A little hard to see, but there was that scene in Dead Poets Society where all the boys are sitting around trying to smoke pipes.
Pipe smoking in fiction (novels, TV, movies)
- Thread starter Benzadmiral
- Start date
A little hard to see, but there was that scene in Dead Poets Society where all the boys are sitting around trying to smoke pipes.
Watching “The Quiet Man” lots of pipe smoking going on.
Everyone but The Duke and Maureen O'Hara was smoking a pipe in that one.
Almost as much pipe smoking as drinking going on in that one. And fighting.
A great movie.
Yeah, a bit like high school.
Or family reunions.
Mr. Banks (David Tomlinson) carries and loads a pipe during his opening musical number in Mary Poppins.
“Sunrise at Campobello” FDR smoking a pipe in one of the early scenes.
- Thread starter
- #89
In Donald Hamilton's noir-ish thriller from 1948, The Steel Mirror, the lead character is a chemist who smokes a pipe. No details are mentioned; he merely fills it, smokes it, "pulls on" it, "sucks" on it, etc. (I'm only on p. 83, so details may emerge.)
- Thread starter
- #90
No, no more details, though the protagonist does fill and light the pipe numerous times. I'm seeing the same detail in the lead character for his 1955 novel Line of Fire. Knowing how authors like the Ellery Queen cousins and Ian Fleming liked to ascribe the habit to their heroes, I wonder if Hamilton was a pipe smoker? His Matt Helm character starting in 1960 never smokes anything, though.
In the Heinlein story Rocketship Galileo the boys uncle Dr. Cargraves smokes a pipe, even during their trip to the moon if I remember correctly, but it has been a long time since I read it. That story and Tunnel In The Sky were my favorite of his juvenile books (I guess they would call it Young Adult nowadays).
- Thread starter
- #92
The "young adult" or YA category has gotten pretty dark nowadays, with themes that would have been a hard sell to write about and publish even in adult novels in the late '40s to early '60s. RAH's juveniles are readable by anybody of any age, esp. Have Space Suit, Will Travel. Tunnel is a neat converse to Lord of the Flies by Golding; both have their place, but RAH's is a lot more uplifting and positive.
100% agreement
From Smokingpipes.com Sir Roger Moore with a Falcon
beyond dapper
Oh. If we're doing books, then Robert Ludlum has many pipe smokers in his. Mostly the upper echelons of the Company. He describes them using the pipes as a prop, filling and fiddling to give them time to answer the hard questions out to them by Congress or the protagonist. Sometimes using the smoke to make others in the room uncomfortable.
And Frank Delaney's Ireland. The itinerant storyteller used his pipe in much the same way. By asking for matches it gave him the excuse to look around and read the room. By curling his "gnarled fingers around the warm smooth bowl" was to help illustrate his age and experience, possibly wisdom. And by drawing every last bit of smoke from the tobacco, he was drawing every last bit of life from the story. When he tapped the pipe against the wooden fireplace mantle and knocked it the ash, it symbolized there was nothing left in the story.
Actually, even beyond the pipe smoking, I would still recommend that book to anyone. A compelling read and unique outlooks on history and oral traditions.
And Frank Delaney's Ireland. The itinerant storyteller used his pipe in much the same way. By asking for matches it gave him the excuse to look around and read the room. By curling his "gnarled fingers around the warm smooth bowl" was to help illustrate his age and experience, possibly wisdom. And by drawing every last bit of smoke from the tobacco, he was drawing every last bit of life from the story. When he tapped the pipe against the wooden fireplace mantle and knocked it the ash, it symbolized there was nothing left in the story.
Actually, even beyond the pipe smoking, I would still recommend that book to anyone. A compelling read and unique outlooks on history and oral traditions.
- Thread starter
- #97
In the last chapter of Ellery Queen's The Origin of Evil, I found this gem:
"Ellery picked up a pipe cleaner and inserted it into the stem of his pipe."
He talks at length, as he often does in a final chapter, without mention of the pipe until later: "Ellery waved his dead pipe." And "Ellery stared into the fire, tapping his lips with the stem."
His "cigarets" are mentioned several times, so we know that EQ is both a pipe and a white-stick man. No mention of pipe shape or brand anywhere in the saga that I recall, though. Darn.
However, there are frequent details about pipes and cube-cut tobacco, which Ellery calls "uncommon," in early chapters of the much-earlier Egyptian Cross Mystery -- pipes and tobacco belonging to the murder victim whose demise kicks off the main story. The authors, the "Queen" cousins, were pipe smokers of long-standing. The story goes that when their first novel won the $$$ contest they'd submitted it to, they trooped down to the Dunhill store in Manhattan and bought new pipes, and had the initials "EQ" stamped on them. (I wonder whatever happened to those. . . .) So it was natural for them to put pipes, tobacco, and the like into their stories.
"Ellery picked up a pipe cleaner and inserted it into the stem of his pipe."
He talks at length, as he often does in a final chapter, without mention of the pipe until later: "Ellery waved his dead pipe." And "Ellery stared into the fire, tapping his lips with the stem."
His "cigarets" are mentioned several times, so we know that EQ is both a pipe and a white-stick man. No mention of pipe shape or brand anywhere in the saga that I recall, though. Darn.
However, there are frequent details about pipes and cube-cut tobacco, which Ellery calls "uncommon," in early chapters of the much-earlier Egyptian Cross Mystery -- pipes and tobacco belonging to the murder victim whose demise kicks off the main story. The authors, the "Queen" cousins, were pipe smokers of long-standing. The story goes that when their first novel won the $$$ contest they'd submitted it to, they trooped down to the Dunhill store in Manhattan and bought new pipes, and had the initials "EQ" stamped on them. (I wonder whatever happened to those. . . .) So it was natural for them to put pipes, tobacco, and the like into their stories.
Several have mentioned the Sherlock Holmes pipe smoking already here. For me, as I grew up watching his movies, Sherlock Holmes in film will always be personified by Basil Rathbone. Even when I read the stories later, I visualized the character as Basil Rathbone.
There was a visual essay done by Mark Irwin (which appears to be out of print) but a very nice summary is done at Neat Pipes sales website. Talks about Rathbones Dunhill, and later his 4ab Peterson. It also goes into the pipes used by Watson, LeStrade and other characters from the Rathbone Films.
Very fun read.
It's in 4 parts
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
There was a visual essay done by Mark Irwin (which appears to be out of print) but a very nice summary is done at Neat Pipes sales website. Talks about Rathbones Dunhill, and later his 4ab Peterson. It also goes into the pipes used by Watson, LeStrade and other characters from the Rathbone Films.
Very fun read.
It's in 4 parts
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Great read, @luvmysuper! Thanks. I have an estate 309 that, while smokable as is, could use a good clean, buff and polish of the oxidized P lip stem.
And by the way, I bought a DVD with four of the Basil Rathbone films mentioned in the blog.
Similar threads
