A Whiff of Prosperity

When I was quite a small boy we lived next door to Mr and Mrs Simms. Mr Simms was called Tommy, if I remember rightly and he was a newspaper man. I think he worked on the sport desk at the Evening Chronicle. When I was ill for a long time he brought me photographs of famous sporting characters of the day. One such character was Bruce Woodcock wearing his Lonsdale belt. He was a great heavy weight champion of the late forties and early fifties. I also had a picture of Freddie Mills who Woodcock knocked out. He died in very mysterious circumstances in the back of a taxi and I think a rifle was to be found between his knees. The official version was that he had committed suicide although his family said he was murdered. He was on the club scene later in life with the the Krays. There are a great many sordid tales of Mills and his doings, much of them rumour and some downright lies. Nothing was ever really proved. Talking about taxis another of Woodcock's victories was over the heavyweight Joe Baksi. His name I have heard used as rhyming slang for taxi.

This is, of course, all way beside the point, so back to Tommy Simms. He had a brother in law who came to stay next door with his family. They had a daughter who I was introduced to but I cannot remember the name -Shame! I do remember though being invited for summer afternoon tea with raspberries and cream and chocolate one sided biscuits, and here is the point: the scent of cigars. The brother-in-law smoked cigars, the scent firmly in my memory as it was the first time I had come across the experience. They were Wills Whiffs. I saw the cream packet with the name in brown, I think.

I had a great aunt, known in the family as " mi ant lil." and she lives in my memory for all sorts of reasons. She was a much frequenter of the snug of The White Lion pub in Withington together with "mi ant Alice". One of her sayings was, "Oh I do love to walk behind a man smoking a cigar ! ".

So we arrive at episode three of Bentons: purveyors of cigarettes, tobacco and multifarious smokers' requisites and of course cigars, boxes to the ceiling. I was most fortunate as a young man, as a student, to be given Christmas gifts of cigars from Bentons. On one occasion I received a box of Habanas, the price of which, in these days I dread to think. There were many that I tried. Probably the most memorable was a Punch which I found almost impossible to stomach and the finest a Romeo y Julietta which was memorable with coffee and a fine Cognac.

There was a vast array of cigars all kept in glass topped humidors if they were loose or in rolls of twenty five. Others of course were in boxes or were tubed. Cheroots were very popular at the time as they were a short smoke. I found them rather too strong. There are two kinds of cheroots, usually gathered into rolls of twenty or so: the Burma cheroot which was rolled tight at both ends and the American cut at both ends. I thought the latter romantic as they usually figured in cowboy films. They were made of Kentucky tobacco and were a patriotic smoke, sometimes called a Stogie. I seem to have heard of Kentucky Stogies. I suppose republicans would prefer them to Cuban cigars. However, I visualise the republican with a full blown Cuban Montechristo in his fat fist. Not being a republican, I was quite fond of the Dutch varieties as they were both cheaper and sweeter. Willem was one such brand at the time. They did a good line in Slim Panatellas. I still have a box which once contained Willem 11 Long Leonis, a rather fine and distinguished long slim panatella.

Small cigars which I remember we're Cafe Creme and they were smoked by both ladies and gentlemen. Then again Whiffs we're also very popular and probably still are today. The Dutch small cigars such as senoritas and cigarillos are very popular as they provide a mild shorter smoking experience and sometimes come in very handy manageable tins.
I also remember a small cigar called Cameo in a box with a Spanish lady on the label. All these, once common pleasures, are now all but gone, if only to be preserved in the secrecy of the gentlemen's clubs.

Bentons also sold a selection of humidors to keep one's precious cigars in tip top condition and not dried out to flaky dust. There were polished rosewood boxes, little bigger than a regular cigar box, to larger cabinets with humidity gauges at a suitably raised price. In fact all smokers’ needs were met at Bentons and in the next post I will deal with some of the rarer brands of cigarette. I think we will start with:
"Flow gently we'll sing you a song in thy praise." which graced a certain cigarette packet. You could e mail in if you know the answer.


JL March 31 13:47