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Ernie Kovacs - Comic genius Ernie
Kovacs who wowed TV audiences in the 1950s with his creative mind
and his silly pranks, was always seen smoking an expensive cigar.
According to Current Biography (2/58), Kovacs smoked 20
cigars a day, each cigar costing $2.00.
His friend, actor
Jack Lemmon, recalled Ernie once purchased a hillside in Cuba so
he would have a good supply of quality tobacco. He paid cash for
the land. Unfortunately, the next day President John F. Kennedy
placed an embargo on all items from Cuba.
Ernie did a series of classic cigar commercials for Dutch Master
Cigars (his sponsor in the 1950s). A summary of one such ad
follows:
Amidst the background music of soft violins we see two cowboys.
Ernie in white, the bad guy in black. They draw their pistols.
Ernie fills the bad guy with numerous gun shot holes, but the bad
guy whose having problem with his gun, just stands there,
oblivious of the gunfire. The man in blakc then pulls out a cigar, and
inhales. Consequently, smoke rushes out of the numerous bullet
holes in his body. The camera pans down to a box of Dutch Master
Cigars spotlighted on the sand. Over the screen we see the
message: "Step up to finer smoking pleasure.
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Scenes from Classic 1950s Dutch Masters/Ernie Kovacs
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Pocahontas
rubs two sticks together to light John
Smith's cigar. Seconds before his
beheading, the cigar lights. The cigar's aroma delights the Indian chief spares Smith's life.
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