Cigar Aficionado Interviews Cover Model Susan Lucci

[JamesG]

Susan Lucci Appeared on the Sept./Oct. 1999 Edition of Cigar Aficionado









For actress Susan Lucci, 1999 was a banner year that saw Lucci landing on the cover of Cigar Aficionado magazine (holding a cigar while lying in a bathtub full of roses), even as she made her Broadway debut.

While "All My Children" and Lucci's Erica Kane ended their run in 2011, Lucci is set to return to the small screen in Lifetime series "Devious Maids", created by Marc Cherry of "Desperate Housewives".







What do you remember about that cover shoot?

It was one of the most fun shoots ever. I was so happy they asked me.

The shoot happened right after I won the Daytime Emmy. I was so thrilled to be asked. It turned out to be pivotal for me and led to me making my Broadway debut.





How so?

In the story in Cigar Aficionado, I mentioned Broadway as a dream that I'd had forever. Fran and Barry Weissler were producing a revival of 'Annie Get Your Gun' on Broadway, and once they heard that I was interested in Broadway, they contacted me.

I went into 'Annie Get Your Gun' to replace Bernadette Peters. And I know they heard about my interest from that story.





How did you take an interest in cigars?

I'm not a smoker at all, but I remember when cigar bars began to open up in Manhattan. I'd pass by them on my way to work at 6:30 in the morning, so they were closed.

They had a fascination for me, the cigar bars spoke to me in some way.





And you wound up trying a cigar?

My husband and I were skiing with our children in Austria. We were sitting in this cocktail lounge afterward with my daughter who was 18 at the time. There were two men sitting next to my daughter and me and they kept offering me a puff of their cigars.

I was giggling and laughing and I turned to my husband and said, "If they offer me that cigar one more time, I'm going to take it." So the bartender offered me a humidor and I took a fresh cigar and lit it. It was a Macanudo and that was my first puff. I enjoyed it as much as I could. I enjoyed being in the moment.

I did smoke one more time, I did some puffs at a party. Then Cigar Aficionado asked me to be on the cover and I learned even more.





Such as...?

I didn't realize that the ashes were supposed to be at a certain point for the photograph. As it happened, the wardrobe mistress for the photo shoot was a big cigar smoker. So she smoked the cigar down for me until it was just right.





What did being in Cigar Aficionado mean to you?

Well it came right after winning an Emmy. It was an astonishing moment for me. The response to the magazine was amazing and opened even more doors for me. It helped cross my career over.

Then Regis Philbin came to my opening night of 'Annie Get Your Gun' and asked if I'd appear with him in his nightclub act. That encouraged me to get a nightclub act together for myself. I then went and opened Feinstein's at the Regency right after 9/11.

All of that happened because of my winning the Emmy and then being on the cover of Cigar Aficionado.



* Taken from the Oct. 2012 Edition of Cigar Aficionado.