We all have it in our minds: the image of an avid cigar smoker. The
image my brain generates is of someone looking relaxed, content in his
refinement as the cigar dangles from his mouth like the lollypop of a
happy child.
Perhaps the image in your mind equates cigars with yourself, or perhaps
you equate them with a family member – a rich uncle puffing in between
hardy laughs, a jolly aunt whose cigar covers up portions of unwanted
facial hair. Whomever you equate with cigars, chances are you also
equate them with someone famous.
Prominent Puffers and What They Had to Say about Them
Groucho Marx: Known for physical comedy and not owning eyebrow
tweezers, Groucho Marx is thought to be one of the greatest comedians
in history. Perhaps even more famous than his comedy was his affinity
for cigars. For him, they appeared to be almost a permanent body part,
like an extra limb.
He was once quoted as saying, “Given the choice between a woman and a
cigar, I will always choose the cigar." This could perhaps be one
reason why all three of his marriages ended in divorce.
Winston Churchill: A British Statesmen and eventual Prime
Minister, Winston Churchill was known as one of the truest and best
orators ever to have spoken. From this famous mouth of his, a cigar was
almost always found.
He was once quoted as saying, “I must point out that my rule of life
prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the
drinking of alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and
in the intervals between them." Seeing how he smoked between 8 and 10
cigars a day, he seemed to apply this sacred rite quite frequently.
George Burns: A comedian who gained fame in his early years for
being so damn funny and in his later years for being so damn old,
George Burns was rarely photographed without a cigar. He took cigars
with him on stage and chose what brand to smoke based on how long each
brand would stay lit.
He was once quoted as saying, “Happiness? A good cigar, a good meal, a
good cigar and a good woman - or a bad woman it depends on how much
happiness you can handle."
Sigmund Freud: The man behind the psychoanalysis curtain, Freud
began smoking at the age of 24 and averaged 20 cigars a day. A lifetime
smoker, he often believed he was not able to work without smoking a
cigar.
Though he often saw phallic symbols in everything, he was once quoted
as saying, “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." Yes, and sometimes a
mother is just a mother instead of a love interest.
Mark Twain: The man who wrote tales of young boys learning about
life on journeys down the great Misssissipp’ was an avid cigar smoker.
Whether smoking as Mark Twain, or smoking as Samuel Clemens, he smoked
somewhere between 22 and 40 cigars a day.
He was rumored to have once said, “If smoking is not allowed in Heaven, I shall not go."
Franz Liszt: A Hungarian composer and pianist, Franz Liszt was a
forefather of romantic music. Known as the greatest pianist of his
time, he was attuned to great cigars.
He was once quoted as saying, “A good Cuban cigar closes the doors to the vulgarities of the world."
King Edward VII: The eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince
Albert, King Edward VII was born in 1841. A man of voracious appetite,
he often ate five meals (each consisting of ten courses or more) and
smoked 12 large cigars and 20 cigarettes per day.
With the words, “Gentleman, you may smoke," after his coronation in
1901, he ended the intolerance for tobacco that was a cornerstone to
his mother’s reign.
Whether your image of the “cigar smoker" is someone famous, the product
of the famous merged together (perhaps a Sigmund Freud and Grouch Marx
love child), or someone completely unknown, avid cigar smokers have two
things in common: they enjoy what they’re smoking and (as attested in
the above quotes) they certainly can’t complain.
Jennifer Jordan is an editor and
staff writer for www.whatsknottolove.com. At home in a design firm in Denver, Colorado, she writes
articles specific to the finer things in life.
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