face or see him fall. Instead, we hear his body fall, and we see the pipe (a pot shape, I recall) clattering to the floor.

Sherlock Holmes: In "The Red-Headed League," I think, Holmes defines the puzzle as "quite a three-pipe problem, and I beg you won't disturb me for 50 minutes." He smokes 3 pipes' worth in less than an hour? Wow. I haven't read the story in a while; does Watson tell us what kind of pipe it is?

I can think of more, in fiction anyway, but let's see what you have.

 

[steveclarkus]

There is, I believe, a thread or two about this over in Shaving, so why not have a little fun? Post scenes from TV or movies, or from novels or short stories, which involve pipe smoking. Ideally they should be something specific, not just "a character carries or smokes a pipe."

For instance, in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'s first season, specific pipe scenes appear in at least two episodes. In "The Never-Never Affair," we are told that Mr. Waverly's favorite tobacco is something called "Isle of Dogs No. 22," and in fact an "errand" to pick up his tobacco embroils Barbara Feldon's character in a spy plot. Earlier, in "The Mad, Mad Tea Party Affair," an U.N.C.L.E. lab technician is seen with a pipe in mouth and in hand in a crucial scene. When the villain kills him, we don't see his face or see him fall. Instead, we hear his body fall, and we see the pipe (a pot shape, I recall) clattering to the floor.

Sherlock Holmes: In "The Red-Headed League," I think, Holmes defines the puzzle as "quite a three-pipe problem, and I beg you won't disturb me for 50 minutes." He smokes 3 pipes' worth in less than an hour? Wow. I haven't read the story in a while; does Watson tell us what kind of pipe it is?

I can think of more, in fiction anyway, but let's see what you have.

Excellent idea. I always notice pipe smokers in films. Most recently, there is a remake of “All Creatures Great and Small” on PBS Masterpiece Theater” where the main character, Siegfried Farnon, is a pipe smoker. Excellent series by the way and beautifully filmed.

 

[Benzadmiral]

A great many of the PBS Masterpiece period dramas feature men smoking, or used to.

I seem to recall a mention of the lead character, the medical student, in Maugham's Of Human Bondage smoking a pipe. Not sure about the film version with Leslie Howard and Bette Davis, though in the Thirties showing people smoking was not verboten at all.

In one of John D. Macdonald's Travis McGee thrillers -- Bright Orange for the Shroud, I think -- McGee relaxes at the end of a heavy workout day by sitting topside, packing an old pot pipe with Black Watch tobacco, and smoking it. Perhaps the smoke helped keep the Florida bugs at bay.

 

[brandaves]

Obligatory mention of Parnassus on Wheels and Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley.

Great books centered on a pipe smoking protagonist.

 

[Whilliam]

Philip Marlowe smoked a pipe when mulling over clues in Raymond Chandler's novels. (As did Chandler.)

And I do believe that Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. smoked a pipe as private eye Stuart Bailey in the old TV series, "77 Sunset Strip."

Sorry I can't be more specific, but we're stretching the memory by more than seventy years.

 

[steveclarkus]

A great many of the PBS Masterpiece period dramas feature men smoking, or used to.

I seem to recall a mention of the lead character, the medical student, in Maugham's Of Human Bondage smoking a pipe. Not sure about the film version with Leslie Howard and Bette Davis, though in the Thirties showing people smoking was not verboten at all.

In one of John D. Macdonald's Travis McGee thrillers -- Bright Orange for the Shroud, I think -- McGee relaxes at the end of a heavy workout day by sitting topside, packing an old pot pipe with Black Watch tobacco, and smoking it. Perhaps the smoke helped keep the Florida bugs at bay.

NOTHING keeps Florida bugs away.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Philip Marlowe smoked a pipe when mulling over clues in Raymond Chandler's novels. (As did Chandler.)

And I do believe that Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. smoked a pipe as private eye Stuart Bailey in the old TV series, "77 Sunset Strip."

Sorry I can't be more specific, but we're stretching the memory by more than seventy years.

You're right on both. I've reread the Marlowes multiple times -- he often smoked while mulling over a chess problem at home. Stu Bailey certainly did: MeTV was running episodes from Strip only a couple of years ago, and I got to see a lot of them.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Ellery Queen the detective, the creation of "Ellery Queen" (the cousins Fred Dannay and Manfred B. Lee), was more of a "cigaret" man (that was how they spelled it for 40-some years!). But in the 1930s novel Halfway House we see that he smokes a pipe. In fact an element of that turns out to be an essential clue to the murderer.

 

[BigFoot]

Is Match Game considered fiction? Charles Nelson Riley is always puffing on his pipe.

 

[emwolf]

Lee Van Cleef was a big pipe smoker and many of his spaghetti westerns feature his meerschaum. As for Sherlock's pipe, I don't recall Watson ever describing it, but he did go into detail about the thick, acrid smoke from his shag tobacco.

 

[Salty O'Rourke]

Edward G. Robinson puffed his way through Orson Welles' The Stranger.

Alan Ladd was a pipesmoker, he's the reporter with a pipe in Welles' Citizen Kane. He carried a pipe in O.S.S., but it was really a pistol.

Sherlock Holmes smoked a straight billiard in most of the Strand magazine illustrations; the Calabash was introduced by William Gillette as a stage prop because it was easier to manage while acting.

 

[Benzadmiral]

. . .

Sherlock Holmes smoked a straight billiard in most of the Strand magazine illustrations; the Calabash was introduced by William Gillette as a stage prop because it was easier to manage while acting.

. . . As for Sherlock's pipe, I don't recall Watson ever describing it, but he did go into detail about the thick, acrid smoke from his shag tobacco.

He mentions, in describing what a difficult roommate Holmes can be, that Sherlock kept some tobacco crammed into the toe of a Persian slipper. Just imagine the fragrance of that, boys and girls.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Regarding Travis McGee again, I think there was a passage in one novel where he mentions a high-quality pipe, perhaps a Dunhill, given him by a former lady friend. He also buys a Dunhill, I think, on a visit to Chicago. I'll see if I can find those.

 

[AimlessWanderer]

Sherlock Holmes: In "The Red-Headed League," I think, Holmes defines the puzzle as "quite a three-pipe problem, and I beg you won't disturb me for 50 minutes." He smokes 3 pipes' worth in less than an hour? Wow. I haven't read the story in a while; does Watson tell us what kind of pipe it is?

"He curled himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird"

 

[Kentos]

Pipes were pretty prevalent in the original Curious George books.

 

[Benzadmiral]

"He curled himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird"

That's it! I thought there was a mention of a clay pipe somewhere in the saga. Those are usually pretty small, so that may explain how he smoked each pipeful in about 15 minutes. (Doyle was a master at creating just the right details, as well as making a story move.)

 

[emwolf]

Edward G. Robinson puffed his way through Orson Welles' The Stranger.

As I recall Eddie G's pipe was broken. Robinson also was the spokesperson for a drug store brand of pipe tobacco, back when I was smoking.

 

[sneefy]

Lord of the Rings, obviously.

"Your love of the Halflings' leaf has clearly slowed your mind."

 

[RookieGuy]

I recently watched The Quiet Man. I think everyone except John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara had a pipe clenched firmly in their jaws at some point.

 

[Columbo]

I can’t remember specific scenes from 60+ years of TV and movies.

But off the top of my head in TV ...

Jim Anderson, Father Knows Best
Steve Douglas, My Three Sons
Henry Mitchell, Dennis The Menace
Alan Brady, Dick Van Dyke Show
Dan Rowen, Laugh In

Too many in movies.
One movie with at least 3 pipe smokers (and a few cigar smokers, too) : They Were Expendable ... including Douglas MacArthur.

A wonderful scene with Finlay Currie smoking a beautiful bent, as Lawrence Olivier plays a concertina and sings as a French Canadian trapper, in The 49th Parallel.

And the great classic, with James Stewart crossing a snowy street, in It’s A Wonderful Life. Uncle Billy puffed on one, too, I recall.

Oh ... and a great scene involving a pipe in The Train, with Bert Lancaster.