My Favorite Cigar
Dick Ebersol • Media Mogul
Montecristo No. 2
Dick Ebersol sits in a rocker on his screened-in porch in Litchfield, a postcard of a Connecticut town. “I read the papers and smoke a Montecristo No. 2. I love the draw,” Ebersol says. Retired from his work as a television executive with NBC, he smokes three a day, the first around 10:30 in the morning.
Cigars elicit reflection. Ebersol anticipates the September release of his autobiography, From Saturday Night to Sunday Night: My Forty Years of Laughter, Tears, and Touchdowns in TV. It recounts his legendary involvement in television, from creating “Saturday Night Live” with Lorne Michaels and his work producing eight Olympics, including the ’96 games in Atlanta. “I had the great fortune to really get to know Muhammad Ali. As a producer, I convinced the Atlanta Olympic organizing committee to have Ali light the cauldron. That showed how brave he was. The flames were licking at the hairs on his hand.”
Ebersol tends to smoke outside, save for when it’s cold. “I don’t smoke in the house, except during winter. We have large fireplaces. The chair almost sits in the mouth of the fire. I blow the smoke straight out,” he says.
—Kenneth Shouler
