When tobacco was center stage

(thedurhamnews.com) ... One auctioneer who knew Liberty Warehouse well went to the big time. Lee Aubrey "Speed" Riggs, a sixth-grade dropout from Goldsboro. Nobody could match Speed's snake-charming chant. He sold tons of tobacco at a blistering pace.
Fate had given Speed Riggs a gift. In 1938, he caught the attention of George Washington Hill, then president of American Tobacco, who made Riggs the radio signature of Lucky Strike cigarettes, then produced by uncounted millions in Durham. Continued

Photo: Baskets of tobacco piled on top of each other after being sold at auction. Here they are picked up by the trucks which haul them to the cigarette factories. This is in the Liberty warehouse. Durham, North Carolina, 1939 (Marion Post Wolcott/FSA/Library of Congress).