Actors and tobacco

[momus]

Has anyone ever wondered when they are watching a movie or show where the actors smoke pipes what pipe tobacco they are smoking? Since 90 percent of them probably aren't pipe smokers it makes me even more curious.
Like watching Lord of the Ring movies and wondering, "I wonder what that dwarf is smoking?" Probably Captain Black or something like that...but who knows?
Likewise, I wonder what someone like Jeremy Brett, who was an avid smoker, would smoke while running around as Sherlock Holmes? He might bring his own tobacco to the set but I wonder if the prop department often hands out actors pipes to use and tobacco to use with it. I also wonder if they get primers to pretend to know what they are doing.
Lastly, I wonder if this is some sick obsession even wondering what they are smoking....but that is another issue. If pipe smoking wasn't such a niche activity I probably wouldn't give any of this a second thought. I love beer but never wonder what type of beer actor A is sipping while at the bar.

 

[tslots]

Just watched an old movie today and know this guy smoked the real stuff.
I've read where he shopped often and bought his tobacco at the Tinder Box in Oxnard, CA.
Don't know which blends though ...

 

[Doc Manhattan]

Michael Giadis (Paul Kinsey on Mad Men) says which tobacco he smoked on the show in this interview. A cavendish blend, if I recall right. And it's the only real tobacco on the set--the cigarettes are all herbal fakes.

 

[Guy]

Usually are I have noticed

 

[NeroWolfe]

Edward G. Robinson was a TRUE pipe smoker; there was a blend marketed under his name; I have a large empty tin of it with his picture on it that I picked up a a Flea Market many years ago. Does anyone know what type of blend it was? The tin does not provide any detail on the nature of the belnd. Also, a few years ago Debbie Reynolds opened a Casino in Las Vegas (now closed) that had a small museum of Hollywoood memorabilia; included was a few of Edward G. Robinson's pipes on his pipe rack.

 

[DoverPipes]

Edward G. Robinson was a TRUE pipe smoker; there was a blend marketed under his name; I have a large empty tin of it with his picture on it that I picked up a a Flea Market many years ago. Does anyone know what type of blend it was? The tin does not provide any detail on the nature of the belnd. Also, a few years ago Debbie Reynolds opened a Casino in Las Vegas (now closed) that had a small museum of Hollywoood memorabilia; included was a few of Edward G. Robinson's pipes on his pipe rack.

http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=E&TID=1125

 

[NeroWolfe]

Thanks, DoverPipes!!!

 

[Eulenburg]

I imagine that, if they are NOT pipe smokers, they are probably just taking a few puffs of some innocuous Cavendish-processed nothing.

The actor William Conrad (1920-1994), however, who played Nero Wolfe on TV and many other parts, was indeed a dedicated pipe smoker and collector. He preferred high-end freehands and most often smoked Amphora Red in them, according to Richard Carleton Hacker in The Ultimate Pipe Book.

The same source suggests that Basil Rathbone smoked Peretti tobacco, from Boston.

 

[Headmint]

Interesting. I was just wondering this the other day, especially watching that scene in Fellowship where Gandalf and Bilbo are sitting outside smoking. Bilbo blows a ring and Gandalf a sailship (he IS a wizard). The creator Tolkein was a pipester and smoked Player's Navy Cut and Blue Capstan, so I have heard.

Since I doubt any of them are real pipe smoker's, it was probably something mild and sweet. I wonder, though.....