My Favorite Cigar
Dan Aykroyd • Comedian, Actor
Arturo Fuente Double Chateau Fuente Maduro
Dan Aykroyd has had what he describes as “quite a cigar arc.” It started when, at 14, he unloaded freight cars for the Canadian National Railway. On breaks, he smoked the “pretty grim” White Owls that he had filched from his father. A decade later, he was enjoying handmade smokes on the Rockefeller Center roof garden after a long day of writing sketch comedy for “Saturday Night Live.” The process reached a zenith one afternoon at the Cigar Aficionado offices with editor and publisher Marvin R. Shanken, who pulled out a vintage Cuban from 1947. “That’s probably the finest cigar I’ve ever smoked.”
Aykroyd also fell in love with Arturo Fuente. “It’s not as famous as the Cohibas and the Romeo y Julietas,” he says, “but I like that beautiful, dark Dominican tobacco, and I like their story.” The cigar holds another attraction. Aykroyd reveals a favorite summer-evening activity: igniting fireworks. He describes meticulously arranging 30 to 40 of them, using long fuses and all safety precautions. “When I’m ready, I just take that cigar and walk along the array of combustibles and light them all. So, it is a perfect fireworks cigar, too.”
