Sunday, May 22, 2011

Has the Crook Cigar Gone Extinct?



With the recent closing of the GW Van Slyke & Horton cigar factory in Red Lion, Pennsylvania, the crook cigar seems to have gone extinct. Crook cigars, says the Cigar History Museum, are a "type of cigar which, after being made, is pressed in moulds to take on a rectangular cross section with a double bend in the middle. Almost always sweetened with various sugars and/or liquors. Most popular in the 1950's, a beginner's cigar for many smokers, the style can be traced back as far as 1900 with certainty (probably earlier)."
According to Patricia A. Cooper, the crook cigar originated in Red Lion, so it seems appropriate that a Red Lion factory was the last to make them. The second to the last company to make them was House of Windsor, which was right up the road from Red Lion, but they sold out a few years ago and, after a brief revival, disappeared entirely. House of Windsor's brand was called Wolf Brothers. They also made a small cigar called a "crookette." While there are plenty of rum flavored cigars left, none of them have that crooked bend in them, which seems a shame as a lot of people appear to still like them, if internet chatter is any indication.
Rum Crooks started out as a five cent cigar and never aspired to anything grander, but they were a good smoke, something you'd grab at the gas station while waiting for a tire to be changed, or to fill your vest pockets with, before a fishing trip. Some people smoked the lowly crooks exclusively - and happily - for decades. I never liked them enough to make them my only smoke, but I always liked to keep some on hand, occasionally passing over cigars that cost ten times as much, just for the sheer pleasure of the things. The demise of GW Van Slyke & Horton leaves us with only a handful of old-time American cigar makers still in operation: F. X. Smith, Finck, Avanti, and National Cigar are about the only one's left.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Smoked and loved Wolf Bro. Crooks through Viet Nam. Wish they were still here. . . .

Anonymous said...

I too was in Viet Nam and enjoyed rum soaked crook cigars and wish they were still around.
12/16/2016

NEIL HINES said...

Me too ... smoked them every day from 1969-

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know what a 50 count box of Wolf Bros. sweet rum crooks is worth? I have a few sealed boxes from a cigar store that went out a business years ago. All the cigars are individually sealed.

52ndst said...

if you still have the wolf cigars them please let me know please email me at:

52ndandmarket@gmail.com

52ndst said...

If you still have that box of wolf brothers crooks cigars please let me know I am interested please e-mail me at:

52ndandmarket@gmail.com

Unknown said...

I have a box of cigars on the front it says Cuban Crocs mild and sweet with a man on a horse. On the bottom of the box it says state of Pennsylvania 1st District Factory number of 533 does anybody know what that is

falmanac said...

Pennsylvania's first district was located in Philadelphia. This was a federal tax district just for cigars.

Jeffery Meadows said...

I'll give you $30.00 a box
For them

Unknown said...

Black in the late forties, I was weaned off Crook cigars to
Puff on a pipe with mixture 79.

Unknown said...

Anyone have info on a box I have.
New Ulm crooks cigars

falmanac said...

There is a box of New Ulm's, over on Worthpoint, that has a graphic similar to the one Wolf Brothers used, back in the day. So maybe wolf?

falmanac said...

Is there a legible tax stamp?

Unknown said...

The Rum soaked Dover Crooks were marketed under different names in different parts of the country. When I could no longer get the Dover Crooks, I found some Ozark Crooks in Wyoming and they were the same cigar. They were excellent cigars. I have missed them.