Frank Burla: Founder of the Chicago Pipe Show

Frank Burla (1943 - October 2021) is an American collector internationally known for antique pipe collecting, and the founder of the Chicago show now counted among the world's largest pipe gatherings. He was born in Chicago Heights, on Chicago's south side. He worked for many years as a special agent for the FBI, retiring in 1994; his real work within the pipe community began after that date.

From a Basement Collection to a Home Show

Burla's interest centered on antique pipes carved from 19th-century meerschaum; what he amassed gradually turned into a small museum in his home's basement. He is said to have later moved this collection to an apartment in Naperville. In 1983, together with his wife Annette, he cleared the furniture from the ground floor of their home and hosted the first Chicagoland Antique Pipe Show there. In the same years, Dennis Di Piazza, who ran the Tinder Box store in Schaumburg, was organizing a separate, briar-focused show; the two events merged in 1988 at the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles.

Founding of the Club Show

Collector groups around Chicago came together in the early 1990s under the name Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club (CPCC), and it was registered as an association in 1995. In 1994 the club asked Burla, who already had show experience, to run an official show; he agreed, on the condition of a volunteer team and a thousand-dollar starting budget. The money was raised by ten members putting in a hundred dollars each. The first CPCC show was held in 1996 at the Clarion hotel in Rosemont. In this way antique pipe enthusiasts and briar collectors met in the same hall, bringing together two collecting cultures that had long run on separate tracks.

Growth of the Show

The event was held at the Ramada Inn in Harvey from 1997 to 2000, at the Indian Lakes Resort in Bloomingdale in 2001, and at the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles from 2002 to 2019. Burla devoted much of his retirement to organizing the show and promoting it at regional meetings around the country. Records show table numbers passing three hundred, with attendees coming from many countries. Relationships built with Scandinavian masters reportedly brought names such as Bo Nordh and Lars Ivarsson as guests of the show. The show is considered one of the most visible gatherings within America's pipe club tradition.

Doctor of Pipes and Succession

In 1998 CPCC established the honorary title Doctor of Pipes. Burla ran the program for this title, given to those who contributed to collecting or to the tobacco craft, for many years.

He handed the show directorship to Craig Cobine when he stepped back on his doctor's advice, keeping the title of Show Director Emeritus for himself. He also sold off the bulk of his antique collection during this period. He spent his final years in Florida and died in October 2021. The show he founded continues each year on the first weekend of May, at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare in Rosemont.