Sorry guys! New guy resurrecting a zombie thread here. Upon searching the world wide webs, this was about the only place I was able to find info on Parker's Pipe Shop. I also recently came into possession of a Parker's Royal Guard pipe and mine looks to be made by Comoy's as well (Shape No.332). I live about an hour and a half away from Fresno and was pretty interested in Parker's old shop and tried to do some research on it the last week or so. I was able to get the above mentioned newspaper articles wording (electronically), but it took a bit of deciphering to get it in a readable format. Here is the article mentioned above by the Fresno Bee in a more readable context.
Cheers!
Fresno Bee- Dec 29,1968
COOL, CURVED BRIAR is the type of pipe most recommended by Harry Parker, the dean of Fresno tobacconists, in his Fulton Mall pipe and tobacco shop. Parker, a former brokerage firm employee, Tobacconist has a Love Affair With Pipes And Fresno. Parker keeps one of the best stocks of pipes available on the Pacific Coast. He also blends his own brands of tobacco and has a trademark which identifies a Parker blend as "Puts the OK in SmOKe."
“The fact is, Squire, the moment a man takes to a pipe, he becomes a philosopher. It’s the poor man’s friend; it calms the mind, soothes the temper, and makes a man patient under difficulties. It has made more good men, good husbands, kind masters, indulgent fathers, than any other blessed thing on this universal earth.”
-”Sam Slick, The Clockmaker”
This is Harry Parker's trademark. And Harry Parker, owner of Parker's of Fresno Inc., a gentleman's pipe and tobacco shop at 1232 Fulton Mall, probably knows more about pipes and tobaccos than any three men in the United States. And you might throw in Turkey, St. James Parish, La,, and Syria while you're at it. Almost 75 years old now, bald and with hearing that leaves something to be desired, despite a powerful aid, Parker is still chipper, puts in a full shift daily, lectures young men against the harmful effects of cigarettes and just keeps mixing the finest tobacco blends from three continents. Parker has been hooked on pipes and pipe tobaccos ever since he was associated with a Wall Street brokerage firm in 1911. "I worked for on Englishman who sent me out to the better tobacconists of New York City to find the very choice tobacco mixtures. "After awhile I became attached to the wonderful thing called a pipe and aromatic tobaccos and began a one-man research to find out all I could about tobaccos and pipes. "In the late 1930's, because of my health, I left the stock market and moved to California. I began a whole new career as a purchaser with the U.S. government. "Arriving in Fresno in 1943 I decided to go into business for myself. I decided on a pipe shop. My first store was at 1311 Fulton St. And I guess since that like my business, Fulton St. Fresno and I became about the happiest marriage in history." Parker speaks fondly of Fresno and its people, "I've been here long enough to serve two generations of pipe smokers." He is particularly optimistic of Fresno's and the downtown mall's future. "Fresno has to do well. After all, in 75 years it's the best place I've ever found." Parker's store is no one- man operation. It has four clerks. It stocks pipes ranging in price from $3.25 to $150. And the aroma of tobacco is, as they say today, beautiful. Some of it comes from St. James Parish, La., other varieties from Turkey and Syria. But it is all mixed under the personal direction of Parker. "The fact is, Squire," Parker says, "nothing is too good for the patient and kindly man who stands behind his pipe, for he is the man who stands behind the world."
