Cigarette holder (from Wikipedia)

Cigarette holder (from Wikipedia)

A cigarette holder is a fashion accessory, a slender tube in which a cigarette is held for smoking.

Most frequently made of silver, jade or bake lite (popular in the past but now wholly replaced by modern plastics), cigarette holders were considered an essential part of ladies`s fashion from the mid-1910s through the early-1970s.

Cigarette holders range from the simplest single material constructs to incredibly ornate styles with complex inlays of metal and gemstones. Rarer examples of these can be found in enamel, horn, tortoise shell, or more precious materials such as amber and ivory.

As with evening gloves, ladies`s cigarette holders are measured by four traditional formal standard lengths:

-opera length, usually 16 to 20 inches/40 to 50 cm

-theatre length, 10 to 14 inches/25 to 35 cm

-dinner length, 4 to 6 inches/10 to 15 cm

-cocktail length, which includes shorter holders

Traditionally, men`s cigarette holders were no more than 4 inches long.

Cleo Trumbo, wife of novelist Dalton Trumbo, smokes with a holder during House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in 1947. The holder was also used as a practical accessory, as before the advent of filtered cigarettes in the 1960s, the holder would encase a filter. Though modern cigarettes are generally manufactured with an existing filter, filtered cigarette holders are still used as a secondary filtration system, and to prevent nicotine staining of the fingers.

A similar holder made of wood, meerschaum or bake lite and with an amber mouthpiece was used for cigars and was a popular accessory for men from the Edwardian period until the 1920s.

Notable users

Well-known women who used cigarette holders include Audrey Hepburn (was a British actress and humanitarian), Lucille Ball (was an American comedienne, model, film and television actress), Jayne Mansfield (was an American actress in film, theatre, and television), Jacqueline Kennedy (was the wife of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy), Rita Hayworth (was an American dancer and film actress), Princess Margaret (was the only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II and the younger daughter of King George VI ), Wendy Richard (was an English actress best known for playing Miss Brahms), Madalena Barbosa (was the founder of the Movement for the Liberation of Women), Louise Brooks (generally known by her stage name Louise Brooks, was an American dancer and actress), and Cleo Trumbo ( was an American screenwriter and novelist). Scarlett Johansson (is an American actress, model and singer) is a contemporary example.

Among the best-known men who used cigarette holders were Franklin D. Roosevelt (was the 32nd President of the United States), Terry-Thomas (was a distinctive English comic actor), Enrico Caruso (was an Italian tenor), Vladimir Horowitz (was an American classical pianist and composer.), Ian Fleming (was an English author, journalist and naval intelligence officer), Noel Coward (was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer), Hunter S. Thompson (was an American author and journalist. Though he regarded his as only a filter), Tennessee Williams (was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater), Fulgencio Batista (was the elected President of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and dictator from 1952 to 1959), Sergei Rachmaninoff (was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor), and Hans von Bulow (was a German conductor, virtuoso pianist, and composer of the Romantic era).

Cultural references

Holders can be seen in period films like Titanic, and are immortalized in films of the 1950s and 1960s. Holly Golightly, the naive and eccentric cafe society girl in the iconic 1961 classic Breakfast at Tiffany`s who is portrayed by Audrey Hepburn, is famously seen carrying an oversized cigarette holder; the image of Hepburn wearing the famous Givenchy little black dress, with the foot long cigarette holder in her hand, is considered one of the most iconic images of 20th century American cinema. Lucille Ball can be seen using one in certain episodes of I Love Lucy. Cruella de Vil is seen using one repeatedly in the 1961 animated Disney film, One Hundred and One Dalmatians and in the 1996 remake portrayed by Glenn Close. Margo Lane (portrayed by Penelope Ann Miller) used one in The Shadow, as did Jade in Jonny Quest. Comedienne Phyllis Diller had a stage persona which included holding a long cigarette holder from which she pretended to smoke (though she was a nonsmoker in real life).

Fictional Peter Pan character Captain Hook possessed a unique double-holder, which allowed him to smoke two cigars (not cigarettes) at once. Batman`s nemesis The Penguin also commonly used a cigarette holder in the comics and the 1960s television series, as well as in the live-action film Batman Returns. Johnny Depp uses a cigarette holder in his role as Raoul Duke (alter ego of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson) in the film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In cartoons, the Pink Panther, Colonel Sponsz from The Adventures of Tintin, and Jade from Jonny Quest use cigarette holders.