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Cigar Industry's Rich History

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By JACK HARRIS Special to the Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 24, 2008

This month's Mayor's Hour on CTTV features some fascinating local history. Mayor Pam Iorio and I were on location at the J.C. Newman Cigar Factory in Ybor City, which was built in 1910 and is the only active operation in the Tampa Bay area. It is the oldest family-owned one in the nation.

Our conversation with one of the Newman scion, Eric, who is president of the company now, included a fascinating bit of trivia regarding the construction of all the cigar factories that dot our Tampa landscape.

All were constructed around the same time, early in the 20th century. Each one is three stories tall, 50 feet wide and runs east to west. The top floor was used for sorting the raw tobacco, the second floor was where the cigars were rolled, and the bottom floor was where packaging and distribution took place.

The reason for the east-west configuration was that there was no electricity for lights at that time so the sorting took place using the natural light from the north, which was more even since it didn't involved direct sunshine. The 50-foot width allowed it to be distributed across the entire floor.

It's an interesting look at an industry that led to the growth of our area and defined our culture for most of a century.

The smell from the cigars is intoxicating.

Backing BVDs

Our forefathers, Jefferson, Franklin and Adams, struggled long and hard to compose a basic document for this fledgling land that would withstand the ravages of time and political winds and yet be relevant for centuries.

I can only wonder if they had any discussion whatsoever of protecting their progeny from being arrested on charges of unlawful exposure of underwear.

In Riviera Beach, a judge has declared a law banning the exposure of too much of a guy's boxers or tightie-whities unconstitutional, thus exonerating several young denizens who had been busted.

Whether or not it goes to an appellate court will be up to the prosecutor, but it will certainly be an interesting case if it goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and those bastions of strict construction will have to wrestle with the intent of our founders and whether or not they even wore underwear.

Mistaken Identity

John McCain shocked a lot of folks when he announced the other day that because of the turmoil in the banking industry, he as president would have fired the SEC commissioner. At least one local gridiron fan was perplexed and wanted to know what football had to do with it and why should the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference be singled out.

Jocularly,

Jack

Jack Harris co-hosts AM Tampa Bay on WFLA-AM.

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