I’ve been going back and browsing issues of the old Pipe Lovers Magazine from 1946 that have been scanned/uploaded to the Internet Archive.
The articles aren’t great. And whoever scanned it was not careful about getting all of the gutter text. But I did enjoy the time-capsule look into American pipesmoking during the 1940s…
For example:
In the February 1946 issue, the editor writes: “There are lots of reasons why there’s no secondhand market for pipes… A favorite meerschaum or briar is the last thing a fellow would part with—for any reason. And rather than see a favorite companion fall into the hands of a stranger, he would sooner break it himself and discard the pieces.”
In response to an article explaining perique, a reader writes in to say: “With all the work required in making a tobacco such as perique, I can readily understand why the better tobaccos cost $2 or $3 a pound.” [June 1946]
Perhaps not surprisingly for a title that proclaims itself ”The Magazine for Men Who Enjoy a Pipe,” each issue features a full-page glamour photo of a rising Hollywood starlet—a “Pipe Dream”—without making any actual pipe connection whatsoever.
I do wish the ads were better. Almost all of the pipe ads are for gimmicky pipes (Kirsten is the only brand I recognized), and the tobacco ads are for OTC blends or obscure blends from local shops (“A new thrill awaits you in Brown Crock Mixture! Available in one-half pound cartons only. Shipped anywhere in the US…for $1.45, which includes postage, insurance, and handling.”). [At $1.45 for one-half pound of tobacco, plus postage, insurance, and handling, I guess Brown Crock Mixture wasn’t one of the “better tobaccos.”]
If you’d like to check these out: Pipe Lovers Magazine 1946 all numbers : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive - https://archive.org/details/pipe-lovers-magazine-1946-7/Pipe%20Lovers%20Magazine%201946-10/mode/1up.
The articles aren’t great. And whoever scanned it was not careful about getting all of the gutter text. But I did enjoy the time-capsule look into American pipesmoking during the 1940s…
For example:
In the February 1946 issue, the editor writes: “There are lots of reasons why there’s no secondhand market for pipes… A favorite meerschaum or briar is the last thing a fellow would part with—for any reason. And rather than see a favorite companion fall into the hands of a stranger, he would sooner break it himself and discard the pieces.”
In response to an article explaining perique, a reader writes in to say: “With all the work required in making a tobacco such as perique, I can readily understand why the better tobaccos cost $2 or $3 a pound.” [June 1946]
Perhaps not surprisingly for a title that proclaims itself ”The Magazine for Men Who Enjoy a Pipe,” each issue features a full-page glamour photo of a rising Hollywood starlet—a “Pipe Dream”—without making any actual pipe connection whatsoever.
I do wish the ads were better. Almost all of the pipe ads are for gimmicky pipes (Kirsten is the only brand I recognized), and the tobacco ads are for OTC blends or obscure blends from local shops (“A new thrill awaits you in Brown Crock Mixture! Available in one-half pound cartons only. Shipped anywhere in the US…for $1.45, which includes postage, insurance, and handling.”). [At $1.45 for one-half pound of tobacco, plus postage, insurance, and handling, I guess Brown Crock Mixture wasn’t one of the “better tobaccos.”]
If you’d like to check these out: Pipe Lovers Magazine 1946 all numbers : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive - https://archive.org/details/pipe-lovers-magazine-1946-7/Pipe%20Lovers%20Magazine%201946-10/mode/1up.