Cigars and Other Passions

NOT YOUR EVERYDAY CIGAR MOGUL For more
than 60 years, Edgar Cullman was king of the cigar business.
Whether it was top-of-the-line cigars like Macanudo and
Punch or mass market products like White Owls, Tiparillos
and Tijuana Smalls, Edgar influenced what people were
puffing, the cigar jingles they were humming, where the
cigars came from and how they were made. But Edgar also was
- and at the age of 92 still is - more than just a cigar
man. He built his career on a smorgasbord of businesses,
among them plastics, packaging, potato chips, real estate
and the world's bestknown laxative - all the while dealing,
bantering and playing with an array of unforgettable
characters. You'll learn about his father's whacky hobbies,
the uncle who produced nearly all of a generation's best
Broadway shows, a "terrifying" prep school headmaster, a
Nazi secret agent, a daring pilot who escaped Nazi-occupied
Holland and became Edgar's friend, and wise-cracking
investment bankers and fellow philanthropists who express
their camaraderie by taking one another down a notch.
There's also a great love story here - Edgar's courtship and
romance with Louise Bloomingdale that began in the 1930s and
still goes strong today. CIGARS AND OTHER PASSIONS is about
cementing relationships, building wealth, giving back to
society and nurturing a marriage and family for more than 70
years, all the while having marvelous fun. "Cigars are my
passion and Yale football is a close second!" - Edgar Cullman