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Scanning Around With Gene: Put That in Your Pipe and Smoke It
America is famous for introducing many things to the rest of the world. Tobacco and smoking pipes are two that we may not be so proud of.
Written by Gene Gable on July 24, 2009
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My dad smoked a pipe. I think everyone's dad smoked a pipe. But none of my contemporaries smoke a pipe -- at least not a tobacco pipe. Like all smoking, pipe smoking has taken a hit in recent years.
However, for many years, smoking a pipe was as much about image as it was about smoking. College professors with tweed jackets, contemplative individuals, maverick film directors -- a pipe was, for many of them, an important prop. Click on any image for a larger view.
Historians say that Native Americans were the first to use pipes to smoke tobacco. Supposedly it was for ceremonial use, but we know how addictive tobacco can be, so it's hard to say just what constituted "ceremony." Tobacco and the various ways to smoke it were quickly adopted by European explorers and exported to the Continent.
Sir Walter Raleigh, an English poet and explorer, is often credited with popularizing tobacco use, though others certainly paved the way. Poor Sir Walter ended up with his head chopped off, so we don't really know if his smoking resulted in any ill health effects.
And while Prince Albert tobacco used to be the butt of many childish crank calls, the husband of Queen Victoria of England was not a particularly avid pipe smoker. Besides a famous brand of pipe tobacco, Prince Albert had a lot of products, body modifications, lakes, and other things named after him.
What do goats and bears have to do with pipes? You'll have to go to page 2 to find out.
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MAKING A COMEBACK?
I think that pipe smoking may be on the comeback, as people realize what was old is new again.
Moderation in all things.........
fondly remember my Dad (and
fondly remember my Dad (and as you said, everyone else's Dad) smoking a pipe back in the "old days". When I was a little kid, I liked the way that the bowl got warm, so I'd always want to hold it. As you can imagine, that bugged my Dad quite a bit, but he was a tolerant sort. sesli sohbet sesli chat
Image use...
Hi did you make these images, or are they something that could be used (copyright). I have a project that I would love to use on of these as a reference for, please let me know! Thanks!
Prince Albert in a Can
yes! and is your refrigerator running? Like some of us,
that was an oldie but goodie.
missing link
Oops, the web like I included seemed to have been stripped out. Simply go to the Wikipedia entry for "The Treachery of Images."
Gene is a Surrealist!
The image of the "Doctor" with row upon row of pipes being "presmoked" is one of the front-runners for the weirdest of Gene's offerings to date--right up there with the "Land Yacht" of several months ago. If you dare to disagree, go to "The Treachery of Images" at .
I first heard the old Prince Albert joke from my mother about 55 years ago, and I thought it was the funniest thing I had heard to date in my young life (I was, maybe, ten). Still think so. So does Bart Simpson.
Many thanks, Gene! I hope this all becomes a book some day soon.
pipes n' such
neat article, i don't know who wrote it but thanks for finding all the cool old ads
Thanks for the memories
I fondly remember my Dad (and as you said, everyone else's Dad) smoking a pipe back in the "old days". When I was a little kid, I liked the way that the bowl got warm, so I'd always want to hold it. As you can imagine, that bugged my Dad quite a bit, but he was a tolerant sort.
Nowadays, I personally know only two people who smoke pipes: one is an elderly fellow who was told to give up cigarettes by his doctor, so he started smoking a pipe (ha!); and the other is one of my pretentious younger (twenty-something) friends who thinks that smoking a pipe makes him look sophisticated. I don't have the heart to tell him how ridiculous he looks. :-)
Anyway, thanks again for the memories, Gene. A pleasure to read your column, as always.
Well I don't know whether
Well I don't know whether comics count, but The intermittent steampunk comic of Lovelace & Babbage shows Ada smoking a pipe rather frequently.
Can be found at:
http://2dgoggles.com/
Prince Albert in a Can
Let him out!
Time Period
Actually, more from the 40s and 50s with few exceptions. Sorry, I should have noted the dates for each one.
Time period?
Are these mostly from the fifties and early sixties, Gene?