Russia’s infamous Queen Catherine the Great loved to smoke cigars. To avoid soiling her fingertips, she invented a version of the first cigar band. In her case, the bands were made of silk.
Others say that a European named Gustave Bock popularized the cigar band in the early 19th century due to the emergence of a trade in counterfeit Havana cigars, where cheaper German-made cigars were being passed off as Cuban cigars. Uniquely made cigar bands, each style registered with the Cuban government, assured the authenticity of Cuban cigars to buyers.
When legendary psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud was challenged on the phallic shape of the more than 20 Cuban cigars that he smoked daily, he replied, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Note that his cigar habit was the primary cause of Freud’s cancer that required the partial removal of his jaw. Even after this operation, he continued to smoke his beloved Cuban cigars.
Bonnie Parker of “Bonnie and Clyde” fame was known for being a gangster moll who loved to smoke cigars. But, according to what she told a hostage who was later freed, the famous photo of her posing with a cigar was just a publicity joke devised by her lover and partner in crime, Clyde Barrow. In truth, she disliked cigars.
In 1960, the CIA’s Office of Medical Services was told to treat a box of Fidel Castro’s favorite cigars with botulinus toxin, a lethal poison. In early 1961, the CIA decided against the poisoned cigars. Instead they gave American organized crime figure John Rosselli botulinus toxin pills to pass on to a Cuban confederate who was closely tied to Castro. Of course, the Cuban leader lives on at this writing.
In 1963, the Cohiba cigar brand was launched in tribute to revolutionary leader Fidel Castro. When it was first introduced, the brand was reserved only for friends of the Revolution. It was released for commercial sale to the public in 1982. A side note: the Cohiba factory is the first cigar factory staffed exclusively with women cigar rollers.
In the nineties, General Cigar Company began selling Dominican made cigars under the Cohiba brand in the United States. This has created a controversy because the Dominican “Cohibas” have no affiliation with the Cuban brand and company.
On February 7, 1962, President John F. Kennedy placed a trade embargo on Fidel Castro’s Cuba. According to Kennedy press secretary Pierre Salinger, on the evening of February 6, Kennedy requested that Salinger immediately get him a thousand H. Upmann brand petit corona cigars. On the following morning, after Salinger arrived with the cigars, the President signed the embargo order.
SOURCES:
“The Band”, Tony Hyman, [December, 1994, Cigar Aficionado], URL: (http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Archives/CA_Show_Article/0,2322,755,00.html)
“Bonnie and Clyde were no Strangers to State”, Gene Curtis, May 18, 2007, Tulsa World, URL: (http://www.tulsaworld.com/TWPDFs/2007/Final/W_051807_A_4.pdf)
“Inside the Department of Dirty Tricks”, Thomas Powers, August, 1979, The Atlantic, URL: (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/197908/cia-dirty-tricks/4)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohiba_(cigar_brand)
http://www.cigarone.com/cuban-cigar-culture/history.php
http://www.cubancigarshistory.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigar#Cuban_cigars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohiba_%28cigar_brand%29
