A small drawing of a seal drew booming laughter during a history lesson on a local cigar company Sunday.
Dominic Keating, president of Avanti Cigar Co., regaled a packed room at the Lackawanna Historical Society Catlin House with the history of the company, which marked its 100th anniversary this year.
The family-owned organization, which operates in Scranton, still uses a small seal as a symbol on packages of its Parodi products.
The Parodi family, who lived in Italy, consulted a lawyer when they established a cigar company in the United States in the early 1900s. A misunderstanding caused by a language barrier led to their belief that the company required a seal - as in mammal - rather than a business seal. When the Avanti Cigar Co. bought the waning Parodi company in 1925, the symbol stuck.
"We kept it as a reminder the English lessons were worth it," Mr. Keating said. "Most companies have a ferocious beast. Everybody likes seals."
Mr. Keating made it through only the first 30 years of the century-old company's history, but none of his audience members seemed to mind his anecdotal accounting.
"I'm trying to relate the story that I was told by all of these men," Mr. Keating said, referring to his grandfather and two uncles, the "aggressive businessmen" who started the Avanti Cigar Co. in 1912.
There were variations in the accounts he was given from each man.
"It's like the gospels are different," he joked.
Arlene Devereaux O'Hara, a board member of the Historical Society and a history buff, enjoyed the account of the cigar company's growth and Mr. Keating's family, who founded it.
"They're obviously very hardworking, they're risk-takers, and they were pretty shrewd businessmen," she said.
Mr. Keating's daughter, Cat Keating, a plant manager in the company, said it was a "fantastic" feeling to have the company reach the 100-year mark.
"It's a norm for me to have a whole family with cigars in their mouths," she said with a laugh, adding that reaching 100 years felt "natural and expected."
The plant will move to Dunmore early in 2013, and Ms. Keating explained that she was confident the family business would expand and see another 100 years.
"I'm not sure I would work in a factory and feel this passionate about it anywhere else," she said.
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