Marvin R. Shanken Makes Surprise Appearance At Big Smoke Meets WhiskyFest
Things took an unexpected turn when the founder, editor and publisher of Cigar Aficionado changed the script of the seminars
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| From
The Movie Issue, May/June 2023
It was a surreal moment at Big Smoke Meets WhiskyFest when Marvin R. Shanken, the editor and publisher of Cigar Aficionado , unexpectedly took the stage at the opening seminar. He hadn’t attended a Big Smoke in at least a decade, and whether Shanken knows it or not, his absence year after year has cultivated a Howard Hughes-like mystique. Nobody expected an appearance, least of all his own editors. On this day, he not only attended the seminar, he crashed it—and the results couldn’t have been more entertaining.
At first, things were going as planned at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood Florida. A cadre of the most talented, prolific cigarmaker…