Here's a blast from the past... In 2003 we acted as technical advisors to the McCarter Theater and Broadway productions of Anna in the Tropics which was set in an Ybor City cigar factory in the early 20th Century. Depicting the manufacturing and smoking of cigars on stage with authenticity was a great honor. We can proudly say that nobody lit a cigar backwards or put the lit end in their mouths unintentionally. The entire cast took their cigar smoking training very seriously and great attention was placed on making the cigar factory processes authentic and accurate. In theater and movies you often see obvious faux pas like bad cutting or smoking cigars backwards or incomplete lighting or awkward cigar holding so getting it right was important and gratifying!
While Tobacconist University (TU) started in 1996 as a proprietary education and certification program for a 'small-town' retail tobacconist in Princeton, New Jersey, working on the Anna in the Tropics theater production was part of the inspiration to make our curriculum and value available to the entire industry. The quickly emerging internet was and continues to host tons of bad information and there was no place for professional tobacconists to get proper training.
While the wine and spirits industries had plenty of professional education opportunities, the cigar industry had a bunch of advertising-biased magazines but no serious or formal training available. Tobacconists deserved better and participating in the production of Anna in the Tropics was part of the inspiration to make TU a public service and resource. It would take another five years of development to go live, but in retrospect, getting it right on stage and screen was part of the impetus to make TU what it is today: currently 3,000+ certified tobacconists and apprentices around the world contributing to an industry that is far more substantive today than it was 20 years ago!
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