James Bond’s Cigarettes
According to Ian Fleming's books, James Bond was a heavy smoker, consuming 60-70 cigarettes a day. By my quick calculations, that means Bond smoked a new cigarette about every 15 minutes.
Bond was also loyal to a specific brand: Morland cigarettes. These were custom cigarettes created specifically for him by Morland & Co. of Grosvenor Street from a blend of Balkan and Turkish tobacco. They had three gold rings around the butt.
These were real cigarettes which one could buy, and which Fleming himself smoked. They were sold as the "James Bond Special No. 1". However, you can't buy them anymore since the company went out of business soon after Fleming's death.
More info: Fleming's Bond
Bond was also loyal to a specific brand: Morland cigarettes. These were custom cigarettes created specifically for him by Morland & Co. of Grosvenor Street from a blend of Balkan and Turkish tobacco. They had three gold rings around the butt.
These were real cigarettes which one could buy, and which Fleming himself smoked. They were sold as the "James Bond Special No. 1". However, you can't buy them anymore since the company went out of business soon after Fleming's death.
More info: Fleming's Bond
Comments
I'm trying to remember the last time I saw Bond light up a heater in a movie. I do remember Connery sporting a butt or two in those early movies, but not for Dalton or Moore or Brosnan. I guess it shows how social opinion has changed our beloved Bond.
Posted by KDP on 06/19/20 at 08:51 AM
If you read any of the books, Fleming was always punctuating the story with "Bond rammed another cigarette in his lips," or "Bond jammed another cigarette in his lips." The action man's way of smoking. Apparently, it's what he was doing while writing.
Posted by Virtual in Carnate on 06/19/20 at 01:20 PM
Sorry, Virtual. My taste in literature doesn't include the hard-nosed spy/detective/adventurer story, so I'm not familiar with Fleming's work in book form. But I can imagine that the character moved from the page to the screen largely intact. The somewhat self-destructive behavior reflects the nature of his espionage work where he could be killed within the next five minutes so he had better get hold of life's little pleasures while he can.
Posted by KDP on 06/19/20 at 02:02 PM
I always imagine James Bond wheezing his way towards a criminal with his blackened lungs and cirrhosis or shaking two aspirins out of the bottle for the usual morning hangover. "Mr. Bond, you cannot go on drinking that much! You must replace your martinis and scotch with tonic or you will need a new liver in a year or two! And don't get me started with your lungs! You have the respiratory capacity of a hummingbird! Good thing you exercise, at least!"
Posted by Yudith on 06/20/20 at 07:39 AM
Let's not forget his risky sexual behavior.
Posted by Patrick on 06/21/20 at 07:55 AM
There's a problem with written English, KDP. I wrote "read", as in the word rhyming with "red". I'm guessing you saw it as in the word rhyming with "reed". My experience with Fleming was way back, before I knew what literature is, and I was in a very remote location where I found a couple Bonds on a friend's bookshelf.
Posted by Virtual in Carnate on 06/23/20 at 07:53 AM
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.
Category: Literature | Smoking and Tobacco