by a co-worker, he grimaced and shook his head no. Cigars, Sullivan explained, are passe. Now when the 32-year-old Sullivan smokes, he lights up a pipe.
He is smokers like Sherlock Holmes, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and is just the type helping revitalize the pipe industry. Even as the cigar craze continues to spread, the pipe and tobacco industry is perking up as well, luring in smokers who want to try something different and distinct.
Meanwhile, those who abandoned the practice in the no-smoking 1980s are digging out their old pipes, next year, according to a recent market survey conducted by Raleigh, popular types of pipe--briers, made from brierwood and by far the most popular type, and meerschaums, the second-most popular type. The latter "I just can't get them out fast enough," said Park Forest pipemaker Clarence Mickels, 59, who has been carving pipes since 1976. "I've got stores in California and on the East Coast who want pipes, and I'm putting in 18 hours some days.
" Chicago's two largest full-service tobacco stores, Iwan Ries and Up Down Tobacco, say pipes are having their best year in quite some time. In Skokie, the Gift and Tobacco Emporium has added a new pipe display case, though cigars are hogging most of the space. And while women generally aren't smoking pipes themselves, some are buying them for their cigar-smoking husbands for Christmas, hoping to "It's not just cigar smokers who are turning to pipes, it's people trying to quit cigarettes, too," observed Gift and Tobacco Emporium owner Harry Yablon.
"Guys also pick up corncobs just to test them and then move on to real pipes." Despite the recent surge, pipe smoking still has a long way to go before it matches its previous peak of popularity. In 1970, an estimated 52 million pounds of pipe tobacco was sold, compared with 7.
5 million in 1996, according to the Washington D.C.-based Pipe Tobacco Council.
walk into tobacco shops to buy cigars, they smell the aroma, pass the blending bars and the pipe displays, and they'll start to purchase pipes and tobacco," said Norman Sharp, president of the Pipe Tobacco Council and Cigar Association. "Pipe evenings are taking place for pipe smokers just as they are for cigar smokers. They're just not as widespread.
" The cigar rage really began to take off in 1992, when Marvin Shanken launched the slick magazine Cigar Aficionado, sending cigar sales soaring. Movie stars and models such as Matt Dillon, Demi Moore and Linda Evangelista were shown posing with cigars on the cover, and stogies were Like gourmet coffee and microbrewed beer, cigars became popular with young professionals, who began buying higher-quality brands. Tobaccos Magazine last year.
Unlike Cigar Aficionado, Pipes and Tobaccos spotlights a different pipe on its cover each month, addressing the "There are a lot more pipe smokers out there than people realize," said Pipes and Tobaccos Editor Dayton Matlick. "I've had an outpouring of people saying, `Thank God, finally something about pipes!'" nationwide, 90 percent are white males and 46 percent graduated from While doctors make up the largest group of customers at Iwan Ries, according to owner Charles Levi, the Pipe Tobacco Council says most pipe smokers are in clerical, sales or technical fields, followed by those Pipes can be hand-carved and personalized, and collectors see them appealing," said Jeff Price, 36, of Glenview.
"It's kind of like making tea. You have to get the tobacco just right and keep it lit just right. There's a delicate little balance.
It forces you to sit and adopt a relaxed mind-set." Not everyone is excited about the resurgence of pipes. The American mortality rates slightly higher than those of non-smokers, but A pipe smokes sweeter than a cigar, and although there is a greater initial investment, pipes can also be more cost-effective in the long run.
as cigars, since they're high-maintenance. "Guys don't want to keep all that junk with them, the pipe, the tamper, the pouch," said Mark Nickel, owner of Bull Bear Ltd. in St.
Charles, "Then you're always relighting it because it goes out. The ashes burn holes in your pants, and your car has holes in the seat," he said. "Plus guys would rather remind women of Mel Gibson than their grandfather.
" PHOTO (color): The work of Clarence Mickels, fashioning a brier pipe: "I just can't get them out fast enough," the Park Forest man says. the Loop. Pipes are having their best year in some time, Levi says.
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