A melting pot of cultures, the Latin communities of Ybor City and West Tampa became melting pots of superstitious belief. Ybor City boys and girls believed if they let their father’s cigar match burn completely, they would soon be married to their true love. In West Tampa, two-dollar bills were believed to bring bad luck, leading many residents to rip off a corner.[1] Common amongst both communities was La Charada, a system for predicting the winning numbers of bolita lottery games based off dream interpretation. For Cuban households in Tampa, a visitor always had to leave the same way he came in so that he could take any bad luck with him. In Ybor City, old Afro-Cuban women were known to tie dimes on a string around their ankles to avoid financial bad luck. It should come as no surprise, then, to know that the cigar factories of Ybor City and West Tampa became sites of superstition.

Despite its ostensible importance to the community’s circadian rhythm, the clocktower had its share of problems. When J.C. Newman Cigar Co. bought the building in 1953, the age of the clocktower was beginning to show. As the population of cigarmakers dwindled after the Cuban Embargo in 1962, many came to see the timeless landmark as an eyesore. A Tampa police officer remarked that its inactivity in the 1960’s was a result of negligence. Stanford Newman claims a mother once asked him to turn off the bell because it was keeping her newborn child awake at night. One urban legend claims this woman was Tampa Mayor Dick Greco’s mother. Regardless, the next day a line of cigarmakers had formed to complain about the bell’s absence. Concerning the clock mechanism itself, an electrician named Wallace Jaka electrified the mechanism for the Newmans in 1956. This proved a poor decision in the “Lightning Capital of the World.” When lightning struck the factory, the mechanism died and remained inactive for many years.

Whatever the case for its inactivity, the clocktower was frequently out of order between J.C. Newman Cigar Co.’s move to Ybor City in 1953 and the clocktower’s restoration by Boyd Clocks in 2002. Perhaps due to this inactivity, many cigarmakers in the surrounding community began wishing upon the clocktower. It is here that the “Wishing Hour” was developed. Every morning, cigarmakers began wishing upon the clock at 9:15am in the hopes that all their dreams would come true. Because the clocktower was often frozen at 9:15am, the tradition gained massive popularity. Even today, J.C. Newman Cigar Co. honors the “Wishing Hour” every September 15^th at 9:15am. A peculiar superstition, this is just another part of the special legacy of “Cigar City” seen in J.C. Newman Cigar Co.

[1] Perez, R; Perez, A L.; and Federal Works Agency. Work Projects Administration. Federal Writers’ Project. Florida., “Superstitions” (1930). Tampa WPA Office Papers. 18.

J.C. Newman Unveils The World’s Oldest Cigars

Hand rolled in 1857, the cigars were recovered from the S.S. Central America shipwreck

Tampa, Fla. – Today, J.C. Newman Cigar Co. is unveiling a new exhibit featuring the oldest known cigars in the world at its historic El Reloj cigar factory and museum in Tampa, Florida. The 18 cigars on display were hand rolled in Cuba in 1857. They were found in the wreckage of the S.S. Central America, which sank off the cost of Charleston, S.C. After more than a century at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, the cigars were restored by the Ohio State University. J.C. Newman’s new exhibit also includes chewing tobacco and a pipe hand carved from bone that were also recovered from the ship.

“These amazing cigars were rolled before the Civil War and before Tampa became a city,” said fourth-generation owner Drew Newman. “Discovering these cigars is like finding a bottle of wine owned by Thomas Jefferson or Napoleon Bonaparte.”

Earlier this year, J.C. Newman purchased these cigars at an auction featuring artifacts from the S.S. Central America.

“The 18 cigars vary in size because they were rolled by hand without cigar molds, which did not became popular until the late 1800s,” said Newman. “Despite spending 134 years under water, the cigars are still smokable today.”

The exhibit was created by J.C. Newman’s Brooklyn- and Tampa-based design partner, Common Bond Design. It is on display in the basement Cigar Vault of J.C. Newman’s 113-year-old iconic El Reloj cigar factory in Tampa’s Ybor City Historic District.

“Prior to the discovery of these cigars, the oldest known cigars in the world were from 1863,” said Newman. “We have checked with the leading cigar publications and collectors, and no one is aware of any cigars older than these.”

About The S.S. Central America

In 1848, the U.S. government opened the first post offices in the newly acquired land of California and contracted with steamships to deliver the mail. One set of mail ships traveled between New York and Panama while another set traveled between Panama and California. Mail crossed the isthmus of Panama in canoes and on the backs of pack animals before a railroad was completed in 1855 and the Panama Canal opened in 1914.

One such mail ship was the S.S. Central America. On September 7, 1857, it stopped in Havana on its way from Panama to New York City. While in port, passenger John Dement of Oregon strolled through Havana and bought cigars for the journey. He then secured them in his steamer trunk in his first-class stateroom.

A few days later, the ship encountered a hurricane off the coast of South Carolina. After a valiant effort to save the ship, the S.S. Central America sank on September 12, 1857. Along with hundreds of passengers and crew, tons of gold, and various personal artifacts, Dement’s trunk and its cigars sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean with the ship.

Recovering the World’s Oldest Cigars

The Columbus-America Discovery Group located the S.S. Central America in 1988 in the Atlantic Ocean 160 miles off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, at a depth of 7,200 feet.

Using a remote operated vehicle called Nemo, researchers recovered Dement’s trunk from the shipwreck’s portside debris field in 1991. They kept the trunk submerged in the same water tank in which it was recovered and transported it to the Ohio State University for further study.

“When we opened the Dement trunk and first observed the undisturbed contents, one of the first things we noticed was quite a number of cylindrical dark-gray organic artifacts lying somewhat randomly on top of the blackened mass beneath,” said Chief Scientist Bob Evans. “We quickly surmised that they were cigars, and this made perfect sense. Havana was the ship’s last port of call. John Dement purchased cigars there and tossed them into his trunk on top of his clothes.”

Scientists at Ohio State carefully rinsed the artifacts in Dement’s trunk, including the cigars, in distilled water. They spread them onto fiberglass screening and put them into a deep freeze around 20 degrees below Fahrenheit for several months. This process allowed the cigars to slowly freeze dry under atmospheric pressure, avoiding vacuum or chemical treatments.

“This technique required patience, but it prevented microscopic fiber collapse, and it was very non-invasive and non-altering,” explained Evans. “It took several months, but eventually the cigars emerged from the deep-freeze in essentially the same condition as they are in today.”

116-year-old Ponce De Leon Cigars Discovered
These special cigars are on display at our El Reloj Factory Museum
 

Cuesta-Rey Cigar Co.

Born in Asturias, Angel LaMadrid Cuesta and his brother Vicente were sent to live with their godfather in Cuba. The hope was that Cuba would give the young men a greater opportunity to succeed than a life in the north of Spain. In the same way, J.C. Newman’s mother brought the Newman family to the United States in hopes of finding a better way of life compared to the living conditions for Jewish working-class people in Austria-Hungary. The Cuesta brothers first entered the cigar industry in the 1870’s and 1880’s handrolling cigars and selecting tobaccos in Cuba. Angel would go on to begin an American cigar factory with a trusted business associate and tobacco selector named Peregrino Rey. This operation moved to Tampa in search of a more stable and plentiful supply of imported Cuban (Havana) tobacco. Alongside Garcia y Vega and Arturo Fuente, Cuesta-Rey became the most famous Tampa cigar brand. The company would open cigar factories in the historic Cuban neighborhoods of West Tampa and Ybor City, manufacturing cigars in Tampa from 1893 to 1958. Cuesta-Rey made cigars in Tampa during the peak years of the cigar industry there, being called the “Cigar City” and making over 700 million cigars a year!

J.C. Newman and Cuesta-Rey Cigar Co.

J.C. Newman’s Collection

Ralph Stow, a dedicated J.C. Newman aficionado, discovered his own fountain of youth in a business associate’s basement in Dallas, Texas. Stow came into possession of nothing short of the most remarkable find in antique tobacciana: a complete set of Cuesta-Rey Ponce de Leon sample vitolas in a traveling salesman’s case from 1906! Stow knew immediately this was a one-of-a-kind item and got into contact with a J.C. Newman regional salesman so the cigars could be safely acquisitioned and brought “home.” Although J.C. Newman no longer manufactures Ponce de Leon cigars, the cigar case represents an important chapter in the company’s long and multifarious narrative. The cigars range in ring gauge from thirty-two to fifty-two. Furthermore, the cigars are all short and unique in shape, tapering at both ends—a figurado, compared to today’s cigars. This was commonplace for the cigar industry prior to the 1960’s.

These cigars are relics from the golden age of cigar manufacturing for Tampa and the world. The traditions of Angel LaMadrid Cuesta are carried on today by J.C. Newman Cigar Co. and other Tampa cigar manufacturers, such as Arturo Fuente y Cia. For the Newman family, the Cuesta-Rey brand sustained through the very difficult years after the Cuban Embargo in 1962. Without the benefit of a nationally sold flagship brand, selling American cigars made without Cuban tobacco would have been a more difficult challenge. Stanford Newman was so proud of the brand he made the iconic “Home of Cuesta-Rey Cigars” neon sign for the Newman’s El Reloj cigar factory in Tampa. Another interesting point to this story: Ralph Stow asked for nothing in return save for a donation in support of a veterans non-profit: Folds of honor. Just as Angel Cuesta showed his generosity in support of American and Spanish servicemen in the early 1900’s, the cigars pay dividends to American veterans today. Who knows what else these cigars might inspire? Perhaps a renaissance of Tampa cigarmaking is just around the corner…

Scroll through our gallery of our 116-year-old Ponce de Leon Cigars

Being a one-hundred and twenty-six year old company, J.C. Newman Cigar Co. has a  historical portfolio that includes almost as many brand names as the years the company has operated. Most of these brands feature a romantic backstory tied to the history or legacy of the company. For example, A-B-C was the first cigar brand produced by J.C. Newman. It was named after a streetcar line that ran near J.C. Newman’s family home in Cleveland, Ohio.

Another example is Cuesta-Rey #95. One of the longest, continuously produced J.C. Newman brands, Cuesta-Rey  was named after the bottles of Chanel No. 5 Stanford Newman often purchased for his wife, Elaine.

MAXIMUS BEGINNINGS

Stanford Newman noticed a consumer trend towards fuller-bodied cigars immediately after the cigar boom ended in the late 1990s. Stanford began working with his sons, Eric and Bobby, to develop a cigar that maximized the sensory experience of the American cigar smoker. Originally the Cuesta-Rey Maximus, the cigar soon found a home in the Diamond Crown line as the Newmans sought to develop a whole portfolio of super premium cigars. For the perfect tobacco blend, Stanford worked closely with his old friends Carlos Fuente, Sr. and John Oliva, Jr.

The Hands of Time

Everyone had a role to play in the development of this cigar. The Oliva family grew the choicest sungrown wrapper tobaccos at their farm in the El Bajo growing region of Ecuador. The Fuente family blended and rolled the cigar at Tabacalera A. Fuente in the Dominican Republic. The Newman family designed the packaging, label, band, and marketing strategy for the cigar back home in Tampa. Carlos Fuente, Sr. suggested the cigar be rolled as a 50 ring gauge instead of the Diamond Crown Classic’s 54 ring gauge to better accentuate the Ecuadorian sungrown wrapper’s flavor. One of his first major projects with his family business, Drew Newman worked closely with Carlito Fuente to design an “M”-shaped box (modeled after a Cuesta-Rey #47 box with some wooden panels attached on to give it the façade of an “M”), a hallmark of early production runs of the cigar.

They say a premium cigar takes three years and over two-hundred hands to prepare from start to finish. The development of a cigar brand requires tenfold more effort. Each critique or revision of the cigar was a refinement to the cigar, just as age mellows the tobacco and creates a finer cigar. Many cigar smokers take for granted the fact that manufacturing any premium cigar is a massive undertaking. The creative process behind a truly great cigar is a process of collaboration, deliberation, sacrifice, and patience. This is the story that is rarely told. The cigar bands and marketing romance catch the eye, but the stories of the men and women who created the cigar is what wins the heart.

About Holden Rasmussen

Holden Rasmussen is a Museum Associate at the “El Reloj” Factory Museum. His duties include conservation, collection management, gift shop sales, and docent work. He is a new college graduate who has worked and volunteered at museums and archival facilities in different parts of the country. Holden enjoys the American outdoors, French electronic music, Yugoslav militaria, Japanese comics, and Cameroon tobacco.

The J.C. Newman Cigar Co. has operated close to a dozen cigar factories across its illustrious one-hundred-and-twenty-six-year history. Although J.C. Newman PENSA is in Nicaragua and J.C. Newman El Reloj is in Florida, the majority of J.C. Newman factories were in Ohio. After all, Ohio was the adopted homeland of J.C. Newman and his first cigar factory was the basement of the family home in Cleveland, Ohio. Of those Ohio cigar factories operated by J.C. Newman, one of the only ones left standing is the factory in Marion, Ohio on 280 N Main Street.

A New Home

The Marion factory was one of the first factories in the American cigar industry to have a dedicated mulling room. In the basement of the Marion factory, similar to the basement of J.C. Newman El Reloj, tobacco was cased and humidified using a steamer which kept the basement at 122° F. According to the Marion Daily Star, the factory produced both machine-made and handmade cigars. Employing mainly young women, the factory started production with fifty cigarmakers, but quickly swelled to over two-hundred cigarmakers! It is likely that many of the modern retailers and consumers of J.C. Newman products in the Marion area are the descendants of the young women employed in the Marion factory.

The first cigar brand produced by the Marion factory was Judge Wright. The master blender and operations manager of the Marion factory was Samuel Kabaker, J.C. Newman’s trusted friend and fellow Jewish immigrant, who oversaw J.C. Newman’s “Modern Sanitary Cigar Factory” in Cleveland. The Marion factory soon became one of J.C. Newman’s more successful ventures. At some point in the early 1920s, the Marion factory temporarily closed to expand the factory space. This expansion allowed the factory to better compete with its rival, the Orrison Cigar Co.

Marion was an important trial for J.C. Newman. By succeeding with the Marion factory, J.C. Newman proved his company could expand beyond Cleveland and Ohio. This hope paved the way for the eventual merger with the Mendelsohn Cigar Co. in 1927 and the move to Tampa in the early 1950s. It also shows J.C. Newman is capable of making a great cigar anywhere the company establishes a factory, whether its Marion, Ohio or Esteli, Nicaragua.

About Holden Rasmussen

Holden Rasmussen is a Museum Associate at the “El Reloj” Factory Museum. His duties include conservation, collection management, gift shop sales, and docent work. He is a new college graduate who has worked and volunteered at museums and archival facilities in different parts of the country. Holden enjoys the American outdoors, French electronic music, Yugoslav militaria, Japanese comics, and Cameroon tobacco.

There is much we take for granted in the modern cigar industry. The or sizes of cigars and the cycles of production, for example, are a result of a two-hundred-year evolutionary process in the American cigar industry. Traditions of American cigar makers, both unionized and un-unionized, gradually became labor practices found in cigar factories everywhere from Miami to Esteli. To a large extent, Tampa cigar maker unions and factories were integral to setting the standards for modern cigar production. Additionally, these traditions and production standards shaped the assumptions and mythologies cigar smokers associate with cigar factories.

Standard Cigars

Cigar makers (torcedores in Spanish) long enjoyed certain privileges, such as complimentary coffee or personal cigars, as a result of the artisanal skill required for their trade. The negotiations between cigar makers and cigar factory owners created the wage scales and vitola charts for modern cigar factories. The Cartabon, a guidebook for wages which doubled as a formal contract between the Cigar Makers Union (CMIU) and the Cigar Manufacturers Association (CMA), standardized cigar vitolas, such as the modern palma or panatela size, following a Tampa cigar makers strike in 1910. The factory reader or lector, a form of traditional entertainment for cigar makers, was a privilege enjoyed by cigar makers in Tampa until it’s proscription in 1931.

Ruins of a Greater Civilization

Many innovations in the cigar industry came from the cigar factories of Tampa. Vicente Martinez Ybor’s (V.M. Ybor Cigar Co.) factory was one of the first to strip all their cigar tobaccos of the center veins. Carlos Fuente, Sr. (Arturo Fuente Cigar Co.) was the first cigar manufacturer to sell cigar boxes to retailers on credit. Additionally, he was one of the first cigar manufacturers to age his long-filler tobaccos and wrap his cigars in cedar. Julius Caesar Newman (J.C. Newman Cigar Co.) was one of the first cigar manufacturers to utilize cellophane wrappers and short-filler bunching machines for his cigars. Morton Annis (Gradiaz-Annis Cigar Co.) was one of the first cigar manufacturers to utilize glass tubes for his cigars and luxury goods, such as leather or felt, for his cigar boxes. The Hav-A-Tampa Cigar Co. was one of the first cigar manufacturers to create bundles of sweet-tipped or infused cigars.

About Holden Rasmussen

Holden Rasmussen is a Museum Associate at the “El Reloj” Factory Museum. His duties include conservation, collection management, gift shop sales, and docent work. He is a new college graduate who has worked and volunteered at museums and archival facilities in different parts of the country. Holden enjoys the American outdoors, French electronic music, Yugoslav militaria, Japanese comics, and Cameroon tobacco.

Annis was born on June 4, 1890 in Austria-Hungary. A Hungarian Jew like J.C. Newman, Annis started in the cigar industry as a traveling salesman. Cigar salesmen were often contractors who traveled from coast to coast, selling multiple brands for multiple companies. Sanchez-Haya Cigar Co., a cigar manufacturer with facilities in Tampa and New York, was one of the cigar companies represented by Annis. By 1917, Annis accrued enough experience in the cigar industry as a salesman to start his own company, the Gradiaz-Annis Cigar Co. J.C. Newman started his cigarmaking career in New York and quickly became an industry giant, rubbing elbows with men, such as Bunny Annis, and starting important lobbying organizations for cigar industry businessmen. Fellow Hungarian immigrants, Annis and Newman likely spoke German together and found great commonality.

Gold Label, 18 Carrot

In 1920, Annis moved his company’s corporate headquarters to Tampa and in 1928 he purchased the Sanchez-Haya Cigar Co. The most well-known Gradiaz-Annis factory is on 12^th Avenue and 18^th Street in Ybor City. This factory made cigars from 1908 to 1976. Under the Sanchez-Haya brand, Annis produced Gold Label and Shakespeare cigars. Annis became a highly influential member of the Tampa Cigar Manufacturers Association, providing the groundwork for the future linkages between the Newman family and the Cuesta family. Through Annis, J.C. Newman associated with many Tampa manufacturing giants years before the Newman family settled in Tampa.

One particularly eventful interaction between Newman and Annis occurred in the early 1950’s as Newman returned home from a visit to tobacco farms in Cuba. While visiting Annis in Tampa, Newman fell in love with the abandoned 1910 E. Regensburg El Reloj factory and concluded it was the future home of J.C. Newman Cigar Co. The humid climate, efficient transportation facilities, and easy access to Cuban tobacco made Tampa a cigarmaker’s Mecca. The Newman family moved to Tampa in 1954 and became the neighbors of the Gradiaz-Annis Cigar Co.

About Holden Rasmussen

Holden Rasmussen is a Museum Associate at the “El Reloj” Factory Museum. His duties include conservation, collection management, gift shop sales, and docent work. He is a new college graduate who has worked and volunteered at museums and archival facilities in different parts of the country. Holden enjoys the American outdoors, French electronic music, Yugoslav militaria, Japanese comics, and Cameroon tobacco.

James Bond is the embodiment of the popular imagination of gentlemen luxury. Who would not want to live like a globetrotting man of mystery? To that end, men spend much of their disposable income on limited edition James Bond S.T. Dupont lighters or Rolex watches. While each portrayal of the Martini-loving British spy had his own preferences, Sir Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan placed him firmly in the camp of cigar aficionados. As Pierce Brosnan poses with a J.C. Newman Cigar Co. Diamond Crown Classic cigar on the cover of the January 2021 issue of Cigar & Spirits magazine, the classic George Lazenby On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) quote comes to mind, “This never happened to that other fellow.”

The Original James Bond

Ian Fleming began writing the James Bond novel series in 1952 at Goldeneye, his estate in Jamaica. Hand-rolled cigars assisted the novelist as he created a genre of spy fiction novels that would span the twentieth century. According to Fleming’s novels, Bond enjoyed handmade cigars. Besides being Bond’s birthplace and the filming location for Dr. No (1962) and Live and Let Die (1973), Jamaica was one of the first harborages for Cuban cigarmakers fleeing the Castro regime. General Cigar Co. took over the Jamaican Cifuentes y Cia factory in 1969 and manufactured dozens of brands there until 2000.

The first official Bond to smoke a cigar, however, was Sir Roger Moore. In Live and Let Die (1973), Moore’s Bond lights up a Montecristo No. 1. Moore, a cigar aficionado himself, believed that a cigar smoking Bond would help distinguish his portrayal from Connery. Connery eventually smoked a cigar onscreen as Bond, but it was in the unofficial Never Say Never Again (1983). When Moore smoked again in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), he smoked a Montecristo No. 3. Moore, known for the quirky villains and gadgets in his run as Bond, allegedly had an article of his contract which guaranteed him an unlimited supply of Montecristo cigars while on set.

Mr. Brosnan

Pierce Brosnan’s run as bond lasted from 1995 to 2002, coinciding with the tail end of the Cigar Boom in the early 1990’s. Because of this, cigars are featured prominently in the Brosnan Bond films. The World Is Not Enough (1999) opens with Bond being offered a Romeo y Julieta Churchill in a Bilbao bank. In Die Another Day (2002), Bond visits a cigar factory in “Cuba” to gather intelligence. Due to American legislations, the filming was actually done in a cigar factory set in Spain. In the cigar factory scene, Bond walks past employees only production areas to ask for a discontinued cigar (a code word for his sleeper agent contact).

Brosnan developed his palate for cigars while filming television shows in the late 1980’s and by the time he was enjoying the height of his Bond fame he was a regular at several prominent London cigar clubs. As he lit up his Diamond Crown Classic during his Cigar & Spirits magazine interview, it was a reminder that his good taste in cigars has not changed.

 Daniel Craig has yet to smoke onscreen in his portrayal of Bond but set pictures from No Time to Die (2021) feature the actor smoking a cigar. Hopefully, Bond’s good taste in cigars will also remain unchanged.

About Holden Rasmussen

Holden Rasmussen is a Museum Associate at the “El Reloj” Factory Museum. His duties include conservation, collection management, gift shop sales, and docent work. He is a new college graduate who has worked and volunteered at museums and archival facilities in different parts of the country. Holden enjoys the American outdoors, French electronic music, Yugoslav militaria, Japanese comics, and Cameroon tobacco.

This is the 125th anniversary of the J.C. Newman Cigar Co. and while there is much to celebrate, those 125 years did not come easily. The company was started as an independent cigar-making operation, called a buckeye or a chinchal, on May 5, 1895. By 1900, the company boasted seventy-five cigar-makers and hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual sales. Today, the company is America’s oldest, family-owned premium cigar manufacturer as a result of countless prudent business decisions and personal sacrifices from the Newman family. Each decade of the company history is marked by a milestone anniversary celebration. The Newman family is very proud of its history of adversity and achievement because, as Tampa’s last cigar factory, this history is Tampa’s history.

The Once and Future Cigarmaker:

Julius Caeser Newman, the company founder, came from a family of Austro-Hungarians. His mother operated a tavern and a small farm while his father was a traveling Talmudic scholar. When he came to America, he did not know any English or business administration skills, let alone cigar-making. He became a millionaire within his own lifetime, a remarkable case-study of industry that ranks alongside the likes of Andrew Carnegie or John Jacob Astor. Julius was a consummate patriot for his fatherland. He frequently donated to political campaigns and veterans’ charities. Indeed, he even volunteered for the Spanish-American War in 1898.

Centennial Newman:

The Centennial anniversary year in 1995 was marked by success and celebration. At the time, J.C. Newman Cigar Co. cigar supply could not keep up with cigar demand. Cigars were selling, in some cases, as fast as they could be produced. Cigar Aficionado prominently featured J.C. Newman Cigar Co. and Arturo Fuente Cigar Co. in every issue. On September 19, 1995, the Newman family hosted an extravagant banquet at the Tampa Yacht Club in honor of the company’s hundred-year history as well as its present success. The Newman family also hosted parties with renowned guests, such as Marvin Shanken of Cigar Aficionado or Edgar Cullman of General Cigar, throughout the year

About Holden Rasmussen

Holden Rasmussen is a Museum Associate at the “El Reloj” Factory Museum. His duties include conservation, collection management, gift shop sales, and docent work. He is a new college graduate who has worked and volunteered at museums and archival facilities in different parts of the country. Holden enjoys the American outdoors, French electronic music, Yugoslav militaria, Japanese comics, and Cameroon tobacco.

Native Tampans know a thing or two about criminal elements in Ybor City in the early 20th Century. (Prohibition era smuggling tunnels beneath the city, radical communist cigarmakers, the Anglo-American crime kingpin Charlie Wall, the Trafficante Crime Family, and the gambling racket of La Bolita, to name a few.) Ybor City’s criminal underbelly was reflective of the economic and cultural divides of the city. Ybor City’s different communities and sub-cultures provided the perfect pool of foot soldiers (and victims) for criminal organizations. The average Sicilian or Cuban immigrant to Ybor City was just as likely to lose money in a rigged game of Bolita as he was to join a gang of bandits and participate in a bank robbery.

Because cigar factories were the economic and cultural backbone of Ybor City, they were a popular target for organized crime. As labor disputes and the Great Depression weakened the Tampa Cigar Industry, organized crime and labor radicalism skyrocketed. In several instances, the historic “El Reloj” cigar factory, home of the modern J.C. Newman Cigar Co., and its staff fell victim.

Kissing the Ring

The cigar industry always had a unique relationship with the criminal underworld. Vicente Martinez Ybor utilized prison labor in his Cuban cigar factories in the 1860’s to maintain production rates. Ybor City was founded in 1886 as a company town for the cigar industry by Vicente Martinez Ybor and almost immediately Ybor struggled to control blackmarketeers and radical labor elements. Cigarmakers always sought better pay and special privileges for their artisan skills. When Ybor or other factory owners would not listen to their demands, they turned to labor organizations. 

The Law Won

In 1921, there was an attempted robbery of the E. Regensburg & Sons payroll as it traveled by car from the “El Reloj” factory. While a getaway car blocked the road, half a dozen bandits emerged from the brush and began firing into the vehicle containing the Regensburg payroll. Only after the armed guards brandished their .38 revolvers in self-defense did the bandits flee. When two of the suspects in the case were declared not guilty, various notable Tampans declared there was foul play. There is no doubt, then, that the secret staircase which runs beneath the “El Reloj” factory’s conference room was an escape route in the event of another robbery. The staircase leads from the historic general manager’s office to a safe room in the basement of the factory.

Up in Smoke

The attempted payroll robbery was not the last time the Regensburg “El Reloj” factory was threatened. The Great Depression weakened the cigar industry in Tampa. As cigarmakers lost their jobs or found their wages inadequate for the cost of living, they increasingly turned to radical labor organizations to protect their rights. One especially radical labor organization, the Tampa Tobacco Workers Industrial Union, had alleged ties to the American Communist Party and came under intense scrutiny from the Tampa police department. In 1932, it was discovered that someone had been stealing sticks of dynamite from the construction site of the Courtney Campbell Causeway. Based off intelligence from informants at the Tampa Tobacco Workers Industrial Union, detectives pieced together a radical labor plot to sabotage the cigar industry and warned the Cigar Manufacturers Association. Radical labor elements also intended to mix skunkvine, a foul-smelling weed, into the fermenting broadleaf wrapper tobacco at the “El Reloj” factory, thereby ruining the entire quarterly cigar production. Although no harm befell the “El Reloj” factory, the real or imagined conspiracy that was reflective of a very real threat to the cigar industry.

It would be quite difficult indeed for J.C. Newman Cigar Co. to be the oldest operating cigar factory in Tampa without a cigar factory to operate. When a Bolita promoter offered to establish the gambling practice at the “El Reloj” factory in the late 1950’s, Stanford Newman firmly refused.

Although the Newman family still operates the historic “El Reloj” factory, with all its mysteries and intrigue, they keep the factory running without any of the historic cop capers.

About Holden Rasmussen

Holden Rasmussen is a Museum Associate at the “El Reloj” Factory Museum. His duties include conservation, collection management, gift shop sales, and docent work. He is a new college graduate who has worked and volunteered at museums and archival facilities in different parts of the country. Holden enjoys the American outdoors, French electronic music, Yugoslav militaria, Japanese comics, and Cameroon tobacco.