Make believe you're an old fashion tobacco salesman .....

[FUBAR]

This makes an interesting point, with the limited # of Cobb backs, i think it does present itself as a good possibility that those cards were salesman's samples/ promo cards for the brand and were never inserted into the tins.

Myself, in hindsight, id take the cards and quite my job and wait 100 years until i could sell them

[T206DK]

My dead grandfather started smoking at age 11 , according to what I remember my grandmother telling me. I know he rolled his own cigarettes from granulated tobacco, and plug tobacco. From my understanding , tobacco was tobacco to him and his coal mining buddies...it was smoked. The only pre-rolled cigs I have evidence of him smoking are Sweet Caporal's. My grandmother used the empty tins and boxes to keep sewing thread and buttons and things like that in. I think it is plausible to say that The Ty Cobb cards were made for distribution inside the tins, and some were made for enticement purposes or for advertising the "new" brand. Obviously, ATC tried to take advantage of Cobb's status , and name recognition, in order to promote a new brand of tobacco. Perhaps the line on the back of the card " King of the Smoking Tobacco World" was used because more people smoked cigarettes rather than chewed tobacco at that time. It's too bad we may never know the extent to which the Ty Cobb brand was supposed to be marketed. In my opinion , there may have been a nationwide plan to distribute TY Cobb tobacco, but for whatever reason it never saw full fruition. If it had, I think there would be a lot more tins and card examples out there for collectors. If it was a short lived idea that didn't take off, then perhaps some of the theories that store owners and tobbacconists simply threw the tins and the glossy coated cards out when the brand was discontinued. Does anyone think the Ty Cobb brand was only distributed in Georgia ? That may not have been the plan but it could have been the reality of this brand. I think the evidence of advertisments in newspapers around different parts of the country in 1910 blows holes in that theory. Thanks to Ted and Shawn for their work on this intriguing subject !!

[tedzan]

Granulated Cut Plug Smoking tobacco was also very popular in the late 19th Century and throughout the 20th Century
for pipe smokers and for Snuff.


TED Z

[T206DK]

My parents still have pictures of my grandfather rolling cigarettes with cut plug on the kitchen table frmo the 30's. From what my dad told me he learned how to smoke at age 10 when he began working in the coal mines. He was a man of habit apparently and smoked the and rolled tobacco the same way until he died.

[Abravefan11]

Originally Posted by tedzan

Granulated Cut Plug Smoking tobacco was also very popular in the late 19th Century and throughout the 20th Century
for pipe smokers and for Snuff.


TED Z

Some of the Cobb ads use the word "pipe."

[T206DK]

I bet they had ads that appealed to all types of tobacco users. Undoubtedly, there were areas in the country were chewing was more popular than smoking, and areas where pipes were used more frequently.

[Abravefan11]

Originally Posted by T206DK

I bet they had ads that appealed to all types of tobacco users. Undoubtedly, there were areas in the country were chewing was more popular than smoking, and areas where pipes were used more frequently.

I have not found any advertisements for Ty Cobb tobacco in any newspapers outside of Georgia.

The Macon Telegraph ran several small ad lines like the one's pictured below from Feb 8th - Mar 8th 1910








The Augusta Chronicle ran the below ad every Sunday for four consecutive weeks from Feb 20 - Mar 13. It's the only paper I have found this ad to appear in.




Several newspapers outside the state of Georgia picked up on the story of Cobb having a tobacco named after him and all said the following:




The ads do mention pipe several times and the Augusta Chronicle ad calls it "Granulated Cut Plug Smoking Tobacco."

This article was in the May 10, 1910 Ann Arbor News and tells you why Cobb was King of the Smoking Tobacco World.

[Potomac Yank]

Chewing tobacco (also known as chew or chaw) refers to a form of smokeless tobacco furnished as long strands of whole leaves and consumed by placing a portion of the tobacco between the cheek and gum or teeth and chewing. Unlike dipping tobacco, it isn't ground and must be mechanically crushed with the teeth to release flavour and nicotine. Unwanted juices are then expectorated. Historically, chewing tobacco was the most prevalent form of tobacco use in the United States until it was overtaken by cigarette smoking in the early 20th Century. Tobacco in this form is now largely confined to rural and especially Southern areas of the United States.

*

The question is not whether Cobb smoked or chewed .....

The question is ...

Would YOU, as part of YOUR marketing.

Put a Ty Cobb card saying ...

Ty Cobb
King of the
Smoking
Tobacco
World!

In a Ty Cobb granulated Cut Plug Tin? ... knowing that Cut Plug is chewing tobacco ... NOT smoking tobacco?

[D. Broughman]

Have you seen this Cobs ad from 1909. Could this have something to do with Ty Cobb Cigarettes being stopped.

[Potomac Yank]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewing_tobacco