What did the great minds smoke?

[bilder]

I saw a thread on another forum and I has gotten me to thinking about the tobacco's that famous men through history have smoked.

Einstein smoked Revelation. Not sure if this is a brand or a specific blend.

C. S. Lewis smoked Three Nuns. Not available in the USA, but I have found a place in Switzerland that carries it. Average is $16 a tin shipped to the States.

J.R.R. Tolkein is said to have smoked A & P Caledonain #499 Navy Cut or Erinmore Flake. No real solid information on this. Research continues..

Anyone know what other famous folks smoked?

 

[LilBastage]

I've never really given it much thought. An interesting topic, though.

 

[CPT/VSG]

This is a great topic.

 

[LilBastage]

I did some quick searching and found that Einstein did indeed smoke the original Revelation blend. I'm not sure who made it, though.

I'm not sure he's a "great mind" but Hugh Hefner smoked Mixture 79 before he quit smoking.

I'll add more when I can find more.

 

[bilder]

Wonder what General Mac smoked in that cob of his?

 

[bilder]

Here is a list of famous pipe smokers:

http://www.aspipes.org/faq/famous.html

Will be fun to find out what they each liked.

 

[bilder]

Gerald Ford smoked Sir Walter Raleigh pipe tobacco.

Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Herbert Hoover all smoked Wilke.

 

[Matt R]

This is a good book: Cigar- Barnady Conrad I'd have to look through it again, but I think it mentions some cigars that people smoked. I've had a cigar that was from a personalized box of cigars that HG Wells smoked. No idea what the particular blend was, but it was a Clear Havana, machine made perfecto. Had a RyJ that at one time was part of Churchill's family collection, though I think it was made years after his death.

 

[LilBastage]

Charles Nelson Reilly smoked Sir Walter Raleigh according to the info I can find.

Again, I'm not sure he's a great mind, but he did have some snappy answers on Match Game.


I've found info on Tolkien smoking "Kentucky Fired" tobacco. I'm not real sure what that is/was, but that's what I've found in addition to the blends bilder mentioned.

 

[gunsandcigars88]

This is going to be a lot of fun to research, with some neat results.
B

 

[merkinmullet]

A couple of excerpts from the Cigar Aficionado archives. A lot of interview and accounts are here.

Sigmund Freud- "Freud usually smoked a cigar called a trabucco, which was small, relatively mild and considered the best of those produced by the Austrian monopoly. But he complained that they were inferior, preferring the Don Pedros and Reina Cubanas, which he could get during his vacations in the picturesque Bavarian town of Berchtesgaden. Freud also enjoyed Dutch Liliputanos, and when old age limited his travel, he frequently recruited friends and colleagues to bring him his favorite cigars from across the border."

Groucho Marx-"In a large humidor in his upstairs study he kept a trove of the most expensive cigars money could buy--mostly Dunhills. There were light cigars for after lunch, and heavier, more pungent ones for after dinner. The latter were his favorites--especially the 410s. He also kept on hand a box of extra-sized cigars called Belindas. These, I believe, were the kind Winston Churchill smoked."

Mr. Sam Clemens- "In those days the native cigar was so cheap that a person who could afford anything could afford cigars," Clemens recalled. "Mr. Garth [the father of a friend of the young Clemens] had a great tobacco factory. He had one brand of cigars which even poverty itself was able to buy. He had had these in stock a good many years, and although they looked well enough on the outside, their insides had decayed to dust and would fly out like a puff of vapor when they were broken in two. This brand was very popular on account of its extreme cheapness. Mr. Garth had other brands which were cheap, and some that were bad, but the supremacy over them enjoyed by this brand was indicated by its name. It was called 'Garth's damnedest.'"

Some reports said that he would buy Havanas when he could afford them, even though he once wrote, "Nearly any cigar will do me, except a Havana." He sampled the better cigars available in those days, but seemed unsatisfied. So, the story goes, he found a New York tobacconist, whom he insisted provide him with his worst cigar. He was delighted.