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Frank Burla: Difference between revisions
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(Created page with "'''Remembering Frank Burla, Broken Pipe; 1944-2021'''<br> '''''By Rex Poggenpohl''''' 10.30.2021 File:FrankBurla.jpg|thumb|Frank Burla, courtesy [https://www.fathertheflam...") |
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'''''By Rex Poggenpohl''''' 10.30.2021 | '''''By Rex Poggenpohl''''' 10.30.2021 | ||
[[File:FrankBurla.jpg|thumb|Frank Burla, courtesy [https://www.fathertheflame.com/cast-crew/frank-burla/ Father of the Flame]]] | |||
Chicago Heights, Illinois is a far south Italian suburb of Chicago on highway US 30 and was the birthplace of two of the greatest collectors of smoking pipes is the USA., Frank Burla and Chuck Rio. Chuck Rio was a notable briar pipe collector, specializing in Costello pipes, a leader n the [[Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club]] (CPCC) and at the center of the American pipe collector community with his attendance at all of the major pipe shows. Frank Burla was a well known antique pipe collector, even internationally, and was the founder and promoter of the annual International Pipe and Tobacciana Show (the Chicago Show). | |||
I met Frank Burla at my first pipe show. It was 1993 in Indianapolis, Indiana. I had just relocated back to Chicago after retirement and on my first revisit to the famous Iwan Ries & Co. pipe shop, a customer there mentioned the Indianapolis show. At that Show I met Frank and several other pipe collectors from the Chicago area. The following year they invited me to one of their irregular gatherings at a pipe shop in Schaumburg Mall in the western suburbs. After seeing them again at the 1994 Indianapolis show, the group, including me, started meeting more regularly, often in Frank’s basement pipe museum and Frank convinced me to attend a Davenport, Iowa pipe show with him that December. In 1995 this Chicago area group Incorporated the now famous Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club (CPCC) with Michael Reschke as President and Chuck Rio and Ed Lehman as officers. Frank soon retired from the FBI as a Special Agent, and as he had been promising the group, he started work on a Chicago area show that would have both antique pipe collectors (like himself) and the more general briar pipe collectors from across the country. He had previously organized a couple of small local pipe shows in the Chicago area for collectors friends in pipe shops where he displayed some of his antique meerschaum pipe collection along with several briar pipe guys. Frank regularly competed in auctions for antique pipes with two Chicago area Doctors who could often outbid him, but they eventually became friends and even traded pipes. After Stanley Levi turned over the famous Iwan Ries & Co. Smoke shop to his son Chuck, Stan sold much of his antique Meerschaum pipe collection that was a feature of the store and Frank was able to buy a few of those special pieces for his collection. | I met Frank Burla at my first pipe show. It was 1993 in Indianapolis, Indiana. I had just relocated back to Chicago after retirement and on my first revisit to the famous Iwan Ries & Co. pipe shop, a customer there mentioned the Indianapolis show. At that Show I met Frank and several other pipe collectors from the Chicago area. The following year they invited me to one of their irregular gatherings at a pipe shop in Schaumburg Mall in the western suburbs. After seeing them again at the 1994 Indianapolis show, the group, including me, started meeting more regularly, often in Frank’s basement pipe museum and Frank convinced me to attend a Davenport, Iowa pipe show with him that December. In 1995 this Chicago area group Incorporated the now famous [[Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club]] (CPCC) with Michael Reschke as President and Chuck Rio and Ed Lehman as officers. Frank soon retired from the FBI as a Special Agent, and as he had been promising the group, he started work on a Chicago area show that would have both antique pipe collectors (like himself) and the more general briar pipe collectors from across the country. He had previously organized a couple of small local pipe shows in the Chicago area for collectors friends in pipe shops where he displayed some of his antique meerschaum pipe collection along with several briar pipe guys. Frank regularly competed in auctions for antique pipes with two Chicago area Doctors who could often outbid him, but they eventually became friends and even traded pipes. After Stanley Levi turned over the famous Iwan Ries & Co. Smoke shop to his son Chuck, Stan sold much of his antique Meerschaum pipe collection that was a feature of the store and Frank was able to buy a few of those special pieces for his collection. | ||
This first major pipe show of Frank’s was probably 60 tables in 1966 at the Clarion Hotel near O’Hare airport where an annual lighter show was held the same weekend. This pipe show was first sponsored by funds from a handful of members of the then small CPCC, and later it becoming an official and most important part of the Club. Frank then spent much of his free time each year organizing and promoting what has become the world famous annul “Chicago Show” with occasional help from a few of us that he anointed as a show Committee. Now being retired and wanting to promote his show, Frank started attending more regional shows around the country, where we would caravan in a couple of cars as a small devoted group of club members. Some years we would attend 6 or 7 other shows, including Richmond, Columbus, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Ft. Wayne, Nashville, and up to 3 shows each year at Rich Esserman’s New York show near the Newark airport. | This first major pipe show of Frank’s was probably 60 tables in 1966 at the Clarion Hotel near O’Hare airport where an annual lighter show was held the same weekend. This pipe show was first sponsored by funds from a handful of members of the then small CPCC, and later it becoming an official and most important part of the Club. Frank then spent much of his free time each year organizing and promoting what has become the world famous annul “Chicago Show” with occasional help from a few of us that he anointed as a show Committee. Now being retired and wanting to promote his show, Frank started attending more regional shows around the country, where we would caravan in a couple of cars as a small devoted group of club members. Some years we would attend 6 or 7 other shows, including Richmond, Columbus, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Ft. Wayne, Nashville, and up to 3 shows each year at Rich Esserman’s New York show near the Newark airport. | ||
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Rex Poggenpohl | Rex Poggenpohl | ||
Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club | [[Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club]] | ||
Nordic Pipe Club | Nordic Pipe Club | ||
Pipe Club of Sweden | Pipe Club of Sweden | ||
Pipe Club of Hong Kong | Pipe Club of Hong Kong | ||