Walt Disney: American Icon, Inventor of Pop Culture – Pipe Smoker
-
Kevin Godbee - Jul 11, 2012
- 14 min read
Fred Brown
[Editor’s note: After conducting several hours of research, the above photo was the only one that could be found of Walt Disney smoking a pipe. Although he was a chain-cigarette-smoker, and occasional imbiber of the pipe, he avoided smoking when he was in public view, especially where he might be seen by children. The third photo shows him holding a cigarette.]
Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Ill., in 1901, into a hard-working, adventuresome family of Irish immigrants. That he would become one of the world’s great storytellers is not hard to picture. But Walt Disney also became the world’s "imagineer"—an engineer of imagination who created universes of wonder and magic through his cartoons and animated films. His world of whimsy became our world where you dreamed upon a star.
The Disney clan claimed their lineage was linked to the d’Isignys of Normandy. And their coat of arms is further burnished in that the Disneys are said to have come to England with William the Conqueror and fought with him at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, a war that changed the history of England.
And, in fact, the Disney surname survives in d’Isigny today. His earliest known ancestor was Jean-Christophe d’Isigny. The name was later shortened to Disney.
Walt Disney’s family took an Irish tour, then a Canadian sojourn before settling in America. A branch of the family moved to County Kilkenny, Ireland. Arundel Elias Disney was the first of the family to come to America, then moved to Ontario, Canada.
Elias Disney, Walt’s father, was born Feb. 6, 1859, in Ontario. He wound up in Lake County, Florida, around 1886. About two years later, Elias married Flora Calls, another Irish immigrant family, in Kismet, Florida.
By 1890, Elias, Flora and their growing family arrived in Chicago where Elias hoped to get a job as a carpenter for a gala exhibition—the 1893 anniversary of Columbus’s 400-year-old discovery of America. Chicago planned an exposition to honor the occasion, and the fair meant jobs, especially for carpenters.
Walt Disney was born Dec. 5, 1901, on Chicago’s south side, in the upper bedroom of a house built by Elias, beginning one of America’s great triumphs of achievements through genius and grit.
Early in his life, Walt knew that he loved to be the center of attention. He craved it, in fact. Acting came naturally, even to the point of his enjoying a scold from a teacher. At least he was being noticed and singled out.
He also excelled in drawing, especially cartoons. Despite his family’s penchant for moving—Missouri, Kansas City, back to Chicago—Walt was able to concentrate on his art to the point that many of his school mates would later write of their extraordinary classmate that they knew he would be famous and would be an artist.
Even in France during World War I as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross, Walt continued to sketch and draw. He said he found his ambulance as good a place as any to draw.
He spent a year in France at the war’s end and when he returned home, he had learned the French habit of smoking, something he would enjoy to excess the rest of his life.
In addition to cigarettes, Walt began to smoke a pipe by the time he was 20 years old. Later, after a pipe burned a hole in a pocket, he said pipe smokers were "too slow" and "too laid back." He returned to his three-pack-a-day cigarette habit.
He chain-smoked cigarettes to such a degree that his fingers, one writer said, "calcified" from the cigarettes. Chesterfields and Camels were his cigarettes of choice, but he also smoked Gitanes, a French import brand as well.
Walt Disney rose from obscurity to the most recognized American of his time, and perhaps of any time. His iconic animated characters—especially the most recognized mouse on the planet—have settled into the American lexicon. Mickey Mouse is better known than most U.S. presidents are. Donald Duck, Pluto, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, led the Disney studio into the stratosphere of American pop culture.
In fact, some historians and scholars believe Walt Disney invented pop culture.
One thing he did invent in a big, big way was the amusement/theme park—Disneyland and Disney World. Throw in Resort Hotels by the dozens for good measure. And, according to the website, Yesterland.com, Disneyland also had, yes, you guessed it, a tobacco shop on its Main Street.
The street was built to reflect America in the early 1900s, thus a tobacco shop that sold tobacco, including pipe tobacco, and something else very special: Walt Disney pipes.
"The Tobacco Shop opened in 1955 as one of the original shops on Disneyland’s Main Street. It was located between the Magic Shop and the Main Street Cinema on the east side of Main Street. The Tobacco Shop closed permanently in 1991," according to the website.
And since the tobacco shop was around in the 1950s, Disneyland patrons happily walked about smoking cigarettes, cigars and even their pipes.
That does not happen today. In fact, there are no tobacco shops in the theme parks today, despite the presence of the traditional cigar store Indian.
No cigarettes or tobaccos are sold anywhere in the parks—except in hotel gift shops—and outdoor smoking is severely limited, according to Yesterland.com.
In addition, on the PipesMagazine.com forum board, you will find not only a discussion of Disney pipes, but also actual photos of a beautiful billiard stamped with the "Walt Disney World" logo with famed mouse in the center of the design.
You don’t have to be told twice that a Walt Disney World mouse stamped billiard would be highly collectible today.
Just ask Brian Levine, National Sales Manager at Brigham USA, Charlotte, N.C. He possesses probably the finest Disney pipe collection (see sidebar) extant. What began as a whim has turned into a passion and a show-stopping assortment that has been featured at the Chicago Pipe Show as well as in P&T Magazine.
|
From reading Walt Disney’s biography, it isn’t crystal clear just how big of a pipe smoker he was. It is absolutely clear that he was a heavy cigarette smoker.
Many of his former employees recall hearing the coughing Walt coming down one of the studio halls. He was something of a snappy critter, a demanding workaholic who did not mince words.
Hearing the raspy cough, workers knew to be on the lookout for the prowling Walt.
Also, at one point in the career of Mickey Mouse, Walt served as the high-pitched voice of the famed animated character. That changed over the years because of Walt’s heavy cigarette smoking habit.
The type of tobacco Walt Disney smoked in his pipes is not easily discerned, either. However, in one bio, his artist buddies, always full of pranks, would shave off some pieces of rubber from their art erasers and sprinkle the shavings into Walt’s pipe tobacco pouch.
More than likely, Walt favored pipe tobacco that closely resembled the combinations found in his cigarette brands, which would have been perhaps a blend of burley, Virginia bright leaf and Turkish.
It is also highly likely that pipes played an important role in the great animator’s ability to handle all the stress that arose from his megalithic entertainment empire.
When he died in 1966—attributed to acute circulatory collapse after recent surgery for removal of a lung tumor—the wide flung Disney entertainment enterprises were bringing in an estimated $100-million a year.
At the time of his death, Walt Disney was supervising the then new Disneyworld in Florida, a ski resort in Sequoia National Forest and the renovation of the 10-year-old Disneyland at Anaheim.
The Disney motion-picture studio was churning out six new productions and several television shows.
The Los Angeles Times obit called Disney "Aesop with a magic brush."
The New York Times said Disney was singular in genius and talent:
"From his fertile imagination and industrious factory of drawing boards, Walt Elias Disney fashioned the most popular movie stars ever to come from Hollywood and created one of the most fantastic entertainment empires in history."
"In return for the happiness he supplied, the world lavished wealth and tributes upon him. He was probably the only man in Hollywood to have been praised by both the American Legion and the Soviet Union."
"Where any other Hollywood producer would have been happy to get one Academy Award—the highest honor in American movies—Mr. Disney smashed all records by accumulating 29 Oscars."
"David Low, the late British political cartoonist, called him ‘the most significant figure in graphic arts since Leonardo.’
"Mr. Disney went from seven-minute animated cartoons to become the first man to mix animation with live action, and he pioneered in making feature-length cartoons. His nature films were almost as popular as his cartoons, and eventually he expanded into feature-length movies using only live actors."
The Disney legacy, of course, continues like the juggernaut Walt constructed from the humblest of beginnings.
Walt Disney’s dreams, like a "bolt out of the blue," rode in on a dream star that shines as brightly today as it did the first day of his life.
 Fred Brown is a Retired Senior writer for the Knoxville News Sentinel and was a working journalist for 46 years before retiring in 2008. He lives in Knoxville, TN., where he continues to freelance. |
Written by Kevin Godbee
7 Responses
Recent Posts
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! Or perhaps it is that sense of satisfaction knowing and appreciating you made it to another day. With the world in a kind of rinse-and-repeat history, reminiscent of a Shakespearean play, it is perhaps a good moment to remember some of Pipedom’s philosophers whose cogent thoughts brought light to clear a path in the mists of confusion and confounding opinions. Ok. No gloom and doom. Just some down-home thoughts. Think of times in the past when history was running off the rails. It took our pipe-smoking thinkers (the mind workers of the world) to speak of better pathways to more light. Think for a moment, with a pipe in hand, these wizards of the world and word: Albert Einstein, J. R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edwin Hubble, Bertrand Russell, C. S. Lewis, and Jean-Paul Sartre. All learned and enlightened. They offered wisdom instead of storms of meaningless roads to nowhere. All while smoking their pipes! Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Well there’s nothing like a touch of the plague to usher in the changing season. Leaving the airport just when the first advertisements for all things pumpkin spice began to appear—lattes, muffins, shampoos, trash bags, and myriad other concoctions—so, too, my ability to breathe freely disappeared. The unfortunate side effect of losing one’s sense of taste and smell for weeks is the utter inability to enjoy tobacco. Not that I consider myself an expert on anything but my own tastes, but be forewarned that this review was made with mildly impugned sensory equipment. Just when a comforting pipe was most needed, its comfort was denied. Be that as it may, the road to recovery found me limping along on one lung this past month, trying to wrest the particulars of two blends on offer from Sutliff: the latest 175th Anniversary blend, Silver Quarter, as well as their spooky seasonal Maple Shadows II. Silver Quarter is a new style on offer from Sutliff, their first coin-cut blend. Naturally a Virginia-Perique, it is enhanced with a traditional core of black Cavendish. In the tin it holds much promise, with a lightly bready and very woody, if ever-so-slightly sour, aroma. After some time acclimating to air, the bouquet softens further and offers hints of the burley with some chocolaty notes wafting through the more dominant dry grassy aspect. The tin art is of a coin-style bas-relief bust, presumably of a founding Sutliff brother, à la The Old Boss On the reverse of the tin we find the blend’s description: Reflecting on Sutliffs 175 years of tobacco excellence, we came across a brand that embodies true value, SILVER QUARTER. This name pays homage to Sutliffs roots, the legacy of two brothers who popularized pipe smoking in the burgeoning mining society of San Francisco. We celebrate this heritage with a coin cut composed of the finest African Virginias, complemented by a core of Perique and Black Cavendish. The tin notes are, forgive the pun, on the nose for a good VaPer blend: mild tart sweetness peeking out from behind dried hay and slight chocolate undertones, with a lightly tannic finish of weathered oak. It is always a joy to prepare a coin cut, my preference being to put a few in my palm and vigorously warm my hands together to fully break them apart. These well-formed discs pack and light easily, and smoke with little prodding to the end of the bowl. For technical points it scores well—it smokes light, and it’s easy to tend the ember. While it gets sharp after a few quick bowls, pacing should be heeded to easily smoke down to the heel without inviting bite. Of the flavor, though, I am left a bit wanting. There are tart and high notes aplenty, but very little of the lemony citrus I would anticipate, as well as scant midtones; they tend more toward the red wine-vinegary and sour. The flavors are muted, also, lacking the sweetness and piquancy of other marques—the small measure of Perique tickles the nose now and again with peppery hints, and there is a smidge of a deeper sweetness to be found in the Cavendish from puff to puff, but overall it lacks some dynamism. The Virginias, to my palate, come off a bit on the dry side, and here they dominate the blend. The aftertaste and mouthfeel are neutral, again evincing more of the dry, woody, tartly tannic end of the spectrum. The blend has plenty of polish, but not enough depth or richness (*yet) to make it a standout. Here, comparisons are inevitable: Luxury Bullseye Flake has more sweetness, both from its Virginia as well as its Cavendish, and a better finish; Davidoff is similar but with a pronounced umami that is absent here; as for Escudo, I haven’t had any fresh tins lately so it would be unfair to compare. While it rates as a solid, fairly mild smoke, particularly to lovers of the genre, it does not surprise with any exceptional flavors. To be fair, all the boxes have been checked for the blend to benefit from some real aging, and it would be worth checking in on this after a couple of years sealed away. I’ve set half my tin aside to sample again in a month or two, in case I’m merely suffering from the lingering effects of parosmia, and will amend this review in that case. Maple Shadows II, on the other hand, made up for the weeks of sniffling and sneezing I’d endured. Offered in a full 8 ounce tin with delightfully spooky Halloween art, it’s (hopefully) enough to last through the season. Somehow I had missed this last year, so it’s a real pleasure to get some in my candy bucket this year. As the chilling winds of autumn draw eerie prattle from contorted, deciduous limbs, we find ourselves possessed by the spirit of the season. Bewitched by a dissonant charm, we’ve created Maple Shadows. In a season that is defined by the unlikely harmony of treats and frights, we’ve joined the enchanting sweetness of maple with the earthy spice of Dark Fired Kentucky for a smoking experience that captures the senses with an otherworldly fusion of flavor. This may be the best aromatic blend Sutliff’s ever made—and they make a ton of them. First off, it’s not overbearing in the least—quite the opposite, it is also one of the more restrained aromatics they’ve ever made, with a clear but very light topping that melds oh-so-well with their choice Kentucky added to the mix. Opening the tin, the sweet maple is up front and center, but so too is the must of fallen leaves, bready pie crusts, and a crackling fire in the hearth—a perfect invocation of Herbstdüfte in a can. Packing best in an open and capacious bowl, the flavoring is subtle, and recedes to the background while puffing. With a sweet coffee or tea to accompany, the aftertaste of the maple is reinvigorated on the palate […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 632. Our featured guest on tonight’s show is the host of the Pipe & Tamper Podcast, Mike Murphy. Brian and Mike will have an extended chat revolving around the days before, during and after the Las Vegas International Pipe Show. We will hear about their travels to the show and the anxiety of Hurricane Milton bearing down on Florida at the same time while running a show and not knowing if your house is going to be there when you get home. In the end, the show went great and our homes survived, although many others in Florida were not so lucky. We’ll have clips from the show, and shoutouts to other podcasts and vlogs that were broadcasting from the pipe show.
Vegas Baby The show started out strong on the 14th floor hospitality suites hosted by the Vegas Pipe Show and Smoking Pipes as well as room hopping to carvers, estate sellers, and vendors to pre-game for the festivities. If you’re interested in what that looks like I’ll refer you to last years pipe show round up. I circled with Brian Levine to get the totals in comparison to last year: This year’s show numbers: 108 Exhibitor tables, 445 attendees, 3,250 Raffle Tickets, 100ish dinners, 172 Rooms in the Hotel. Last year, by comparison, 107 exhibitor tables, 425 attendees, 2,200 raffle tickets, 104 dinners, and 175 rooms on Friday and Saturday nights. We were at capacity, basically, when it came to vendor tables and the dinner, so there is no physical room for growth at this point except for attendees. That said, we filled that smoking lounge to the brim. New Carvers Spotlight Garret Woo (Pipes by Woo) How long have you been carving? Garret: I’ve been carving since 2021, and I’m guessing your next question is probably how’d you get started carving? James: Yes. Garret: In 2021 I took a break from my full time job – that included machining and assembly work and I thought maybe it was time I made something that I would like and I started looking at youtube and Instagram and putting together my shop. I did struggle on the stems to start and there was a lot of failure at the beginning. James: How many pipes have you made so far? Garret: I number my pipes, so I just finished up 186. James: What is your favorite shape you’ve been making? Garret: I really dig Canadians and pipes with longer shanks and lovat Canadian blends. I like to play with different shapes of stems on the longer shanked pipes. The billiard would be my go-to shape but I want to learn more techniques on freehanded shapes. I like to put brass and copper adornments on my pipes with my machining background it helps. James: What is the craziest thing you’ve seen at this show? Garret: The first thing that comes to mind is the table over there with C-Pipes with the shapes and the size and petiteness and the intricate details they did. You can check out what Garret is working on by going to his Instagram. Stefan Cashwell James: how long have you been carving? Stefan: about 3 years. James: What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen at the show? Stefan: The Adam Davidson pipe with the clear shape and the bamboo—I don’t know if it’s 3D printed or what, but it’s amazing. James: What’s your favorite shape to do? Stefan: That’s a tough question. I think they’re all the same shape, but what’s fascinating is that Dublin, volcano, and blowfish are all the same depending on how you turn them. Playing with that, with all its variations, is a lot of fun. My favorite accent to use is also horn; it’s finicky, but it’s a great accent on pipes. You can check out Stefan’s work on his Instagram. Science: Meet Pipes I chatted with Chris from the San Diego Pipe Club; he started off doing stem replacements for estate pipes but also improved the airflow. James: How are you doing 3d printing? What is the thought process? Chris: It’s a 3D-printed pipe with a briar insert. The design is a calabash meets a Peterson system meets a metal Falcon/Kirsten radiator style. It is a bottom draft smoking bowl like a radiator like those metal pipes. The inside chamber is a calabash. The stummel and accent rings in the stems are all 3d printed. The insert is briar, olive wood, or I have the potential to use meerschaum as well. This idea came about through the San Diego Pipe Club, wanting to see if we could 3D print a pipe and being curious about the technology; I have a printer and design ability, so here we are. James: What’s the type of plastic you’re using? Chris: It’s all PLA plastic, a renewable potato starch plastic that is food-safe. The stummels are printed with a plastic that has wood in it 40% wood fiber, bamboo, rosewood, ebony, redwood, and walnut are the woods I’m printing. For the accent rings I just got a new material that I’m printing that has 40% copper, so its real metal that you can sand, and polish the same as wood filament. The stems are 3d printed as well. The concept is renewable and cheap from a production standpoint, with the ability to make a very high quality smoking pipe based on the experience. By combining the calabash system pipe and bottom draft hole and using 3d simulations to see airflow, I can see where I’m having eddies and ripples in my current, and see where my moisture and all the particles are dropping back out from a vapor to a liquid. Most people who have tried these say the stems are clean, and they don’t even have to run a pipe cleaner afterward because everything collects at the bottom. Chris has also been experimenting with color-changing plastics so you can see the hotspots. Chris said he was able to use this to slow down his cadence, which, of course, could mean you could get a slow-smoke training pipe to teach yourself to perform better. If you’re interested in learning more or want to check one out, you can contact him on Instagram: Copper Beard Pipe Works The Negative Space The show was buzzing about one specific pipe, which had everyone guessing how it was made. I chatted with Adam Davidson briefly about it. James: How did this idea come to fruition? Adam Davidson: Smokingpipes.com had an expo back in August open to all of the makers they carry. The theme was to make a pipe utilizing bamboo. Given that the last time we had the expo I made a smooth Almond with three bamboo shanks, […]
Thanks for a great article! I’ve always wanted a Disney pipe.
Great article, thank you for sharing!!!
Great article. Sounds like Walt should have stuck with pipes instead of the cigs. I knew about the Disney tobacco store, but I had no idea a collection like Levine’s was out there. Fantastic stuff. You know, the irony is that Disney branded cigars, pipes, etc would probably sell like gangbusters today, but they’d never do it for the backlash by the anti groups.
Thanks for the history, another example of the role of pipes and tobacco in recent history.
This is my favorite article so far in this series.
I agree Kevin, excellent job Mr. Fred Brown.
Just a wonderful article. As child growing up in the 50’s I can tell you that watching the Walt Disney Show on Sunday evening was something the whole family enjoyed. Walt’s television personality was just magnetic.The Mickey Mouse Club was mandatory viewing for us kids. Walt died while I was in basic training. A number of us had to have some quiet time to cope with the loss.
Despite the love most of felt for Walt he had a dark side that would be viewed with strong disapproval today.
The sidebar shows us that Brian Levine just marches to a different drummer. He is just a most pleasant person to be around.