This Week In Cigar History: January 14–20

Born this week on January 20, 1896, the native New Yorker George Burns smoked up to 10 cigars a day during his 100-year lifespan.

While memorably puffing away on El Producto cigars, “because they stay lit on stage,” comedian George Burns delighted worldwide audiences with his legendary wit and timing. Born this week on January 20, 1896 the native New Yorker neé Nathan Birnbaum smoked up to 10 cigars a day during his 100-year lifespan.

A fourth grade dropout from P.S. 22, George Burns entered small-time vaudeville and adopted his moniker courtesy of two similarly named major league baseball players. Others say it was from the Burns Brothers Coal Company, whose company trucks delivered coal to heat his childhood home.

An acknowledged cigar smoker early on, Burn’s comedic career soared when he met, partnered with, and later married, Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen. Together the popular duo starred in classic radio shows and then on television on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. Burns later toured nightclubs and left an indelible mark in films, beginning with the movie version of Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys and his typecast role as the omnipotent deity in the Oh God! trilogy.

Burns use for cigars went beyond pleasurable post-performance indulgences; stogies were an integral part of his comedic act based on his observation:

If I tell a joke, I smoke as long as they laugh and when they stop laughing I take the cigar out of my mouth and start the next joke.

Other quotable tobacco reflection from Burns include:

If I paid $10 for a cigar, first I’d make love to it, then I’d smoke it.

He also advised, “to smoke cigars, drink martinis, and dance close” as the necessary ingredients to a long life. And he found that happiness is, “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.”

Burns ignored his doctor’s advice “to quit smoking when he advised me to, [otherwise ] I wouldn’t have lived to go to his funeral.” He died on March 9, 1996.

news@doubledownmedia.com

1/14/08

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