Looking for Info & Pipes for Movie about Oppenheimer

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Peter - CCB

Starting to Get Obsessed
Dec 26, 2019
250
977
46
Santa Barbara, CA
www.etsy.com
Hey all. Thanks for posting and any messages. I’ve been very busy today and a medical appointment for my son. I have more info and photos to provide and will reply to everyone tonight, PST. I didn’t want anyone to think I’m ignoring this. I knew pipesmagazine will prob be my strongest tool. :) - I look forward to reading the replies and messages and provide a bit more detail. I was overtired when posting the original. Lol. Thanks again and back tonight! - Peter
 
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Peter - CCB

Starting to Get Obsessed
Dec 26, 2019
250
977
46
Santa Barbara, CA
www.etsy.com
Should be easy. Any long, slim, black blasted billiard should do.

View attachment 121679
Yeah at first it was very detailed requirements but now we are getting better communication and showing some samples I have in stock of 2-3 pipes that are the same, it’s going. I still want 3 saddle bit billiards that are pref 1940’s and 50’s. I’m thinking smooth as it seems the easiest to strip and stain the same for each 3. It’s a big bonus if we know what he smoked. The production knows he had a Grabow Starfire … but I don’t have more info. I think you’re right though. Just these and one more shape I will decide later tonight. 3 of each. I have a couple hundred grabow and kaywoodie but only a handful of duplicates and not many triplicates. I’m always selling them after all. Ok I’ll be back on tonight. Thanks for any replies. - P
 
Dec 3, 2021
5,443
46,752
Pennsylvania & New York
I saw a post in an online thread that mentioned the Grabow Starfire, but I didn't see any attribution or provenance. That could've been someone making a joke. There's a photo of Oppenheimer with a saddle bit stem that has hints of nomenclature visible. I wonder if you post that here, a keen eyed person here might be able to figure out what it might be based on pipe shape and word length.
 
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pylorns

Lifer
Aug 20, 2013
2,201
641
Austin, Texas
www.thepipetool.com
Yeah at first it was very detailed requirements but now we are getting better communication and showing some samples I have in stock of 2-3 pipes that are the same, it’s going. I still want 3 saddle bit billiards that are pref 1940’s and 50’s. I’m thinking smooth as it seems the easiest to strip and stain the same for each 3. It’s a big bonus if we know what he smoked. The production knows he had a Grabow Starfire … but I don’t have more info. I think you’re right though. Just these and one more shape I will decide later tonight. 3 of each. I have a couple hundred grabow and kaywoodie but only a handful of duplicates and not many triplicates. I’m always selling them after all. Ok I’ll be back on tonight. Thanks for any replies. - P


So do we have a list of pipes he would have smoked and what was used in the movie yet?
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,610
Einstein wasn't a fussy fellow in terms of grooming, so I doubt he had much vanity about what pipe to smoke. I haven't seen the movie yet, but in the trailers Einstein is depicted with his hair neatly groomed, whereas in the footage of the man himself that appeared in the recent NBC documentary, his somewhat wavy hair was quite uncombed.

The actor playing Einstein looks as if he has just come from the make-up trailer where his hair was put in tidy order. I don't know why they'd do that. They didn't want to overdo his looking disheveled, but this errors in the other direction in my opinion.

As for Oppenheimer's pipe, it could have been a Dr. Grabow, which were easy to get during the war. The Dr. Grabow factory was moved from Chicago to Sparta, N.C., in the western part of the state up near the Virginia line. It was moved there because of the shortage of briar coming from the war-torn Southern European nations, so Dr. Grabow was using Mountain Laurel from North Carolina as a substitute, and it is entirely possible that those were the pipes Oppenheimer was smoking, that or pre-war pipes.

For years after the war (and still in some cases) pipes bore the stamp "Imported Briar" to emphasize that real briar was back.
 
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