THE ZIPPO

It is March 11, 1984, on the set of the famous television show 7 sur 7. The stars of the era were hosted there, and that evening, the guest was the French singer-songwriter, undoubtedly the most gifted of the end of this century, I mean Serge Gainsbourg.

Also known as Gainsbarre!

Unshaven for at least 4 days and pleasantly tipsy… otherwise he wouldn’t be Gainsbarre, he discourses, always provocative, on the most diverse subjects including the tax pressure he is subjected to.

74% of his admittedly comfortable income is confiscated by the tax authorities… It is then that to illustrate his point, and in front of the stunned host and an audience of over 10 million viewers who were about to cry scandal, he takes a beautiful wad of “Pascals” from his pocket, the largest banknote denomination of the time, namely a 500-franc bill, holds one in one hand and with the other takes out his lighter and burns the bill almost entirely live on air.

A sacrilegious act that went down in media history. So sacrilegious that the object of the scandal was forgotten: the lighter that started the fire.
A mythical lighter: The Zippo.

Gainsbarre is not the only Zippo unconditional fan: in 1984, when the singer took his out on TV, nearly 200 million copies had already been sold worldwide since its creation in 1936: that makes a lot of packets of Pascal bills… Today we are at more than 600 million.
An “incendiary” madness that only America knows how to generate.

Its inventor? A certain George G. Blaisdell, GGB to his friends, owner of a club in Bradford, Pennsylvania.
One summer evening in the early 1930s on the terrace of his club, he was conversing with a friend returning from a trip to Europe.
And then this friend, to light his Camel, handed him a bulky Austrian petrol storm lighter.

That evening, at 10:45 p.m., George was so seduced and blown away that he immediately decided to buy the patent and subsequently created a lighter called Hurricane, which would not last long.
A total flop.

So, George pondered. And he had a stroke of genius: to unite the body and the cap of the lighter using a hinge, with the inimitable closing click (which would make the Zippo a success).
The redesigned lighter is now only 5 cm high and therefore bears the new name ZIPPO, in reference to the famous zipper.

It is 1936, and the adventure promises to be beautiful. It will be. And it goes fast, very fast.
The following year, he rounded the edges of the initially quite angular object.
In 1939 he created a personalized sports range and a big brother in 14-carat solid gold.

Zippo is ready to go to war… It will accompany the GIs on the beaches of Normandy in ’44 just as it will accompany them to Vietnam, 20 years later.

After the war, it is the consecration in cinema! The Zippo appears in more than 2000 films and television series.
Advertisers will also jostle for the prestigious chrome case, cigarette brands in the lead, but also Lee Cooper, Coca Cola, Jack Daniels and the inevitable Harley.
Even the French leather ready-to-wear brand Chevignon will be tempted.

As a fashion phenomenon, it has its cohorts of fans all over the world where many collectors’ clubs are born, which account for no less than 20% of sales.
Limited editions reach staggering prices. On certain models, codes inscribed on the bottom of the lighter, known only to initiates, indicate the year and even the month of its manufacture.
About 80,000 are sold per day. It’s crazy! A hellish Zippo mania then spreads!

To celebrate this cult object, all that was obviously missing was a museum. It awaits you opposite the factory.
In Bradford, of course. There, the different stages of manufacturing the Zippo body from a large brass strip and that of the stainless steel hinges will be explained to you.
You will see how the two metals are welded, ground and polished.
Then how plating is done, how the cases are heated in a nickel solution that acts as a glue, before being rinsed five times and soaked for 4 minutes in another chrome solution… All at the infernal pace of nearly 3,500 pieces per hour!
You will also be told about the shaping of the inside of the lighter, when the wick, the flint and the ignition system are inserted into the case…

Here, 12 million lighters are manufactured per year, there are 400 design possibilities and no less than 300,000 models.
Madness! In this museum, the most prestigious models will catch your eye, for sure, such as the full leather, and many others in silver or solid gold, smooth or guilloché, and the highlight of the “temple”, the famous compression by the sculptor César.
With his ZIPPO, GGB has truly set the planet on fire.