Interview with Stanford Newman and Eric Newman of J.C. Newman Cigar Company

Shows and then try to make money you've got. Great writers who Miss Grace in life who she's been with us for more years and she probably wants to say in my. Head I would say at least. 40 45. No. Not quite. Not quite. You've seen a lot. Yes. You want to maybe just walk away. Grace is in charge of manufacturing saying. Guys are being made and that. Right now or doing is respecting the guy. So those were. The ones that aren't perfect. We take out one ship to see God's Perfect.

Perfect guy. He does. Invite. Me. I think. That. We have. Got. To get. If you're. Still involved in the industry and. You're going to. Tell. Us the history of the sugar. Industry you can just call standing here about 18

a say where many of the factories were moved and moved from. Key West. There was a Board of Trade which. Would. Offer any. Factory if they moved here they were building. A. Factory for their size they wanted. They gave him a five year lease and all the houses. Around for employees. And. At. One time. In the. 20s and 30s there were all 30000 people. That wrote to the guys. Who. Tell me what it means so. Light. Or small boat. And they. Were certainly well in. Tampa. And. Then find you got capital of the world. And. One of the reasons is. Because we. Are close to Cuba. And the atmosphere. And environment. For. The guys in the back was. Very close to Cuba and that's why. The. Industry. Tampa. Tampa. As well. But we

still have. A. Great feeling and we know. Still. Find. Capital in the world. And that. Although we. Import a great many of our. Guys in. We. In. Important. Making a lot of cigars and ship them out. I mean from a. Personal. Standpoint. There's a. Crowd. Cheering. Crowd. Well. A long time before me. They started in the mix the guys. In. 1886 and it was the regular. Type of an industry. Where the people came to work. And made you guys by hand and. They had. To. Work ration. Hospital. Roundball. And. So. The guy making the procedure. Doesn't. Certainly. It's. A way of life. People around here. Well the worst city.

And it was terrible. But. The. Industry was tired. And. In. The varsity there were 150 150 factories. There was. From. 1886 until 1910. And this was a factory building that was built. In. And in 1910 and they were all built in one direction east and west because they practice the guys in the northern line so they liked the color. And. The. Bright light and all the. Factories. Here that. Are all. Back to full me. The. Two of. Them are. Still remaining and. Doing other. Things. Did you ever imagine. That. There might be a law. That would prohibit cigar making in Tampa. I mean. You probably never under what survived the Great Depression. No well I don't think that they really took in consideration. How the industry itself. Passed. The. Man.

I think what they wanted to do and what you are for we don't want children to smoke cigars. And I think that they're just trying to. Have a place. Where people. Don't. Smoke. But they didn't realize how much it hurts you because that's something I will test to see if we import and we make here we don't have an industry. I remember going downstairs and talking to him. Right. Right. So I can tell you I'm on one hand I can. This was. Larry Dorby Nike Forty-Eight where we gave the

cigar away for each to each player to hit a homerun. And that was in. 1948. My son Eric could give you a lot more about the history of how we. Have. Over the years. Had baseball players from that time. Baseball players. Since then. Have not been able to take. Any. Pictures with a baseball. Bat. Right right. Well it's about that's the picture. That's right. There's a change right there. That's right. So anyway. I can tell you a little bit more about. That. Like. You. Know. More like this. So if you're on steroids you can talk to my son. As.

Far. From where we started prior to our move. And this started this in. This and after we moved here we purchased the 1958 we purchased the right brand which we sell all around the world. To 80 countries. And. We have a sales office in. England and we do. Are the guys. In. The Far East. And then. Also in Hong Kong area and in. South America. But this room here was. Shows where my father started that was. When he lived in 1895 and I could give you a little bit of the background

on that money and what are you going to get him. Over here. And this is after we came here in 1958 This is the history question right and we got to. Make. Sure this is true. It's. A. Good thing. It's. The. Standards. Set. By history. It's a little bit of history of the oldest car manufacturers in the country right. And we want to welcome you this is Jason Newman Cigar Company museum.

My grandfather started a company in 1895. We rode his first 500 cigars to the family grocer at that time. There are 42 thousand licensed cigar manufacturers that used to have. They have a federal license to make cigars. Just like you do today of those 40000 cigar manufacturers that were in business when he started 1895 we're the only one weapon still owned and operated by the founding family. Well. Now. Tell me a little bit about how. That. Little bit about happens like really associated with cigars cigars is really special. Park City. Tampa is the finance capital of the world. Vincent Martinez Ebor brought the scarred industry to Tampa from Key West in 1886. And at one time there were as many as a hundred and fifty cigar factories in

Tampa. And even though a lot of factories have closed they're no longer around. The tradition for making great cigars in Tampa continues to this day. We still have a cap and there factor here. We have the largest middle order Scott company in Tampa. And when you mention Tampa it's synonymous with Sadar that any family that's had three or more generations. Of family living in Tampa chances are their family worked in the cigar industry because those were the only jobs around Tampa was really built. We built this industry. It's really a way of life and it really means something mostly to the people here. Well back when it started back in the late 80s hundreds of 9300. It was it was cultural. We had it in. A of community Cuban community. They had their own hospitals their own social clubs in fact HMO which are so popular today. Like me I don't like them. They can trace their origin to Tampa because each of these clubs had their own way. They made this car makers made

paid a dollar a month. They got with the health clinics at that. Little people clubs or carrying clubs and they're very Klapisch these are immigrants they came not from Tampa from Cuba Spain Italy and like a lot of people that came from the old country into the new country. They felt more comfortable among their own people. And that's a cultural that what happened was based upon cultural habits. Let's talk a little bit about the personal connection war between generations and how you know Tampa is really so much different than everyone else's. My grandfather when he was 78 moved here in 1953 moved to Tampa. He was the last factory in Cleveland. And he figured he's going to stay in the business he had to specialize in one type of the business. The premium segment he looked all around and there's one area in the United States this is in the early 50s.

At that time was making plans that went time that was making premium cigars and that was half of Florida. So that time and big family owned companies that were making cigars and those companies had been around for three generations. And again people that have had relatives that lived here three or four generations they were employed in the Scott industry because those were the only jobs available. And Apple was they must employ tens of thousands of people at one time. So because their that was their last employment they are very loyal to the scar in the streets and their fabric. It's in their culture it's their whole way of life. They are old. I mean years ago people didn't have cars. They used to walk to their local cigar factories. They would walk go to work here smoke cigars perhaps have their coffee and go to bed. Their whole life around revolved around the cigar local cigar company in their neighborhood because there literally almost

as little cigar factory in every neighborhood. And that's why it was around the 19:00 turn of the century. It is such a part of the fabric and it's gone through a depression. Or are you still making cigars. Now all of a sudden there's a new law is sort of threatening. I used to practice. That so fast that the kind of strange to see so much history. And now. We've been in business a hundred eight years and as my father and I have discussed maybe 90 of those years have been challengers. There's always a new challenge in our in our company's history through the wars through their depressions. After War when cigarettes became popular. But recently there's been smoking restrictions. Now we have this proposition. 6 which is kind of strange because you are a way we make cigars in Tampa. We have to be able to test our product. I think you saw a are coming off the machine.

We would light the cigar and see how it burns taste draws because you the customer want to make sure that when you get a cigar that comes out of our factory it's a good cigar. It's smokable. So we test that we perform quality control. This law Proposition 6 was banned this quality control the way the law has been proposed. We have to go on the streets of Ebor city in order to test our products which we don't think is right. Plus cigars are a celebratory it's a way of life. When Tommy Franks. One led the troops to battle and victory in Iraq first thing he does it comes in Baghdad. He has a cigar. With his other general to celebrate the victory being Baghdad and Saddam Hussein was no easy feat. He did it with a victory cigar. Churchill celebrated victory cigars people celebrate great events you have a baby of a bar mitzvah you have a wedding. People use a cigar as a symbol of his success as a symbol to celebrate.

Events. And as a form of relaxation. And it's a luxury item and people smoke cigars because they enjoy it. And it. Concerns me that people are trying to pass laws that make them more and more difficult for people to. Enjoy their cigar. Make it difficult to light up. Make it difficult to celebrate with a fine cigar wherever they are. And hopefully we'll be able to say hey guys is enough is enough. This is America. People have fought wars to reserve their rights and we just want to have a right for people to enjoy their cigars especially our quest to raise cigars. Kanye West cigars you made a good point about the suit different just regular cigarettes against the station. Or maybe should be some sort of exemption for us. Of course this is. Different. I Fortune's political life. We we live in people the

politicians. Other folks would lump all tobacco and label it is bad. Well all tobacco isn't bad. Cigars are great people smoke cigars not because they're addicted to it not because they have to go out and light up. You don't go see people in front of an office building lighting up a scarf because they. Have to light up a cigar. People smoke cigars because they want to because they enjoy it gives some relaxation. Because it gives them pleasure. And they get to celebrate great events. It's a luxury it's a lifestyle like break and a fine wine. Maybe Superleague find scotch a fine beer a fine cigar and a fine meal. That's our greatest concern what this proposition 6 is. Why do you go to a restaurant. Go to burns or Shula's. You light up a cigar. You have a fine dinner. You have a drink of cognac or wine afterwards. Normy light a cigar now. Now the law says you could have your steak. You can

have your fine wine in the area cognac. I can add your cigar. Now I know I know it's bad for you. I say. The heck with that. That was built on cigars. And cigars and are being treated like pariahs because there some small group out there that want to implant their morality what they think is right or wrong and everybody else. People don't want to smoke cigars. That's from Prague. But don't get on a bandwagon don't make it difficult for people to enjoy what they've enjoyed for centuries. In some cases it's a political situation we're trying to work our way through it. Well I can't wait. I yes as I get on my bandwagon I hope it works out as well. Thank you. So that should be preserved. It's probably it's part Tampa's. Heritage and get people smoke cigars smoke cigars after a dinner. And what's going to happen to our business. If somebody goes and smokes. Two or three cigars a week maybe one cigar day and goes to a restaurant

and he doesn't because they will smoke his cigar. After that dinner. The next day. He's not going to smoke to skosh make up for the cigar smoke the previous night. It's just lost sales for us in lost pleasure for this for the consumer. It's a tragedy. All right. I like that. Nobody we just walked around. Not a problem. My grandfather came with his mother five brothers two sisters from Austro-Hungary in 1888. Settled in that house in Cleveland. And how would you do it again. So they. Come. On through. My grandfather. OK. OK. OK. My grandfather came with his. Mother five brothers two sisters from Austria-Hungary. To Cleveland in 1888.

Settled in that house. And became an apprentice cigar maker his mother paid us a cigar to make a $3 a month teach us how to make cigars. Got become a good job. So the apprentice was laid off in the Cleveland panic 18. Minute. Come on through. The chain. Can. Change be precious time by a sound bite world. This is the house that my grandfather said Claiborne 1888. And back in the barn we were always first 500 cigars for the family grocer. And has been in business. We've been in business ever since that was the first cigar factory. Kind of interesting. By 1985 this was Grapel Jaycees factory with

his employees. He had a large cigar factory in Cleveland that's rampid J.C with the derby hat with a white collar and standing up with his. Left hand holding the cigar and the famous Dr. Nichols RS 19 or 5 was quite quite successful always was found a way to survive different difficult times during the Great Depression when General Motors plant was closed for a whole year he ran two ships making two cent cigars with a little two cent. Can you imagine making two cents cigars didn't make a lot of money. But he kept people employed all during the Great Depression. Tudor prince was the great brand of Cleveland State and Prince was the biggest selling cigar. It was an opera. My grandfather loved palletized the Cleveland Indians. In 1948 the year I was born ran a promotion with never any Indian home run got free but the student prince cigars one night up there was Rose's.

Widow who later became President Francisco Giants blow him was the fella who was the first African-American to play in the American League. Everybody knows who Jackie Robinson is but six weeks after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier Larry Doby played the queen Ninian's. 50 years later. He too came at Tropicana Field threw out the first pitch to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays game. So he my father had a reunion had seen each other in 50 years. This is bad Larry. Fifty years later after he won his back of student print's cigars in good shape to me was just just the change. If you want me just change it. The company that owns. The company says the long nose was change. We're talking about changing the business. There's always been challenge in the business. There was challenger the Great Depression. There were challenges about people. Now

during the. 50s and 60s and 70s increasing taxes of cigars is hard harder to do business. In 1953 we moved from Cleveland to Tampa. So follow me into the Tampa room and what you'll find out here is this is again our museum of Tampa. The next challenge we had occurred in 1961. All Tampa's tents are factories built their cigars and Cuban tobacco Cuban Philip binder and rapper. When President Kennedy announced the Cuban embargo the manufacturers in Tampa thought the world was coming to an end. We found a way using Cameroun tobacco to overcome the embargo. But that was where I was Wenchang with we had to do to overcome another challenge we had certainly we didn't speak in the 70s the 80s. What that meant was at this time people were able to import cigars from foreign countries from the Canary Islands

from the Caribbean cheap and now we can make them. We're making Tampa cigars. We had difficulty competing. How we can compete are about as we try to quest make imported Equestria international made a guarantee stick in French German Spanish because that was a challenge. We couldn't compete. How do we stay in business. We joined forces with another camp a family that moved to the Dominican Republic. The Carlos Fuente family. Krouse what they start to make our life unique the quest to raise cigars for us in the Dominican Republic in 1986 which meant that now we could meet the challenge we now it's something that the customer wanted. Not to happen made cigars necessarily but cigars handmade imported. Here were celebrating a cigar boom in the 1990s. Life was great. Cigars were trendy cigars were fashionable. My father published his book. We came out with a crown. It was so successful. Scarves are so popular. We

joined forces with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. And developed a quest for a cigar bar the only cigar bar. Major League Baseball history. We have a lot of success internationally. We started having cigar dinners in. In Singapore Japan China Brazil Turkey. We'll see how you operate. Also peaches. Are cigar family Web site which is the official Web site that went in the name of families. So life has been a history of one challenge after another. In this case the depression was a challenge trying to overcome that trying to overcome the Cuban embargo trying to overcome consumers changes in taste from going to make importing handmade. Now we have the latest challenge we have high taxes is a challenge. Every state in the country is broke. How are they going to get more money into their coffers. Tax sin taxes tax tobacco. They're really going they are going out for cigars that cigars get lumped after all the tobacco. And now the big challenge we

have smoking restrictions. People love to smoke cigars. After dinner after lunch wherever the biggest challenge we have this day is where can they smoke. People have a product they love to consume. They can't consume it. Our sales are going to go down and it's going to be unfortunate for the consumer because these laws are depriving that customer. The cigar smoke or something that he dearly enjoys. But he can't have. He's going to be deprived of his enjoyment of a fine cigar and it's going to affect everybody's business in Tampa especially and in Florida. And it's one of the other challenges we just have to find a way to overcome in a hundred years in business. But nine of these years have been challenging. We've had it overcome one challenge after another and hopefully we'll find a way to overcome this challenge as well. As. I said something like that. Actually great.

News. Like why not years. Or was it just me or we're going to go out on the front row and go. I'm sure you are. Sure glad you're here. Colby What brought you here. Oh I dare condemn you. Welcome to the J soon cigar company museum. It's a private museum that's open to the public. We open the museum a couple of years ago and last October 30 First we finished the museum with our clock. It's kind of interesting that Tampa had 100 factories at one time and most the factories in Ybor City in Tampa in fact had a nickname. This was known the willow factory the clock back in because we are clocktower when this factory was built in 1910. People didn't have clocks or watches they would walk to work they'd get up by the sound the hourly chime of the bell. They would go to work go to school eat and

go to bed. There were for like forty three years. In 1953 the clock of silence hadn't worked. We we turned it off. And then it kind of. Just kind of became in disrepair. So as part of our show piece of art museum we brought it out of retirement. It was originally house up in a tower on the third floor. We brought it down so everybody can see. And what you'll see here this is the original clock from 1910. Original the original pendulum. We had it really really had it fixed up and it's an amazing piece of work. This is perhaps the only clock in the whole state of Florida that's weight driven. This was Plotkin's game was built in 1910. See the weights back there. Most parts have been restored are electric. There's no electricity in this. The wind wakes up every day and the weights come down the first set of weights one o'clock the second set of weights. Take care of this strike not take care of it. They cause the clock to ring every bell to ring every every hour. This is an amazing physics feat

because you can see up here we're right here on the first floor the clot. These wires in the rising cables go up three floors make a left turn and make a right turn up and that tower. The bell every hour then it goes to more floors and hits the net and is controlled to four different cables that change the time. On the hand. Of hands every moment. Every quick you see. Quick. Quick. Clear the clock is moving. One little bit. Every time there's a hurricane in Tampa. Knocked off a clockface. We had a lot of storms too there was only one clockface that survived all the hurricanes in Tampa. And that's a plot based like that that the base from the original 19. And plot kind of