Cigar box label, El-Rees-So
Rating |
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Title |
Cigar box label, El-Rees-So |
Description |
Box label for El-Rees-So brand cigars. The box label has gold, red, and black text that reads: "El-Rees-So/KING SIZE/El-Rees-So." Dimensions: 8 5/16 in. long, 7 3/8 in. wide. |
Subject (tgm) |
Labels Cigars |
Usage Statement |
For copyright information or permissions questions, see our intellectual property statement https://library.unc.edu/wilson/research/perm/ |
Notes |
The El-Rees-So brand of cigars orginated with John T. Rees, a Greensboro, North Carolina, native, in 1915. Rees began making cigars in a second-story room in a building on South Elm Street, and sold them downstairs in a cigar shop. The brand was so popular that by 1917 Rees employed 300 workers, who turned out 15 million cigars that year. Advertisements stated that "...all the cigars are made by girls... pretty girls." In truth, the numerous shops along South Elm Street were supplied with cigars rolled by young girls crammed into small rooms upstairs. Colorful cigar boxes were manufactured by the Carolina Cigar Box Company on Spring Street. In the 1920s and 1930s Greensboro was the largest cigar-producing city between Tampa and Baltimore. In 1926 Rees and others started the El Moro Cigar Company which produced both the El Moro and El-Rees-So brands. As cigars became less fashionable and were replaced by cigarettes, Greensboro's cigar industry declined. The El Moro Company was sold to a Pennsylvania business in 1955. The El-Rees-So cigar brand is still made by a company in Charlotte. |
Form |
Labels |
Digital Collection |
Lew Powell |
Repository |
North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Host |
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Citation |
North Carolina Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
filename |
nccg_ck_1287-3656.tif |
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