Exploding cigar

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An exploding cigar is a variety of cigar that explodes shortly after being lit. Such cigars are normally packed with a minute chemical explosive charge near the lighting end or with a non-chemical device that ruptures the cigar when exposed to heat. The customary intended purpose of exploding cigars is as a form of hostile practical joke, rather than to cause lasting physical harm to the butt of the joke. Nevertheless, the high risk of unintended injuries from their use caused a decline in their manufacture and sale.

Although far rarer than their prank cousins, exploding cigars used as a means to kill or attempt to kill targets in real life has been claimed, and is well represented as a fictional plot device. The most infamous case concerning the intentionally deadly variety was an alleged plot by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency in the 1960s to assassinate Fidel Castro. Notable real life incidents involving the non-lethal ilk include an exploding cigar purportedly given by Ulysses S. Grant to an acquaintance and a dust-up between Turkish military officers and Ernest Hemingway after he pranked one of them with an exploding cigar.

Contents

Manufacture

The largest manufacturer and purveyor of exploding cigars in the United States during the middle of the last century was the S. S. Adams Company, which according to The Saturday Evening Post, made more exploding cigars and other gag novelty items as of 1946 than its next eleven competitors combined.[1]

The company was founded by Soren Sorensen Adams, dubbed "king of the professional pranksters", who invented and patented many common gag novelties such as sneezing powder, itching powder, the dribble glass and the joy buzzer.[1][2] The largest New York based manufacturer of exploding cigars was Richard Appel, a German refugee from Nuremberg who in or about 1940 opened a gag novelty factory on Manhattan's Lower East Side.[3]

By the time exploding cigars were being turned out by manufacturers such as Adams and Appel, the chemical explosive variety had fallen out of favor. According to Adams, the large scale switch to a non-chemical device occurred in approximately 1915 in the aftermath of a death caused by a homemade exploding cigar rigged with dynamite. Following that incident, a number of U.S. states banned the product altogether. The replacement for chemical explosives was a spring mechanism, bound with cord—when the cord burned through it caused the device to spring open, thus rupturing the cigar's end.[1]

Prank exploding cigars have caused many injuries over their history. For example, in 1906 one Edward Weinschreider sued a cigar shop for an exploding cigar which burned his hand so badly three of his fingers had to be amputated.[4] As has been observed by one legal scholar, "[t]he utility of the exploding cigar is so low and the risk of injury so high as the warrant a conclusion that the cigar is defective and should not have been marketed at all."[5]

In fiction

Looney Tunes cartoon characters were often transforming into wearing blackface when an exploding cigar detonated. Blackface was a common trope in Looney Tunes cartoon images.[6] Here, Bugs Bunny is accompanied by Elmer Fudd, both in blackface, performing a minstrel show routine of Camptown Races.[7]

Both prank and intentionally deadly exploding cigars have been featured in numerous works of fiction, spanning many forms of media including literature, film, comics books, cartoons and others. A well known use of the exploding cigar in literature, for example, appears in Thomas Pynchon's 1973 novel, Gravity's Rainbow. In it, the main character, Etzel Ölsch, symbolically betrays his death wish by eagerly smoking a cigar he knows to be of the prank explosive variety.[8][9] Other book examples include Robert Coover's 1977 novel, The Public Burning, where a fictionalized Richard Nixon hands an exploding cigar to Uncle Sam,[10] and Sherburne James' Death's Clenched Fist (1982), in which a Tammany Hall politico of the 1890s is murdered with an exploding cigar.[11]

Film examples include Cecil B. DeMille's 1921 romance Fool's Paradise, wherein the main character is blinded by an exploding cigar;[12] Laurel and Hardy's Great Guns (1941), in which an exploding cigar provides comic relief;[13] the Elke Sommer vehicle, Deadlier Than the Male (1967), where a murder by exploding cigar is a key plot element,[14] and in The Beatles' 1968 animated feature film, Yellow Submarine, where an exploding cigar is used to rebuff a psychedelic boxing monster.[15]

Appearance of exploding cigars in the Warner Bros. cartoon franchises, Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes was fairly common, often coupled with the explosion resulting in the pranked character appearing in blackface. Some examples include: Bacall to Arms (1942), wherein an animated Humphrey Bogart gets zapped by an exploding cigar leaving him in blackface,[16] 1947's Mississippi Hare, where the character, 'Colonel Shuffle' likewise ends up in blackface after the explosion,[17] 1952's Rabbit's Kin, in which Pete Puma offers Bugs Bunny an exploding cigar (true to form, Bugs Bunny turns the tables on the hapless feline, placing the cigar in Pete's mouth after he is dazed and lighting it with expected results),[18] and 1964's Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare, where the Tasmanian Devil successfully gets Bugs Bunny to smoke an exploding cigar, resulting in blackface again.[19]

Other media examples include television appearances such as in a season four episode of the United States television, CBS crime drama, CSI: NY titled Child's Play, wherein the forensic team investigate the death of a man killed by an exploding cigar,[20] and in a 1966 episode of The Avengers entitled A Touch of Brimstone;[21] in video games such as Day of the Tentacle where the player can offer George Washington an exploding cigar;[22] and as a stock device by the Joker in Batman comic books. For example, in Batman #251 (1973) entitled The Joker's Five-way Revenge, an exploding cigar is used by the Joker to decapitate a man.[23]

Real life

Cover of October, 1963 issue (#82) of Mad Magazine painted by Norman Mingo[24]

CIA plot to assassinate Castro

In the late 1950s under Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidential administration and in the early 1960s under John F. Kennedy's, the CIA had been brainstorming and implementing plots to assassinate Fidel Castro, going as far as enlisting the help of mafia leaders such as Johnny Roselli and Santo Trafficante, Jr. to assist in carrying out their plans.[25][26] Many assassination ideas were floated by the CIA in the covert operation which was dubbed "Operation Mongoose."[27] The most infamous was the CIA's alleged plot to capitalize on Castro's well known love of cigars by slipping into his supply a very real and lethal "exploding cigar."[28][29][30][31][32]

While numerous sources state the exploding cigar plot as fact, at least one source asserts it to be simply a myth,[33] and another, mere supermarket tabloid fodder.[34] Another suggests that the story does have its origins in the CIA, but that it was never seriously proposed by them as a plot. Rather, the plot was made up by the CIA as an intentionally "silly" idea to feed to those questioning them about their plans for Castro, in order to deflect scrutiny from more serious areas of inquiry.[25]

Certainly there were numerous incredible plots to do in Castro that are ascribed to the CIA, including among others: poisoning his cigars[26] (a box of the lethal smokes were actually prepared and delivered to Havana;[35]) exploding seashells to be planted at a scuba diving site;[36] a gift diving wetsuit impregnated with noxious bacteria[36] and mould spores,[37] or with lethal chemical agents;[38] infecting Castro's scuba regulator apparatus with tuberculous bacilli;[38] dousing his handkerchiefs, his tea, and his coffee with other lethal bacteria;[39] having a former lover to slip him poison pills;[36][39] and exposing him to various other poisoned items such as a fountain pen and even ice cream.[27] The U.S. Senate's Church Committee of 1975 stated that it had confirmed at least eight separate CIA run plots to assassinate Castro.[40] Fabian Escalante, who was long tasked with protecting the life of Castro, contends that there have been 638 separate CIA assassination schemes or attempts on Castro's life.[39]

Whether true or not, the exploding cigar CIA plot is the most well known of assassination plots on Castro.[39] It inspired the cover of the October, 1963 issue (#82) of Mad Magazine. The cover bears the headline, "You'll Get a BANG out of this issue of Mad Magazine", and features a painting by Norman Mingo depicting Castro in the act of lighting a cigar wrapped with a cigar band on which is drawn Alfred E. Neuman with his fingers plugging his ears, awaiting the explosion. [24][41] An exploding cigar is also featured on the poster for the Channel 4 British Documentary, 638 Ways to Kill Castro, which shows Castro with a cigar in his mouth that has a fuse projecting from the end and a lit match approaching.[42]

Ulysses S. Grant depicted on the cover of Grant's Tobacco

Ulysses S. Grant's delayed gift

According to an Associated Press story dating from December 20, 1932, U.S. President, Ulysses S. Grant gave one Horace Norton, the founder of a defunct college in Chicago, an exploding cigar soon after being introduced to him, but the "joke" wasn't revealed until many years later.[43]

As the story goes, unaware of the nature of the gift, Norton saved the cigar, keeping it on display in his college's museum. Years later, when the school was shutting its door for good, the alumni thought it would be a fitting gesture to smoke the cigar at the college's annual reunion. The honor was given to Winstead Norton, Horace's grandson. During the sober speech he was presenting, Winstead lit the cigar, and after two puffs, it exploded.[43]

Ernest Hemingway

Reportedly, Ernest Hemingway, at the egging on of a group of journalists he was drinking with at the Palace Hotel bar in Rapallo, Italy, presented an exploding cigar to one of four bodyguards of Turkish General, İsmet İnönü. When the cigar "went off", all four guards drew their guns and took a bead on Hemingway. He apparently escaped without any grievous bodily injury.[44]

References

  1. ^ a b c Maurice Zolotow (June 1, 1946). in The Saturday Evening Post: The Jumping Snakes of S.S. Adams. Curtis Publishing Company. Online text of article. Retrieved on June 9, 2008. 
  2. ^ The New York Times Company (October 21, 1963). Obituaries section: Soren S. Adams, 84, Novelties Maker (Associated Press). Retrieved on June 9, 2008.
  3. ^ CondéNet (2008). Abstract of the March 30, 1940 issue of The New Yorker, p. 13: Gagman by Maurice Zolotow. Retrieved on June 10, 2008.
  4. ^ Brooklyn Daily Eagle (October 22, 1902). Front page: Loaded Cigar Damage Suit. Digitized version available through the Brooklynpubliclibrary.org. Retrieved on June 9, 2008.
  5. ^ Steenson, Michael K. A Comparative Analysis of Minnesota Products Liability Law and the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability. 24 William Mitchell Law Review 1 (1998)
  6. ^ Kevin S. Sandler (1998). Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, p. 73. ISBN 0-8135-2538-1. 
  7. ^ Susan E. Davis and Margo DeMello (2003). Stories Rabbits Tell: A Natural and Cultural History of a Misunderstood Creature. New York: Lantern Books, p. 187. ISBN 1-59056-044-2. 
  8. ^ Thomas Pynchon (1973). Gravity's Rainbow. New York: Penguin Books, p. 300. ISBN 0-14-01-8859-2. 
  9. ^ Thomas Moore (1987). The Style of Connectedness: Gravity's Rainbow and Thomas Pynchon. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, p. 213. ISBN 0-8262-0625-5. 
  10. ^ Brian Evenson (2003). Understanding Robert Coover. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, p. 118. ISBN 1-57003-482-6. 
  11. ^ Lynda G. Adamson and Lynda A. T. Dickinson (1999). American Historical Fiction: An Annotated Guide to Novels for Adults and Young Adults. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, p. 178. ISBN 1-57356-067-7. 
  12. ^ Robert S. Birchard and Kevin Thomas (2004). Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, p. 165. ISBN 0-8131-2324-0. 
  13. ^ Wes D. Gehring (1990). Laurel and Hardy: A Bio-bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 98. ISBN 0-313-25172-X. 
  14. ^ Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele (2004). Howard Hughes: His Life & Madness. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, p. 547. ISBN 0-393-32602-0. 
  15. ^ The Beatles. (1968-06-06). Yellow Submarine. Apple Films. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
  16. ^ Kevin S. Sandler (1998). Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, p. 238. ISBN 0-8135-2538-1. 
  17. ^ Chuck Jones (director). (1949-02-26). Mississippi Hare. Warner Bros. Pictures. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
  18. ^ Robert McKimson (director). (1952-11-15). Rabbit's Kin. Warner Bros. Pictures. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
  19. ^ David H. DePatie (director). (1964-03-28). Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare. Warner Bros. Pictures. Retrieved on 2008-06-05.
  20. ^ TV.com (2008). "Child's Play". CNET Networks, Inc. Retrieved on 2008-06-08.
  21. ^ James Chapman (2003). Saints and Avengers: British Adventure Series of the 1960s. London: I.B.Tauris, p. 81. ISBN 1-86064-754-5. 
  22. ^ The Videogame Hall of Fame (2008). "Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle". IGN Entertainment, Inc. Retrieved on 2008-06-08.
  23. ^ Peter Middleton (1992). The Inward Gaze: Masculinity and Subjectivity in Modern Culture. London and New York: Routledge, p. 30. ISBN 0-415-07328-6. 
  24. ^ a b Ohio State University Press (1994). "Unknown title". Inks: Cartoon and Comic Art Studies (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press): 46. ISSN 1071-9156. OCLC 28763232. 
  25. ^ a b Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann (2005). Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in Cuba, and the Murder of JFK. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, p. 409. ISBN 0-7867-1832-3. 
  26. ^ a b Lucien S. Vandenbroucke (1993). Perilous Options: Special Operations as an Instrument of U.S. Foreign Policy. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 30. ISBN 0-19-504591-2. 
  27. ^ a b Stewart Brewer and Michael LaRosa (2006). Borders and Bridges: A History of U.S.-Latin American Relations. Westport, Ct.: Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 123. ISBN 0-275-98204-1. 
  28. ^ Malcolm Chandler and John Wright (2001). Modern World History. Oxford: Heinemann Education Publishers, p. 282. ISBN 0-435-31141-7. 
  29. ^ Joseph J. Hobbs, Christopher L. Salter (2006). Essentials Of World Regional Geography, 5th Ed., Toronto: Thomson Brooks/Cole, p. 543. ISBN 0-534-46600-1. 
  30. ^ Derek Leebaert (2006). The Fifty-year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Shapes Our World. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, p. 302. ISBN 0-316-51847-6. 
  31. ^ Fred Inglis (2002). The People's Witness: The Journalist in Modern Politics. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 223. ISBN 0-300-09327-6. 
  32. ^ BBC News (2008-02-19). "Castro: Profile of the great survivor". Retrieved on 3 June 2008. 
  33. ^ David Hambling (2005). Weapons Grade: How Modern Warfare Gave Birth to Our High-Tech World. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, p. 391. ISBN 0-786-71769-6. 
  34. ^ Charles R. Morris (1984). A Time of Passion: America, 1960-1980. New York: Harper & Row, p. 210. ISBN 0-0603-9023-9. 
  35. ^ Charles Schudson (1992). Watergate in American Memory: How We Remember, Forget, and Reconstruct the Past. New York: Basic Books, p. 45. ISBN 0-46509084-2. 
  36. ^ a b c Ted Shackley and Richard A. Finney (1992). Spymaster: my life in the CIA. Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books, Inc., p. 57. ISBN 1-57488-915-X. 
  37. ^ Fidel Castro and Ignacio Ramonet (2008). Fidel Castro: My Life: a Spoken Autobiography. Washington D.C.: Simon and Schuster, p. 262. ISBN 1-41655-328-2. 
  38. ^ a b Humberto Fontova (2005). Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant. Washington D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc., p. 94. ISBN 0-89526-043-3. 
  39. ^ a b c d "638 ways to kill Castro". The Guardian Unlimited (April 3 2006). Retrieved on 2008-06-04.
  40. ^ Gus Russo (1998). Live by the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK. Baltimore: Bancroft Press, p. 83. ISBN 1-890962-01-0. 
  41. ^ October 1963 Mad Magazine Cover. Retrieved on June 3, 2008.
  42. ^ "638 ways to kill Castro". 638waystokillcastro.com. Retrieved on 2008-05-28.
  43. ^ a b Associated press (1932-12-20), "Gen. Grant's Gift Cigar Retains Wartime Power", Los Angeles Times, as quoted in full at Snopes.com with citation: P. 5, http://www.snopes.com/history/american/grantcigar.asp, retrieved on 2 June 2008 
  44. ^ Ernest Hemingway, with an introduction and notes by Nicholas Gerogiannis (1992). Complete Poems: Ernest Hemingway. Lincoln, NE and London: University of Nebraska Press, p. 142. ISBN 0-8032-7259-6. 
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