Racism and ethnic bias in all its forms was overt in vaudeville, music and advertising a century ago. Cigar advertising was no exception, though examples are relatively few compared to the entire body of labels available. This is a sample from my collection.
Racist Boxes
A National Cigar Museum Exhibit
© Tony Hyman
Blacks were frequently portrayed as incompetent.
Cigars by Aaron Simmons Fact. 976 on 109th St. in New York City, 1880. Hand written in pencil above the image: “Melinda Safrona Harbough her box.”
[1668]
Thirty blacks incompetently tackle a fire, based on a popular Currier & Ives print, 1889. Cigars by Rogers, Barlow & Simpson, Fact. 641, 21st Dist. NY, with 60 rollers in Binghamton.
[1670]
One of the popular stereotypes of Blacks involved fancy dressing.Fact. 176, 12th Dist. PA, 1901.
[1665]
Humorous photographic label depicting a sheriff arresting alley crap-shooters, another popular stereotype. Central Kentucky Cigar M’f’g. Co.,
Fact. 5, 8th Dist. KY, 1898.
[1675]
Stealing watermelons was yet another popular stereotype on stage, movies and jokes.
Jesse Frysinger, Fact. 408, 9th Dist.
(Hanover) PA c1885.
[1666]
More watermelon thieves on this 250 dropfront by giant maker of cheap cigars, J.H. Lucke of Cincinnati, 1903.
[1678]
Child’s cardboard toy given as a premium
by Hill’s UTOPIA cigars.
[1144]
A popular 300 page racist dialect satire featuring an outrageous annual meeting written by a Chicago journalist under a pseudonym in1883 and reprinted a number of times over the next two decades.
[1672]
The book was so popular it became a brand of cigars, chewing tobacco and stove polish. There may be other products as well. Back in 1973
I bought 50 of these labels for 15¢ each. That’s
what we mean by “the good ol’ days. [1673]
The more rare version, printed by Calvert Litho and used by cigar maker Edmund Roehning in Detroit.
Fact. 4, 1st Michigan, 1902.
[1671]
A slang phrase that hasn’t changed much in meaning in 130 years. Cigars by Wm. Sterners,
Fact. 442, 12th Dist. (Lock Haven) PA, c1884.
[1674]
Less offensive than many other images, the Denby bellboy was a popular symbol for the company for decades, with entire ad campaigns based around the cigar industry’s version of Philip Morris’s Johnny. [8909]
Rare and important racist box by the Collins Cigar Co. Fact. 6, 23rd Dist. (Pittsburgh) PA in 1898.
Large 250 dropfronts almost always housed cigars retailing at 3/5¢ made in Ohio or Pennsylvania.
1669
Three happy young boys minding their own business. Made by NYC giant Bondy & Lederer for Nashville, TV, retailer Mathews, Hoke & Co.
Fact. 294, 3rd Dist. NY, 1902.
Tickled To Death? [1667]
Hambone was a popular comic character of the teens created by J.P. Alley, here satirizing the 1927 Lindbergh flight. Cigars by William Frutiger & Co.
Fact. 417, 1st PA. Philadelphia c.1930.
[1676]
Scarce upright version made during the early 1930’s in Fruitiger’s Factory 417, 1st PA.
[2610]
Common cardboard fan-hanger from late 1920’s.
BEWARE: In the 1980’s Ohio faker turned a crude drawing of this image into a decal on fake Buffalo Pottery plates. They are very common.
[1677]
BEWARE: This china plate is a fantasy. It is NOT old, not cigar, not advertising, not Buffalo Pottery and not from 1911. It is also NOT a “reproduction” as there never was an original plate to reproduce. [w0000]
Mark on the fake plate.
[w0000]
Not as crude as the plate but every bit as fraudulent. A modern porcelain fantasy “sign” creatively based on the fan hanger. If an original porcelain sign existed, I’ve never seen it.
[w0000]
“Smoke the WHITE CAP CIGAR or leave town.”
Does it get more outrageous than this salesman’s sample from Cincinnati's Knight & Co.?
[1679]
European label picturing blacks stabbing or clubbing each other with giant cigars.
[9994]
This anti-Chinese label from the heart of the White Labor days was used by Kerbs & Spiess, one of
the nation’s largest cigar makers with 750 rollers working at Factory 13 located at 2nd Avenue and 54th St. in NYC in the 1880’s. [1680]
Anti-Chinese label from the late 1870’s. Fact.5 in 15th Dist. (probably Poughkeepsie) NY 1878. Lid split when flea market customer stepped on the box just minutes before I found it at 1977 Brimfield.
[1681]
Offensive by today’s standards, it may have been the name under which this vaudevillian juggler performed. Cigars by George Eichenauer, Factt. 75, 3rd Dist. (Muscatine) Iowa 1910-1915.
[1684]
Less benign is this aggressive Japanese solder charging with rifle ready. Probably a reference to the Russian-Japanese war. Cigars by August Stephan Fact. 731, 1st Dist. (Owasso) Michigan, c1906. [1685]
Chinese man offers woman a cat (for food, for pet). All-a-samee dialect referring to women? Mysterious stock label with custom brand name. ID indicates change of cigar maker to William Fatthauer’s 6 man
shop in Cincinatti Fact. 299, 1st Dist. [1683]
“Me no more smokee opium. Me smokee Melican man’s SILENT TRAVELER cigar.” Very typical dialect “humor” of the day on trade card, 1880’s.
[2682]
Chinese caricature on cigar label.
[2684]
Racist depictions of Bouddha and Chinese.
[2683]
A century ago, calling a Jew a SHEENY was similar to kike, spic, hunkie and other racial and ethnic slurs. Like Blacks use nigger amongst themselves, this brand was “made espressly for HF Weidemann” and has his portrait. 1913 [1686]
Big-nosed Jewish stereotypes rolling cigars. Card has message: “This photograph does not represent the home of the UNIVOC 10¢, GOLD SEAL 5¢ and NOVEL 5¢ cigars. Al Hazzard,” Fort Wayne, Indiana. 1909 [8945]
German slur common a century ago. Cigars by E. Snyder & Son Fact. 1289, 1st PA for Hampstead, Maryland wholesaler or retailer. 1926-1931.
[1687]
Irish dialect humor remains today but was exceptionally common between 1850-1950
especially associated with drinking or brawling.
[1689]
