Colorful tobacconist Cissell dies

Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2000 | 9:12 a.m.

Cal Cissell bought an interest in the Tinder Box smoke shop in the Boulevard mall in April 1978, where he became a colorful figure, readily recognizable to the many customers who stopped in daily.

With his long sideburns, huge mustache and a wide-grin smile -- a Sherlock Holmes-style meerschaum pipe clenched in his teeth -- he looked the part of a skilled tobacconist.

Little did his customers know that what the former operating engineer knew about tobacco at that time he learned partly through the chain's training but mostly through what he had taught himself as a longtime pipe smoker.

"Choosing a pipe is like choosing a suit of clothes," Cissell said in a 1978 interview. "A man must be pleased with the way it complements his features as well as the way it smokes."

Calvin J. Cissell, who during World War II served with American troops that liberated the Buchenwald Nazi death camp and who later co-owned both the Boulevard and Fashion Show Tinder Box stores, died Thursday at his home from complications of diabetes. He was 77.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of 24 years were scheduled today at Palm Mortuary Eastern.

"He was just an easy-going gentleman," his longtime friend and son-in-law Jerry Engel said. "He never used profanity and he never criticized anyone. He took people at their face and enjoyed serving them."

Cissell co-owned the Boulevard Tinder Box with Jerry Fox from 1978 until the early '90s and the Fashion Show store from the early 1980s to the early '90s, when he retired.

Cissell was an innovative businessman who once installed a vertical mirror in his store so that potential pipe buyers could see not only how their pipe looked in their mouths, but also how their entire body looked as they smoked.

In addition to selling new briar and meerschaum pipes, Cissell also sold vintage pipes, including Charatan, Dunhill, Comoy, Wilmer and Costello -- often at prices below the market value -- and a wide range of imported cigars that were kept fresh in a huge walk-in humidor.

"He just loved running the Tinder Box, and it really hurt him to give it up," Engel said, noting that Cissell also gave up smoking in the early 1990s as part of his efforts to control his adult onset diabetes.

Born Aug. 29, 1923, in St. Louis Mo., Cissell served during World War II under Gens. George Patton and Mark Clark in Europe. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 and helped liberate Buchenwald in April 1945.

He moved to Las Vegas in 1976, where he looked around for a business in which to invest. A longtime pipe smoker and collector, the possibility of owning a tobacco shop interested Cissell.

His store was frequented by local celebrities, including Jerry Lewis, Robert Goulet and Bill Cosby.

Cissell is survived by his wife, Connie Cissell; two sons, Calvin Cissell Jr., and David Cissell; and five daughters, Sharlene Engel, Diann McClurkin, Rebecca Richardson, Valerie Cissell and Kimberly Tishler, all of Las Vegas; a brother, James Cissell of St. Charles, Mo.; two sisters, Ollie Beaird of Mesa, Ariz., and Ginny Bryant of Goleta, Calif; 12 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

The family said donations can be made in Cissell's memory to the Salvation Army.