Pipe smoking in fiction (novels, TV, movies)

[Eric_75]

I watched my fair share of The Jetsons as a kid in the 80s.

I didn't know George was a pipe man.

 

[luvmysuper]

I watched my fair share of The Jetsons as a kid in the 80s.

I didn't know George was a pipe man.


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Looks like a nice Gourd Calabash!

 

[Eric_75]

Baltus Van Tassel

 

[Benzadmiral]

In Stephen King's Fairy Tale (2022), the narrator Charlie mentions his father's pipe at some length (p.74-75). He says that the pipe, given to Dad by Mom, was not a "fancy" Sherlock Holmes type, but probably expensive. He mentions Dad's tobacco as being Three Sails. Dad apparently is an off-and-on piper and has never worried about the fine details. He comments that his pipe always goes out, and Charlie also mentions that he chews on the stem of the pipe as much as he smokes it.

 

[Columbo]

It's that time of year again ...

 

[Columbo]

 

[Benzadmiral]

Lessee . . . I'm guessing the 3rd pic is from White Christmas. The 2nd is It's a Wonderful Life, the 4th probably from the 1938 A Christmas Carol. But I don't know the 1st one.

Wait. Is that John Payne with the pipe? Miracle on 34th Street!

 

[Columbo]

Lessee . . . I'm guessing the 3rd pic is from White Christmas. The 2nd is It's a Wonderful Life, the 4th probably from the 1938 A Christmas Carol. But I don't know the 1st one.

Wait. Is that John Payne with the pipe? Miracle on 34th Street!

Correct. You have reached the next plateau.

 

[Emilius]

Jon Arbuckle, Garfield's owner, is a pipe smoker too, and apparently so is Garfield. Or at least they were in the late 70s and early 80s.

Also, the Swiss writer Max Frisch was never seen without a pipe. His philosophical novels are definitely worth reading, I remember Man in the Holocene left quite a mark on me.

 

[Salty O'Rourke]

Jon Arbuckle, Garfield's owner, is a pipe smoker too, and apparently so is Garfield. Or at least they were in the late 70s and early 80s.

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Also, the Swiss writer Max Frisch was never seen without a pipe. His philosophical novels are definitely worth reading, I remember Man in the Holocene left quite a mark on me.

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This brings to mind another pipe-smoking creator and his pipe-smoking creation - Georges Simenon and Commissaire Maigret.

I thoroughly enjoy settling back with a pipe and a Simenon novel.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Charles Laughton as Maigret??? Well, the man was a character actor par excellence. He could make you hate him as Capt. Bligh, or admire and laugh with him as Sir Wilfrid "the Fox," or pray that he would escape the arm of the law in The Suspect, and almost anything in between.

 

[Salty O'Rourke]

Charles Laughton as Maigret??? Well, the man was a character actor par excellence. He could make you hate him as Capt. Bligh, or admire and laugh with him as Sir Wilfrid "the Fox," or pray that he would escape the arm of the law in The Suspect, and almost anything in between.

I'm going to try and see The Man on the Eiffel Tower, just to see Laughton in the role. I enjoyed Michael Gambon's interpretation; I even liked Rowan Atkinson's turn as Maigret although he was physically wrong for the part. I guess I'm a sucker for the whole casting-against-type shtick, especially when it involves a comedian in a straight dramatic role. Maurice Denham's BBC radio interpretation is probably my favorite.

 

[Kilroy6644]

I'm watching "The Riddle Of The Sands" (1979), and early in the movie, Jenny Agutter buys Simon MacCorkindale a pipe. You don't get a really good look at it, but it appeared to be a Peterson System. I couldn't make out which shape, but it reminded me a lot of my rusticated 309.

 

[Kilroy6644]

I'm watching "The Riddle Of The Sands" (1979), and early in the movie, Jenny Agutter buys Simon MacCorkindale a pipe. You don't get a really good look at it, but it appeared to be a Peterson System. I couldn't make out which shape, but it reminded me a lot of my rusticated 309.

Boy, it sure looks like a 309. Maybe a 313, but I think - and Mrs. Kilroy6644 agrees - that it looks larger than a 313.

 

[Columbo]

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.

As a collector and long-time fan of that TV show (particularly the early seasons), I have been putting this one off for far too long.

Waverly indeed flashes his pipe smoking chomps in the very first minutes of that Series, during the character introductions:

And is rather protective of his tobacco canister:

It's interesting that you picked Solo. Yes, Solo has more fun.

But just in case ... here's a nice square shot.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Oh, as a grownup I very much admire Waverly. In my U.N.C.L.E. fan fiction he is depicted as definitely sharp, with a solid management style (as he would need to have). In one, Fran Baxter (nee Kubelik, from The Apartment) meets him and reflects that she would hate to be called on the carpet by him.

I think that tobacco canister shot comes from the episode I mention, "The Never-Never Affair," where his tobacco choice acts as a springboard into the adventure.

 

[Odious]

Captain Haddock in Tintin universe!!

 

[Claudel Xerxes]

Morgan Freeman "smokes" a pipe in The Big Bounce (2004). I couldn't see any actual smoke being produced, so I think he was just playing with it.

 

[gpjoe]

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Pipes, martinis, cool cars...and gasoline @ 27 cents/gallon - pumped by an attendant.

 

[gpjoe]

The year: 3955
Location: Earth
The good news: pipes still exist (a churchwarden)
The bad news: apes are smoking them

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)