Eric Morecambe Puffs to a Victory
1970 Article
Eric and pipe
Comedian Eric Morecambe has puffed home to victory as "Pipeman of the Year."
He beat politician Lord Shinwell - who has been smoking for seventy-two of his eighty-six years - into second place. TV personality Peter west came third.
Eric said when told of his award: "I love my pipe, and take it with me everywhere I go."
He then offered a slogan to pipe-smokers everywhere: "Smoke and the world smokes with you, but light your pipe
on the bus and you smoke alone."
Previous winners of the competition - run by the magazine Tobacco and the Briar Pipe Trade Association - include Harold Wilson, Rupert Davies, Andrew Cruickshank and Warren Mitchell.
Eric said of his partner Ernie Wise: "He sneaks a puff now and again, but he's too frightened to smoke one himself in case his hair catches fire."
Runner-up Lord Shinwell said he had a collection of fifty pipes.
© The Daily Mirror 1970