I would imagine SWR was one of the blends that went through WW2. I never saw ads for it from the 40s.
Types and Brands of Pipe Tobacco used, 1920's to 1940's
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My stepmom said when she grew up in the late ‘30s and ‘40s they grew tobacco for their personal use. Most people outside the city did. They grew as much of their food as they could and also foraged for mushrooms, etc. They needed to stretch a dollar.
My dad smoked a pipe from the 1920's until the 1980's when he quit to take a job at a non-smoking campus. He owned only one pipe at a time and smoked only Granger from a pouch.
Standard over-the-counter brands were available everywhere -- at grocery stores, drugstores, newsstands, and gas stations -- usually a good selection of brands like Half & Half, Granger, SWR, Velvet, Carter Hall, and others.
Commuter trains routinely had smoking cars where smoking was permitted, and airlines had a smoking section in the back of planes.
My dad served as an officer in the Navy in the Pacific where he advanced to being skipper of YMS minesweepers and was offered a duty station after the war in Hong Kong but came home to be a family man in the Chicago area where he grew up.
Standard over-the-counter brands were available everywhere -- at grocery stores, drugstores, newsstands, and gas stations -- usually a good selection of brands like Half & Half, Granger, SWR, Velvet, Carter Hall, and others.
Commuter trains routinely had smoking cars where smoking was permitted, and airlines had a smoking section in the back of planes.
My dad served as an officer in the Navy in the Pacific where he advanced to being skipper of YMS minesweepers and was offered a duty station after the war in Hong Kong but came home to be a family man in the Chicago area where he grew up.
Add to these Dunhill, Three Nuns, Escudo, Capstan in a wider variety of mixtures than just blue and gold, SG 1792, Gawith and Hoggarth ropes and twists, Richmond, various Sobranie Products, various Germain's products, Ardath State Express London Mixture, Laurus&Bro Co Edgeworth Sliced, Carreras' Craven Mixture, Ogden's St Julien, thousands of bespoke tobacconist mixtures, and Wilke, Rattray's, and McConnell, to name just a bit of it.
Of course, the tobaccos of yore bear little resemblance to their descendants. With few exceptions today's tobaccos are the product of a few giant conglomerates pulling from the same suppliers to make their various IPs, not the individual products of a number of idiosyncratic manufacturers often owned by their respective blenders.
@sablebrush52 : That just about encapsulates the entire situation.
I'm from a post-socialist, eastern-european country, Hungary. As far as I know back in the 40's and 50's many pipe smokers prefered to use different types of (mainly russian) cigarette-tobacco. Funfact that Joseph Stalin himself did the same - he was a heavy cigarette smoker but he thought pipe-smoking would make him look wise so he started to fill a pipe with his favourite cig-tobacco.
In the early communist era we also had our own pipe tobacco production. I have no idea what that was, it was a plain yellowish package with the following decoration: a red star, a red pipe and with huge red words: PIPE TOBACCO
Probably nobody knew or cared about what the exact type of tobacco was. I guess most of the people around here didn't cared as much about brands and blends as we do nowadays.
In the 1930's there was Dunhill and some other big western brands available here and we also had hungarian tobacco production. At that time, pipe tobacco packages looked much better than the commie ones but they didn't say anything about the exact content of the bag either. To be honest, I'm guessing that they were mostly orientals as some of the biggest brands in the 20's and 30's got their tobacco from Herzegovina which was a huge balkan/oriental provider.
In the early communist era we also had our own pipe tobacco production. I have no idea what that was, it was a plain yellowish package with the following decoration: a red star, a red pipe and with huge red words: PIPE TOBACCO
Probably nobody knew or cared about what the exact type of tobacco was. I guess most of the people around here didn't cared as much about brands and blends as we do nowadays.
In the 1930's there was Dunhill and some other big western brands available here and we also had hungarian tobacco production. At that time, pipe tobacco packages looked much better than the commie ones but they didn't say anything about the exact content of the bag either. To be honest, I'm guessing that they were mostly orientals as some of the biggest brands in the 20's and 30's got their tobacco from Herzegovina which was a huge balkan/oriental provider.
A bit before your time frame, but here's a couple of pages from posh London department store Harrods.
From 1895 :
From 1895 :
@proteus, have you considered looking at Sears catalogs? No one here has personal knowledge. We're all too young.
This is from the fall 1923 edition (cigars and tobacco are only one page):
This is from the fall 1923 edition (cigars and tobacco are only one page):
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I've done something similar and perused ebay for a few days for old tins. Have dozens of defunct brand names now and some early dates for existing brands now. Thanks for the pic !
That "Legal Tender plug" looks interesting. It says it has a champaigne flavour. Also, I wonder who produced the twist that's advertised at the bottom right of the page. It doesn't state a manufacturer.
In the Harrods catalogue from 1895 (that I posted above) it has an American pipe tobacco section, and one of the tobaccos is called "Ruby Twist", but it doesn't state a manufacturer, either.
I love the names of some of the tobaccos. "Plow Boy" and "Tip Top" as well as "Genuine Bull Durham".
Interesting seeing honeydew listed. If I remember correctly, that is still a flavor used by the great Gawith Company.
Indeed it is. They had to change the name because of EU regulations. It used to be called "Rich Dark Honeydew", but now it's named "Rich Dark Spring Dew". Companies aren't allowed to name tobacco after foods and Honeydew is a mellon.
That's why when you go on a UK tobacconists website all the Gawith flavoured tobaccos are abbreviated. CH for chocolate, RM for Rum & Maple etc. The funny thing is that they always add - (formerly Rum & Maple) - in brackets in the description.
The people that think up some of these laws are absolute donuts
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Sometimes I think the laws in UK and US are made by muppets.Indeed it is. They had to change the name because of EU regulations. It used to be called "Rich Dark Honeydew", but now it's named "Rich Dark Spring Dew". Companies aren't allowed to name tobacco after foods and Honeydew is a mellon.
That's why when you go on a UK tobacconists website all the Gawith flavoured tobaccos are abbreviated. CH for chocolate, RM for Rum & Maple etc. The funny thing is that they always add - (formerly Rum & Maple) - in brackets in the description.
The people that think up some of these laws are absolute donuts
THAT'S hilarious, considering that the rationale behind the ban on flavor names is to protect young impressionable children.
"Hey Big Bird! What's in your pipe?"
This is the man behind the science...of many things. I think his name is Dr F something or other ?
Ah yes, Dr. Bunsen Spring Dew!This is the man behind the science...of many things. I think his name is Dr F something or other ?
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I was just reading that Harrod’s and was wondering if honeydew was referring to a flavored casing/topping or the color of leaf?
Hard to think there’s be a whole section of melon flavored tobak.