Tampa cigar company reflects on the industry during the 1950’s when factories expected to be robbed

Tampa's cigar industry in the 1950's

Lloyd Sowers reports.

TAMPA, Fla. - In 1954 in Ybor City, the cigar industry was in a downturn.

World War II G.I.'s had changed from smoking cigars to cigarettes, which were supplied with their rations, but Tampa was still the center of the cigar universe.

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The backstory:

"The cigar industry built Tampa 100 years ago," said Drew Newman, whose great-grandfather founded the J.C. Newman Cigar Company in Cleveland on May 5, 1895. They moved to Tampa in 1954 and bought a cigar factory with a towering time machine.

"This factory is known as El Reloj, which means clock or watch in Spanish," said Newman. "And inside it's like walking back in time."

Dig deeper:

Workers roll cigars by hand just as it was done a century ago. When the Newman's arrived in Tampa in 1954, the Cigar City was a gritty place.

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"Many of Tampa's cigar factories had a way to escape the local mafia," said Newman.

Managers expected at least one factory would be robbed every Friday payday. The entire payroll was in cash, and it had to be protected.

"Some of the factories have tunnels and our factory has a secret staircase," said Newman.

His father, Eric, showed FOX 13 the passage where the general manager could escape with the cash box.

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"He could pop the hatch, grab the cash, and head to the basement, and then out to the street," said Newman.

What Came Next:

The next challenge would come soon enough. Fidel Castro visited Ybor City in 1955 to raise money for a Communist revolution in Cuba. Some may not have realized that the 1959 revolution and the embargo that followed would bring an end to Tampa's most important import, Cuban tobacco.

Newman's grandfather went to Cuba, where he had been many times, to see for himself what had happened.

"The Cuban authorities thought he was a spy," said Newman. "So, they threw him in jail for a few days and told him never to come back."

The Newmans' and others in Tampa found an alternative virtually under their noses in the North Florida towns of Qunicy and Havana near Tallahassee. Today, much of their tobacco comes from the Dominican Republic and other Central American countries.

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Local perspective:

Smoking cigars has now become an occasional treat rather than an everyday practice. Newman produces special brands like Tampa Smokers, giving a nod to the minor league baseball team of the same name from 100 years ago.

The Newman family built a museum in their factory that pays homage to the cigar industry and the millions who worked in the factories. Tampa had 200 cigar factories in the 1930's and 1940's.

"It's an art, a tradition and a craft passed down from generation to generation," said Newman. "And it looks and feels exactly how it was 100 years ago."

He hopes the cigar factory called The Clock will tower over another century of hand-rolled cigars and long ashes. J.C. Newman offers tours of their factory and museum. For more information, visit www.jcnewman.com.

The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13's Lloyd Sowers.

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