Sam Spade's Pipe Tobacco Contest

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Blackhorse

Blackhorse

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First off...I really do have a life! Honest!

OK then, here's the thing. AMC is doing a retro on Bogart films...in HD. So the clarity (must have been re-mastered), even on the 'Big 42' here in the barn is stellar. So good in fact that...

1) in the very early stages of the movie, when Sam Spade (Bogie) is wakened by the cops via a phone call to be informed that his partner has been killed,
2) the camera pans across him and across the rest of his 'rooms',
3) clearly showing his bedside table,
4) upon which an assortment of odds and ends are sitting,
5) among which is a large ashtray containing A PIPE! Looks like a nice billard, good sized bowl...a real MAN'S pipe!

Anyway...with the obligatory setup taken care of we have clearly and effectively established that Sam Spade was a pipe man (off camera anyway- being a 'private' kind of guy).

And the sun breaks through the clouds, the birds sing a little sweeter, pretty girls all seem to like me a little better, wifey begins to notice all the little things I do to make her life happier, cats stay away from the yard, the IRS informs me that I overpaid...you get the idea. Suddenly, with nothing more than the new knowledge that a hero you've looked up to for years is a pipe man, and the world is magically transformed into a bright and better place.

Well, be that as it may, I'm wanting to know what he smoked. NO! Not what kind of pipe. I mean what blend of course! So let's open the voting (specifically excluding GLP Fog City stuff...that's cheating).

(Note: Since Spade rolled his own in the film (And gee, they looked so nice and perfect when he was smokin' em...never seen anyone that could do that perfect a roll by hand...ah, Hollywood!) we know he must have had SOME kind of 'crossover' blend around that could work in both a roll and a bowl. Maybe, maybe not. Just a thought.

So then: the question is...what blend did Sam Spade smoke in that pipe of his?



One week from today I will select the winner and send them a pipe and appropriate tobacco for said pipe as a prize! So - the game is afoot!
 
Since Sam Spade and Bogie were both tough as nails, and since most of today's blends didn't exist when the movie was made, I'd wager a guess that he smoked 5 Brothers.

PS: If I'm lucky enough to win, could you make the pipe a cob?
 
edgeworth pipe tobacco is my best guess. im almost positive. if you look at the first image upper left corner it says sam and spade. ;) :cyclops: :face:
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I think the spirit of Sam Spade--especially Bogart's--is a man who is rightfully distrustful of the world, a man always prepared to act, a man who expects people to lie and betray and the plot to twist. The real question is: When the hell does Sam Spade have time to enjoy a pipe?

Sam's every inch a smoke-em-if-you-got-em cigarette man. That pipe, his one pipe, is a rare indulgence, something for one long, quiet bowl after he's closed a case, right before he sleeps the sleep of the just. And a man who can't afford to blink when death comes into his business day needs a completely escapist smoke. Nothing like the burley coffin nails he rolls by the dozen. No, it's a luxury.

I'm thinking it's a Dunhill, from a tin (even at the tobacconist, he's distrustful), something classy but not fussy (Sam smoking "Baby's Bottom" or something with a flitty name like "Ye Olde Signe"? Never!) I'm going to say that Sam's once-in-a-very-long-time pipe is filled with London Mixture.
 
Excellent comments one and all.

Buckshot...I'm gonna have to give ERR to new2thepipe. The 'sliced' was already taken and so a generic guess of 'Edgeworth' (which I interpret as ERR) has to get go to the guy who named it first (standing rule #1: first to name it gets the rights). No squackin' either. When I call a rule...you'll take it and you'll like it!

So...a good start.

BTW: Since 'the cobfather' asked for a specific type of pipe...I may just adopt that as the item of choice. And I'll also use the blend that I'm thinking of as either all or part of the prize. So if it was London Mix...that's what the winner will get, etc. Just an example.

Also, once you've entered...and you've made yer pick you gotta live by it...so take note of what others have guessed. If you second a guess...yer out. Except for Buckshot. He was called on a foul and can go again if he wants. Unless of course you send me a sufficient bribe. Special favors deserve special consideration, etc. I CAN be bought for the right price! lol

And... um, well that's it fer now boys. So, there's a week to go.
 
I think PB has new2 and Buckshot both scooped on ERR... he's got the same ad linked.
 
Ads...shmads! That's just advertising. Don't mean he smoked it. And it sure doesn't look like Bogie to me...could even be Ward Bond, one of the coppers!

Points for concept and effort, though. Unless it turns out to be the copper...that would get into some severe penalty points! Better to let it be.
 
Now, if I remember right, Sam Spade in the movie is pretty identical to Sam Spade in the book. The producers threw the book at the writers and basically told them to write a script from it. (I’m referring to Bogie’s film though. There were two other not so good versions of The Maltese Falcon before that.) They did a good job of it. They also eliminated the racy stuff for the movie like Sam and Brigid bedding down and Sam’s homosexual references to Cairo and the kid (the fat man’s body guard). Now Sam was indeed a roll your own kind of guy, but Hammett does have Sam stoking up his pipe once or twice in the book. Hence the scene you mentioned in the movie with the pipe sitting on Sam’s table in the movie. At least that gives one the impression that he smoked it once in a while. I don’t remember him actually smoking it in the movie though. Anyway, your guess is good as mine about what kind of pipe tobacco he smoked. Sam never did have a lot of money. He didn’t believe Brigid O’Shaughnessy’s story, but he was mightily impress with the two hundred smackers she handed over to him. It probably helped pay next month’s rent on the office space. So I think he probably smoked a very inexpensive blend that was readily available at any corner drug store during that time period. Granger’s a good guess. A better one is Prince Albert, however.




 
Blackhorse":421ee016 said:
Ads...shmads! That's just advertising. Don't mean he smoked it. And it sure doesn't look like Bogie to me...could even be Ward Bond, one of the coppers!

Points for concept and effort, though. Unless it turns out to be the copper...that would get into some severe penalty points! Better to let it be.
Click to expand...
Da smuck looks like Howard Duff, the actor who played Sam Spade on the radio for years. I mean, take a gander at the hair and jaw lines. Yeah, I think you got yr man!



 
He bought his tobacco at Sutliff's at 562 Market Street, S.F., CA . He smoked Sutliff's Mixture No. 79...it was a pure Burley...because that's all they sold until the late 60's when they introduced some aros. They changed owners in the earl;y 50' and became Grants.
I ran into Sam there own several occasions...he always seemed to be in a hurry though...we didn't talk much...grab a quarter pound of No 79 and out the door...I think he had an office down by the docks though.

Bill 8)
 
sand18f":uh3n60mk said:
He bought his tobacco at Sutliff's at 562 Market Street, S.F., CA . He smoked Sutliff's Mixture No. 79...it was a pure Burley...because that's all they sold until the late 60's when they introduced some aros. They changed owners in the earl;y 50' and became Grants.
I ran into Sam there own several occasions...he always seemed to be in a hurry though...we didn't talk much...grab a quarter pound of No 79 and out the door...I think he had an office down by the docks though.

Bill 8)
Click to expand...
Good stuff! :cheers:
 
sand18f":fa7rzcj6 said:
He bought his tobacco at Sutliff's at 562 Market Street, S.F., CA . He smoked Sutliff's Mixture No. 79...it was a pure Burley...because that's all they sold until the late 60's when they introduced some aros. They changed owners in the earl;y 50' and became Grants.
I ran into Sam there own several occasions...he always seemed to be in a hurry though...we didn't talk much...grab a quarter pound of No 79 and out the door...I think he had an office down by the docks though.

Bill 8)
Click to expand...
Very interesting to hear a story like this. :)
 
You guys have it all wrong... 8)

The pipe doesn't belong to Spade.
It actually belonged to a world weary dame called Myra, that Sam met in the seamy tenderloin of San Francisco. They had a brief but exhausting love affair that was doomed from the start (aren't they all?).
It ended one night after she got a little too fresh following one gin and tonic too many at a North Beach clipjoint.
Sam dislikes a messy drunk, almost as much as he hates a scene.

He keeps the pipe for sentimental reasons; it helps him remember her smell...

And for the record, she did have Prince Albert in a can, and she smoked it generously.

 
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