Pipe Fiction (TV/Movie/Literature)

[undecagon]

Tolkien and Doyle brought us LOTR and Holmes. I enjoy Peter Jackson's films a great deal, but honestly (don't hate...) didn't get into Tolkien's novels. I also greatly enjoyed Guy Ritchie's movie of Holmes, am highly anticipating the 2nd, and have started reading and enjoying Doyle's stories on my iPhone (they are free!)
However, neither of these influenced my start into pipe tobacco. Just a cool coincidence I suppose.
Any of you being because of these guys? OR -- Are there other great works that prominently display pipe smoking that aren't coming to my mind?

 

[pstlpkr]

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

 

[sherlock]

Well they are not the only reason I started but Holmes espessially had an influence on me.

 

[jchaplick]

Didnt start because of holmes but im such a big fan that it probably stoked the fire i guess. So yeah holmes was kind of an inspiration just not the entire one.

 

[baronsamedi]

Nothing like that for me. Hollywood was always behind the curve, pipe-wise.

 

[matchstickman]

I managed to sneak a couple of pipe smokers in the novel that I am writing for National Novel Writers Month. They all smoke aromatics, and that way, no one bitches about the smell. ::

 

[judcole]

I had read LotR before I started smoking a pipe - it may have influenced me, but I doubt it. The big thing for me was being a "college man", because that's what "college men" did in those days - or so it seemed to me. ::

 

[doctorthoss]

I'm kind of the opposite of you, I think -- I love the written works of Tolkien FAR more than the cinematic adaptations (different strokes for different folks, I suppose). I'm glad you're liking Doyle's stories -- truly great literature!

As for the question at hand: I was, in retrospect and despite my age, raised in a household and region where pipe smoking wasn't considered odd. Most of the males in my family smoked pipes, and many of the guys I admired as role models did as well (Hunter Thompson, Harlan Ellison, Bertrand Russell, Einstein, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Doyle, etc.etc.) In East Tennessee, even as late as the 70s and 80s, pipe smoking was still fairly commonplace. Heck, as late as five years ago, there were four top-notch B&Ms in the Knoxville metro area of only 600,000 people (including one that competed on the national stage along with PipesandCigars, SmokingPipes, etc). It was only natural that I try it, and I ended up really enjoying it from the start.

If you're looking for TV or movies, I'd check out the Holmes TV series starring Jeremy Brett. Also, hundreds of movies made before the 1970s feature pipe smokers. Heck, just about any black-and-white movie has a 50-50 chance of having a pipe smoking character or ten. In the original "Wolf Man," for instance, there are entire scenes where it seems as though ever single male character is simultaneously puffing away on a briar!

 

[philip]

I suggest you read any of the fiction from the early part of the last century. Most are available for free at the public domain section of Feedbooks.

Here are just a few I have read recently:
The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan
The Riddle of the Frozen Flame, by Thomas W. Hanshew
The Girl on the Boat, by P. G. Wodehouse
All have references to pipe smoking. It seems that a man during those times would no more think of leaving the house without his pipe than you would think of going out without your cell phone.

 

[withnail]

I remember seeing lots of pipe smokers in the films from the 1940s and 50s that were shown on TV when I was younger. It was almost always the hero that had a pipe whilst the bad guys smoked cigarettes. I remember watching a lot of these films while I was recovering from an operation when I was about 7. With no video/DVDs and only 3 channels to choose from, it was usually a case of watching the old film or the test card!
But I think I was more influenced by real life pipe smokers such as my Dad and his dad. My chemistry teacher at school always kept a Bunsen burner lit on his desks to relight his pipe through out the lesson (hard to believe now that teachers smoked during classes). I think one of the biggest connections I made in my mind were Astronomers and other scientists that reported on the Apollo missions. They always seemed to have a pipe in hand as they explained different aspects of the missions. One of my "heroes" is Sir Patrick Moore (Pic below), who has presented the BBC TV program "The Sky At Night" for over 50 years now. He is not seen on TV with a pipe these days, but I remember he often had one when I watched the program as a child.