The Kinney Tobacco Company was an American cigarette manufacturing firm that created the Sweet Caporal cigarette brand and promoted it with collectible trading cards. Being a leading cigarette manufacturer of the 1870-1880s, it merged in 1890 into the American Tobacco Company.
During the Depression of 1873–79, the production of cigars, pipe, chewing and snuff tobacco in the United States mostly stagnated; however, cigarette production, took off from 28 million in 1873—to 371 million in 1879. During the first post-depression 1880 year, 533 million cigarettes were manufactured. [1] Until 1880 when James Albert Bonsack invented the first cigarette rolling machine, all cigarettes were rolled manually, on average about four cigarettes per minute by experienced workers.
Seeing the commercial opportunity, Francis S. Kinney, a tobacco manufacturer and founder of the Kinney Tobacco Co. of New York who already experimented with hand-rolled cigarettes starting from 1869, [2] channeled his energies into the mass production of cigarettes with a blend of Turkish and Virginia tobacco in his factories in New York City and Richmond, Virginia. Kinney even invited experienced cigarette-rollers from Europe to serve as instructors. [3] : 26 Kinney Tobacco Co. sold cigarettes under the brands of Full Dress,Sweet Caporal,Kinney’s Straight Cut and Sportsman’s Caporal in addition to already established Sweet Caporal Smoking Tobacco. [4] Francis Kinney was joined by his brother, Abbot Kinney and the firm became known as Kinney Brothers Tobacco Company.
In the 1870s, Kinney Tobacco Co. along with Allen & Ginter, Goodwin & Co., W.S. Kimball & Co., Marburg Brothers & Co., and F. W. Felgner & Son Co. formed the Big Six of the American cigarette industry; these six tobacco firms jointly controlled 75 percent of the national cigarette business. [4]
In 1887, Francis S. Kinney patented an apparatus for delivering packages of cigarettes and a machine for applying saliva-proof mouth pieces to cigarettes (with W. H. Butler), as well as distinctive designs for the company's cigarette boxes and cigarette cases. [5] In 1890, the Kinney brothers received $5 million in stock after merging their firm into the American Tobacco Company, which acquired control of 90-percent of the cigarette market in the country, establishing a corporate trust with a near monopoly on cigarette production. [3] : 34
The Kinney Tobacco Co. production facility in New York City was housed in a row of buildings stretching from 515 to 525 West 22nd Street. [6] Additionally, at 513 West 22nd Street there was a salesroom and at No. 529—a five-story building of the packing department built in 1888. The facility on West 22nd Street was known to be able to manufacture 18,000,000 cigarettes weekly.[ citation needed ]
On October 6, 1892, the Kinney's production and logistics complex on West 22nd Street was gutted by a five-alarm fire. It was supposed that the fire originated around 5:30 a.m. in the basement storage area of the four-story brick building, address No. 521-525 West 22nd Street, from a gas leak that was ignited by a gas-powered chandelier (gasalier). Later, it spread to a five-story brick building No. 527-529 West 22d Street, and onto a four-story brick building No. 513 West 22d Street. [7]
An estimated 40,000,000 cigarettes were destroyed by flame and/or water damage. The loss was estimated at $350,000; later it was adjusted to $243,618.56. [7] Due to the early morning timing of the fire, no one was injured. [8]
Sweet Caporal launched as a brand in 1878, persevered through a merger and survived the subsequent dissolution of a cigarette trust after United States v. American Tobacco Co. It turned into a money-making brand for the reconstituted American Tobacco Company on a par with Pall Mall and Mecca. [9] At the beginning of the 20th century, it became especially popular in Canada. [10] American Tobacco Company entered the Canadian market in 1895 by acquiring the Montreal-based American Cigarette Company and D. Ritchie & Co. forming the American Tobacco Company of Canada, Ltd. In 1908, when American the Tobacco Company of Canada was bought out by the Imperial Tobacco Company of Canada, Sweet Caporal cigarettes commanded a 50-percent share of the Canadian market; the brand continued in Canada until 2011. [10]
The original N-series of the Kinney Bro's High-Class Cigarettes cards issued in the 1880s, including the Sweet Caporal brand, featured multiple topics: Actresses, [11] Animals, Heroes of the Spanish War, [12] Military, [13] Fish, Famous Gems of the World, Famous Running Horses, Novelties, Naval Vessels of the World, Butterflies of the World, Flags of All Nations, and Surf Beauties, among others. In the 20th century, Sweet Caporal cigarette cards of the T-series featured baseball and other new themes including 1910 T206 Honus Wagner trading card described by the National Baseball Hall of Fame as the sport’s "most famous collectible." [14]
Cigarette cards are trading cards issued by tobacco manufacturers to stiffen cigarette packaging and advertise cigarette brands.
The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR) is an American tobacco manufacturing company based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and headquartered at the RJR Plaza Building. Founded by R. J. Reynolds in 1875, it is the second-largest tobacco company in the United States. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Reynolds American, after merging with the U.S. operations of British American Tobacco in 2004.
A trading card is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing and a short description of the picture, along with other text. There is a wide variation of different types of cards.
A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, stadiums, or celebrities.
The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1896. The American Tobacco Company dominated the industry by acquiring the Lucky Strike Company and over 200 other rival firms. Antitrust action begun in 1907 broke the company into several major companies in 1911.
Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation was a U.S. tobacco company and a subsidiary of multinational British American Tobacco that produced several popular cigarette brands. It became infamous as the focus of investigations for chemically enhancing the addictiveness of cigarettes. Its former vice-president of research and development, Jeffrey Wigand, was the whistleblower in an investigation conducted by CBS news program 60 Minutes, an event that was dramatized in the film The Insider (1999). Wigand claimed that B&W had introduced chemicals such as ammonia into cigarettes to increase nicotine delivery and increase addictiveness.
Nat Sherman is the brand name for a line of handmade cigars and "luxury cigarettes". The company, which began as a retail tobacconist, continued to operate a flagship retail shop, known as the "Nat Sherman Townhouse", located on 42nd Street, off Fifth Avenue, in New York City from 1930 to 2020. Corporate offices are now located at the foot of the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
Allen & Ginter was a Richmond, Virginia, tobacco manufacturing company formed by John F. Allen and Lewis Ginter around 1880. The firm created and marketed the first cigarette cards for collecting and trading in the United States. Some of the notable cards in the series include baseball players Charles Comiskey, Cap Anson, and Jack Glasscock, as well as non-athletes like Buffalo Bill Cody.
Liggett Group, formerly known as Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, is the fourth largest tobacco company in the United States. Its headquarters are located in Durham, North Carolina, though its manufacturing facility is 30 miles to the west in Mebane, North Carolina. The company is a subsidiary of holding company Vector Group.
John Player & Sons, most often known simply as Player's, was a tobacco and cigarette manufacturer based in Nottingham, England. In 1901, the company merged with other companies to form The Imperial Tobacco Company to face competition from US manufacturers. The company also released several series of association football trading cards in the 1930s under the Player's brand.
Lorillard Tobacco Company was an American tobacco company that marketed cigarettes under the brand names Newport, Maverick, Old Gold, Kent, True, Satin, and Max. The company had two operating segments: cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.
T206 is a tobacco card set issued from 1909 to 1911 in cigarette and loose tobacco packs through 16 different brands owned by the American Tobacco Company. It is a landmark set in the history of baseball card collecting, due to its size and rarity, and the quality of its color lithographs. Several of the cards are among the most expensive sports cards ever sold.
Gauloises is a brand of cigarette of French origin. It is produced by the company Imperial Tobacco following its acquisition of Altadis in January 2008 in most countries, but produced and sold by Reemtsma in Germany. Until 2017 the cigarette was manufactured at a plant in Riom, Puy-de-Dôme, in France, but they are now manufactured in Poland.
The T206 Honus Wagner baseball card depicts the Pittsburgh Pirates' Honus Wagner, known as "The Flying Dutchman,” a dead-ball era baseball player who is widely considered to be one of the best players of all time. The card was designed and issued by the American Tobacco Company (ATC) from 1909 to 1911 as part of its T206 series. Wagner refused to allow production of his baseball card to continue, either because he did not want children to buy cigarette packs to get his card, or because he wanted more compensation from the ATC. The ATC ended production of the Wagner card, and a total of only 50 to 200 cards were ever distributed to the public, as compared to the "tens or hundreds of thousands" of T206 cards, over three years in sixteen brands of cigarettes, for any other player. In 1933, the card was first listed at a price value of US$50 in Jefferson Burdick's The American Card Catalog, making it the most expensive baseball card in the world at the time.
Churchman's was a British cigarette manufacturer based in Ipswich, Suffolk. The company was a subsidiary of John Player & Sons of Imperial Tobacco Co. Churchman was notable for producing one million cigarettes a day.
Isabelle Urquhart was an American contralto and actress, noted for her performances in comic opera and musical comedy. She was "one of the reigning queens of comic opera".
Prizes are promotional items—small toys, games, trading cards, collectables, and other small items of nominal value—found in packages of brand-name retail products that are included in the price of the product with the intent to boost sales, similar to toys in kid's meals. Collectable prizes produced in series are used extensively—as a loyalty marketing program—in food, drink, and other retail products to increase sales through repeat purchases from collectors. Prizes have been distributed through bread, candy, cereal, cheese, chips, crackers, laundry detergent, margarine, popcorn, and soft drinks. The types of prizes have included comics, fortunes, jokes, key rings, magic tricks, models, pin-back buttons, plastic mini-spoons, puzzles, riddles, stickers, temporary tattoos, tazos, trade cards, trading cards, and small toys. Prizes are sometimes referred to as "in-pack" premiums, although historically the word "premium" has been used to denote an item that is not packaged with the product and requires a proof of purchase and/or a small additional payment to cover shipping and/or handling charges.
PT Bentoel Internasional Investama Tbk, commonly known as Bentoel Group, is an Indonesian tobacco company. It is the second-largest in the year of establishment and fourth-largest tobacco firm in Indonesia after Sampoerna, Gudang Garam and Djarum in terms of market share. In 2009, London-based British American Tobacco, the world's second-largest tobacco company, acquired a 99.74% stake in Bentoel. In early 2010, the company was merged with PT BAT Indonesia Tbk, with Bentoel continued to operate as the survived entity; however Bentoel had revive the BAT Indonesia name ever since.
Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited is a cigarette manufacturing company operating in Canada. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of British American Tobacco. It was created in 1908 and bought out the Canadian interests of the American Tobacco Company, which was a monopoly in the United States until it was reorganized in 1911. Imperial Tobacco Canada has had no relationship to Imperial Tobacco Group plc since 1980, though British American Tobacco was established as a joint venture between Imperial Tobacco Group and American Tobacco. Imasco sold their stake to BAT in 2000.
"Apollo-Soyuz" was a Soviet brand of cigarettes which were manufactured by the "Java Tobacco Factory" in Moscow, Soviet Union, and Philip Morris USA in the United States. Today it is owned and manufactured by the Krasnodar Tobacco Factory, a Russian subsidiary of Altria.
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