Last summer at the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers’ Trade Show (formerly the Retail Tobacco Dealers Association) in New Orleans, I met a man named William C. Paley. He could easily be mistaken for Sir Richard Branson, but Paley seems much more grounded (pun intended).
He seems to prefer Bill, although I called him William for the longest time. It was a convention center full of cigar makers, tobacconists and makers of cigar accessories. When I asked Bill if he was the son of William S. Paley, he said yes, and his face radiated a look of surprise. I certainly understood. I didn’t think there were another 100 people in that building who would have made the connection. Not only did I make the connection; I was fortunate to have known William S. Paley.
For those readers that recognize the name, the cat is out of the bag, in part. William S. Paley was the founder and longtime chairman of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). Paley and his wife Barbara Cushing Paley, known as “Babe,” cut a large swath through New York Society for a very long time.
William C. Paley, known as ‘Little Bill’ to differentiate him from his father, was also the grandson of Harvey Williams Cushing, the noted Boston neurosurgeon and the father of brain surgery. Bill never knew the good doctor, as he had passed away in 1939. His middle name pays tribute to his Cushing ties.
It is worth noting before going into the tobacco in Bill Paley’s DNA that his mother, Babe, was one of three (3) Cushing sisters, all of whom figured in ‘society’ for the longest time. Aunt Betsey, the middle sister, was wife of James Roosevelt, the son of Eleanor and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She later married John Hay Whitney, President Eisenhower’s Ambassador to Great Britain, Publisher of the International Herald Tribune, and a formidable society figure himself. The eldest sister, known as ‘Minnie’, was married to Vincent Astor.
Bill Paley, the Paley of this story, had a few brushes with higher education before deciding it wasn’t for him. He joined the United States Army in 1968 and wound up being a Military Cinematographer in Vietnam. After his tour of duty there, the Army transferred him to duty at the Pentagon, whence he began his unrequited love affair with the city of Washington, D.C.
Through an eclectic career, he was a bartender, yacht broker, yacht captain, restaurant owner, disco owner, and an art connoisseur and collector. He acknowledges that the label “playboy” once suited him.
He is a philanthropist of note in his home town, inasmuch as he remains heavily focused on issues and organizations in the District of Columbia. Paley is actually a trained drug counselor, and many of his philanthropic endeavors relate to drug abuse and sobriety. His contributions help support Clean and Sober Streets, Inc., Family Support Center (D.C.), So Others May Eat, and Central Kitchen. In addition he contributes to The Carter Center, The Jerusalem Foundation and the Sascha Bruce Foundation.
Paley sits on the Boards of several art organizations in the District of Columbia and, of course, The William S. Paley Foundation, which was established by his father and the eponymous, William C. Paley Foundation, which he established.
Paley’s wife is a very talented and beautiful woman named Alson Van Metre Paley. The Paleys, who have been together since the 1980s, make their home in McLean, VA, though they spend a great deal of time at Lightbourne House, the family estate in the Bahamas.
His interest in art was honed as a youngster at the Paley home in Manhasset, Long Island by his parents’ collection, which today can be seen at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art.
Bill is currently focused on the ‘rebirth’ of a cigar called La Palina. In that sense, Paley is returning to his roots. La Palina, a very successful product of Grandfather Samuel Paley’s Congress Cigar Company, might well be identified as the ‘start of it all.’
It was Samuel Paley, the son of Ukrainian immigrants in Chicago that went to work for a cigar company in Chicago, and quickly rose to the position of Blender. Easily the most important position at a cigar manufacturer, as it is with the blend that the product begins.
Samuel enjoyed the business so much and did so well that he started his own company, Congress Cigar, and introduced La Palina in 1896. It remained a major selling premium cigar through 1926.
It was at that time that the young William S. Paley began to run a group of radio stations his father and some associates had purchased. It was that group of stations that led to the creation of the Columbia Broadcasting System.
William S. had worked for Congress Cigar and was, like his son William C., an avid cigar smoker all his life.
When William S. Paley died in 1990, Bill inherited an exquisite estate at Lyford Cay, on New Providence Island in the Bahamas. It was while seeking the ideal premium, hand-rolled cigar for use at the estate that Bill Paley started the journey that reconnected tobacco with the Paley name. He ultimately determined to make La Palina and re-introduce it to the retail cigar market.
In his usual diligent manner, he sought the advice of tabaqueros, including his good friend Enrico Garzaroli and his son Paolo – owners of Nassau’s fashionable Graycliff (hotel and restaurant) as well as the noted Graycliff cigar. Paley determined to have the cigar blended by the late Avelino Lara an expatriate Cuban that worked for Graycliff. Lara’s renown as a Master Blender is respected worldwide.
Working with Lara, the pair went through eleven (11) blends before arriving at the taste and strength that suited Bill’s palate and met his standards. Had Lara lived to see the presentation of La Palina to the trade and to the public, he would have acknowledged he was very proud of what the two had accomplished.
It was for that reason that Paley was at the 2009 IPCPR Trade Show in New Orleans. You might say he was testing the waters, meeting people, and talking about his plans.
It is Bill’s intention to introduce the 21st century La Palina at the 2010 IPCPR trade show being held in August, once again, in New Orleans. There the retail tobacconists attending the show will see the complete line of La Palina cigars, to include “The Family Blend” and the “1896” blend. Being a man who knows ‘God is in the details,’ Paley has made several trips to the Dominican Republic, where the bands and box labels are being produced, to confer with Alberto Monserrat (owner of the company Cigar Rngs). Likewise, he has devoted a great deal of time to overseeing the design of the boxes.
The new La Palina band and box art will feature, as did the original, an exquisite and elegant etching of Samuel Paley’s wife, and Bill’s grandmother, Goldie Drell Paley.
Every aspect of the new La Palina will reflect the style and taste of the brand’s proprietor, William C. Paley.
