A Very Short History Of Player's Digger Tobacco - >Image Heavy

[didimauw]

I love reading about these old tobaccos. Back when it was "good and fun to smoke". I took a fishing trip to Canada probably 12 years ago when I was 14. The guide we had smoked players ultra light cigarettes. I still blame, or thank him I guys, for being the reason I smoke today. He made those Damn things look so delicious, by the way he never went without one. I'm assuming that's the same brand?

 

[stickframer]

It's a joy looking through threads like this.

@ georged- I'm wondering how many treasure filled threads I've missed?
In any event, these threads are a goldmine of tobacciana for collectors and those who just find the history really, really cool.
It's awesome reading the comments and memories these threads produce.
Thank you mlc!

 

[ssjones]

I'll put in a request for a "Pipe History" sub-section.
Is Player connected to the John Player tobacco of a later era? I love the JPS livery. This poster was on my bedroom wall in the mid-70's. (Yeah, I know, my buddies had Farrah Fawcett...)

 

[georged]

I'll put in a request for a "Pipe History" sub-section.

-

 

[stickframer]

I'll put in a request for a "Pipe History" sub-section.

That'd be pretty cool. ::

 

[misterlowercase]

Al,

yep, and Lotus ran with that livery for quite a long time,

here's Ayrton Senna winning his first F1 race in 1985 in a Lotus JPS...
Senna was the first Lotus driver not personally chosen by team founder Colin Chapman...
:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YLaegdlNjU
:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GOEorrE4mY
:
They even made a Europa special edition available to the public at large,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lotus_Europa_Series_2_Special_JPS_rear.jpeg
Player's was an early adopter of intense advertising budgets and spent loads of dosh on it all.
This short video is neat because it shows the massive advertising archives of Player's...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/nottinghamshire/8378995.stm
Here's an absolutely wonderful and comprehensive flickr gallery all about Player's...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/50284741@N02/
Player's in 1898 was spending £20,000 a year or more on sales promotional advertising.

"...most extraordinary of all was the offer from a small aviation company to advertise Gold Flake by sky-writing the words in smoke; unfortunately, though only £250 was asked for this service, Wills declined the offer, pointing out rather frostily that such an advertisement would be of 'a temporary nature' and 'would afford amusement only'.
Player's however, were more amenable to this particularly spectacular form of promotion and Nottinghamshire people may recall the words 'Player's Please' appearing high above their heads in the mid-1930s."

In 1901, the Big Duke showed up in England in attempt to buy up some baccy companies (he had already bought up most of the American ones) and when visiting Player's, it is told that he said this:

'Hello boys, I'm Duke from New York come to buy your business'.
With these horrific words, the president of the American Tobacco Co. greeted the brothers John Dane and William Goodacre Player.
He was, using the words of a Player's historian, 'politely, but firmly shown the door'.

Duke did end up buying Ogden's and started a crazy price-cutting scheme which lost a lot of money, and his entry into England was the seminal genesis of the intense amalgamation of many of the British baccy companies to ultimately form the Imperial group and etcetera --- the story gets quite complicated and convoluted after all that!
I'll hafta catch back up next weekend as I'm just now hitting the road this morning back to work and offline all week...

 

[ssjones]

This Europa JPS belongs to a friend, a recent addition to his Lotus stable.

This Hesketh sticker is on the rear window. I like it so much,he gave me one.

 

[ssjones]

That archive is amazing, what a treasure trove!

 

[loborx]

Bravo! Love all the old advertising. When is a Digger Reissue coming out? ::

 

[yazamitaz]

I missed the original post two years ago. Thanks for bumping it and adding to it MLC. I always enjoy your posts.
Dan ::

 

[papipeguy]

Condolover or simon could give a more accurate assessment of the worth of a shilling in US currency but the best estimate is 1 Shilling = $0.12 with a pence being about US$0.02. So a price of 5/2 would mean 5 shillings and 2 pence or roughly $0.54. Please correct my estimates if I missed something here.

 

[buroak]

Love those old "Empire Leaf", "Empire Tobacco" ads. The Three Nuns Empire Mixture ads were among my favorites. I always wondered about Digger. Now I know. Thanks MLC!

 

[simong]

Papipeguy- 5/2 (5shillings & two pence) today would equate to $0.37 U.S.by my estimate. What is interesting about these pre-decimal(introduced 1971)prices is the pennies shown as 'd' in these lovely old ads. Today like the American cent there are 100 pennies to the pound. Before 1971 there were 240, or 12 pennies to a shilling! Great value then when you see 1oz of baccy for 4d. Always remember a relation of mine who owned a cafe, he used to buy penny buns in to sell out for two pence. Imagine his surprise when he used to buy £1of penny buns(240). After decimalisation his £1 of penny buns would only see him get 100. He wasn't very amused, although it gave everybody else a good laugh!

 

[admin]

We now have a Tobacciana History section just below Pipe Accessories.

 

[buroak]

Awesome! Now we can more easily access and add to the historical treasure troves previously buried in miscellany. Thanks!

 

[buroak]

Awesome! Now we can more easily access and add to the historical treasure troves previously buried in miscellany. Thanks!

 

[buroak]

Duplicate post.

 

[buroak]

Another duplicate post - not sure what happened.

 

[ssjones]

Apparently creating a new tobacciana history section of the form up for a short amount of time. Now we're back to normal. I'll be moving this post to the new section thanks for the suggestion.

 

[okiescout]

Mrlowercase, + all the great comments about your efforts here. I have a mental picture of you standing amid a bevy of super computers giving them the days search instructions. I love the old ads so much! :worship: