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. He is said to have smoked 20 cigars a day, each cigar costing $2.00. (Current Biography 2/58). According to his friend, actor Jack Lemmon, 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 does not fall but stands there. He then lights and inhales on a cigar. The smoke comes out of his nose, head, back legs, and everywhere else the bullets had passed through him. The camera pans down to a box of Dutch Master Cigars spotlighted on the sand. Over the screen we read: "Step up to finer smoking pleasures, Dutch Master Cigars."

TRIVIA NOTE: Ernie's sultry wife Edie Adams was hired by the Muriel Cigars (Ernie's Competition) to be their spokesperson in 1960. Edie provocatively coaxed the male viewers with her seductive sales pitch: "Hey big spender, spend a little dime on me". She was the first of the sexy commercial females on television. Susan Anton later took over her role in the late seventies. And, of course, in the 1990s former Washington intern Monica Lewinski became the unofficial poster girl for cigar products during the controversial Clinton administration.

 

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