The Disney Pipes and Tobaccos Collection of Brian Levine Brian Levine might not look like your typical pipe collector. He may not even sound like your idea of a pipe collector. But he owns one of the more unique pipe collections in the nation, maybe the only one with a mouse stamped on the shank. Levine entered the cigar and pipe world around the end of 2000. It was then that he began to notice that some pipes were not all equal: some were worth putting into a collection and smoking, some should be collected and not smoked, and some needed to be collected just because they struck a fancy. The latter is how Levine came to begin his Disney World pipe collection. And, oh, yes, Disney is practically in Levine’s DNA. Let’s back up a bit for a little Levine history. Having grown up in southern California, Levine says he and his family were Disneyland fans "from birth. I grew up going to Disneyland." He even worked for Disneyland while he was in college getting a degree in "ordering beer by the pitcher. The two things I learned in college are that beer is cheaper by the pitcher and you brown-nose the professors to get by." Everything he learned about business, Levine says, he learned while working at Disneyland as a train conductor and other odd jobs as a "cast member," which is the way the strait-laced Walt Disney wanted his workers to be known. Anyone familiar with Brian Levine today knows him as the current national Sales Manager at Brigham USA in Charlotte, N.C. He is also the former General Manager of Smokingpipes.com, former director of the RTDA, former specialty products manager at Villiger Stokkebye International, and formerly with Altadis USA and Alfred Dunhill. Somewhere around 2002 or ’03, Levine spied a specialty pipe at Walt Disney World. It had Mickey Mouse in the pipe stamp. "These were kind of cute," Levine says in his usual humorous approach to life. "I’d always loved the Disney stuff and these were fun. They were just basket pipes." So began the Levine Disney pipe collection. "I couldn’t afford all the Danish handmades, all those straight grains made by a fellow with 14 vowels in his name." His modest collection was running about $5 per pipe at the time. Then, Pipes and Tobaccos Magazine took notice. P&T Editor Chuck Stanion wrote a four-page feature story with photos on the Levine "Disney Pipe Collection." Levine "blames" Stanion for running up the price on his $5 basket pipe collection. After the P&T story appeared in the Fall 2005 edition of P&T, it seems that everybody wanted a Disney pipe for their collection. "After the story the collection got some exposure, won a couple of awards and my Disney pipe collection became one of the first educational displays at the Chicago Pipe Show. "Then the price went through the roof. I had been buying pipes on eBay. Six weeks after the story, I couldn’t afford the pipes anymore." The Disney collection fad lasted for about three years, says Levine, before things got back to normal and within the range of his pocketbook again. At the time of the beginning of his collection, Disney theme parks sported tobacco shops on "Main Street." There were even pipes with the Disney logo and famous mouse, along with Disney tobacco. It was also a time when smokers not only purchased pipes, private label Disney cigars, tobacco, cigarettes, Disney bulk tobacco, they could even light up in any of the Disney establishments, and walk while smoking along Main Street without being accosted. The collection sparked more research by Levine. He discovered that some of the so-called "basket pipes" were actually shapes manufactured by some of the biggest names in pipes: GBD, Comoy, Charatan, Parker, Sasieni, Edwards Algerian briar, Ropp cherrywood, and Barling. Two of the most important pieces of the collection are the sandblast black billiard with a white Mickey Mouse logo inlaid in the stem and a can of unopened tobacco dating probably from the 1960s. The tobacco says "Disneyland Special Blend." Levine says Disney is a good species indicator of what has happened to tobacco in the U.S. The last tobacco shop was located in the Disneyland (California) property in 1991. By 1993, all tobacco stores in Disneyworld (Florida) were gone. The only place one could get a tobacco product then was behind the counters in Disney resort hotel gift shops. By then, a Disney visitor had to find one of the open-air designated smoking area, which were far apart and few in number. "Disney went from promoting and a purveyor of tobacco products, to closing its shops and putting the products behind the counter," Levine says. "Within about a 15-year period, you went from being able to buy a product to not being able to freely use the product even in outdoor places. It just reminds me of the political corrective nature of the ideals in the world at the time." "The sign used to say ‘Main Street Tobacconist.’ Some 15 years later, they don’t even sell the product. Not even (book) matches." The Levine Disney collection now has 55 briar pipes, in addition to some "pipe" toys like bubble-blowing pipes for kids. The collection also includes several tobacco tins, some foil pouches, a box of Disney cigarettes, and some cigar boxes. In addition, Levine has a handful of pipe and tobacco accessories that contain the Disney price tag on the reverse side. A few of the cans of tobacco sport the Disney castle logo, some have street lamps and horseless carriage on Main Street. And then there is the 14-ounce "Walt Disney World Fruit Cake Smoking Tobacco." Levine describes it as that "wet, slick, gooey" tobacco. "The crown jewel of my collection is the original purchase orders and matching invoices for Disneyland requesting pipes from the S. M. Frank Co., for shipments of Kaywoodie and Yellowbowls to Disneyland." The invoices are from the late 1960s, Levine says. The invoices are something no other collector has. Levine says he even smokes one of the Disney pipes occasionally, "when I get the urge for a new pipe, or I clean up one of the dirty ones and smoke it for a while." Disney, Levine says, followed the model of what happened to pipes and pipe smoking in the U.S. "In the 1920s, when he couldn’t afford it, he smoked a pipe. In the ’30s as he started to gain a little more money, he smoked a pipe and cigarettes. "Then by the time World War II came along, it was all cigarettes when he was making a lot of money. I think that is similar to the evolution of pipe smokers." Levine says he continues to collect Disney pipes "when I can get them at the right money and something is unique to my collection." He continues to enjoy the history behind and research into his early purchases, and feeling lucky to have collected some of his favorites at the right time and at the right price. After all, it isn’t every day you can buy a briar billiard with a white mouse looking up at you.

Brian Levine smoking one of his Disney pipes on Main St. at the Magic Kingdom in 2004. Disney Tobacciana Collection Facebook Fan Page