Tampa man claims largest collection of Florida beer and cigar memorabilia


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Tampa man claims largest collection of Florida beer and cigar memorabilia

He has items from every major brewery located in Florida in the early 1900s, and around 1,000 cigar labels.

Mike Zane, a Tampa area doctor, claims to own the largest private collections of Florida beer and cigar memorabilia. Two rooms in his house are dedicated to his collections.

Mike Zane, a Tampa area doctor, claims to own the largest private collections of Florida beer and cigar memorabilia. Two rooms in his house are dedicated to his collections. [ Paul Guzzo ]

By Paul Guzzo - Times staff

TAMPA — Mike Zane doesn’t know how many items fill the walls, shelves and boxes in his home’s two rooms dedicated to the history of Florida’s cigar and beer industries.

Maybe 1,000 cigar labels, he guessed.

And beer cans?

No idea, he said.

Yet the Tampa-area doctor confidently proclaims that his Florida beer memorabilia and cigar-label collections are the largest not found in a museum. How does he know that?

“Because I bought everybody else out,” said the 54-year-old collector of three decades. “If I found a collection, I bought it.”

Asked how much his collections are worth, he would only jokingly say more than his wife appreciates.

“My wife calls it my crappity-crap,” Zane said, laughing. “I tell her that this might all be hers someday.”

Mike Zane, a Tampa area doctor, claims to own the largest private collections of Florida beer and cigar memorabilia. Two rooms in his house are dedicated to his collections.

Mike Zane, a Tampa area doctor, claims to own the largest private collections of Florida beer and cigar memorabilia. Two rooms in his house are dedicated to his collections. [ Paul Guzzo ]

He has items from every major brewery in Florida in the early 1900s — neon signs, keg taps, cans dating to the advent of that form of packaging.

“The first beer cans didn’t come out until around 1935,” Zane said. “It was a flattop. ... They had no pull tab. You had to have a church key to open them.”

His rarest piece of beer memorabilia is likely a can of Green Hornet Ale from Orlando’s Marlin Brewing Corp., which operated for about two years in the 1950s.

“These cans are extremely hard to find in general, especially in good shape,” he said.

Mike Zane, a Tampa area doctor, claims to own the largest private collections of Florida beer and cigar memorabilia. Two rooms in his house are dedicated to his collections. This can of Green Hornet Ale might be his rarest piece of beer memorabilia.

Mike Zane, a Tampa area doctor, claims to own the largest private collections of Florida beer and cigar memorabilia. Two rooms in his house are dedicated to his collections. This can of Green Hornet Ale might be his rarest piece of beer memorabilia. [ Paul Guzzo ]

His most valuable item is likely a can of Viking beer from the Spearman Brewing Co., which operated out of Pensacola from 1935, not long after Prohibition ended, through the 1960s.

“It just went in an auction about a year ago for $29,000 for a single beer can,” Zane said. “I bought mine 12 years ago for much less.”

His piece with the most personal story behind it is a scenic painting of a lake in the Florida wilderness. “Insist on FLA beer” is inscribed in the top right corner.

“These paintings were done by Tampa’s La Tropical Brewery out of Ybor City,” Zane said. “The brewery paid local artists to paint these, and then they added advertising and hung them in bars.”

Zane’s painting was originally displayed in a pub in Arcadia. When the building was torn down, the son of a regular customer purchased the artwork.

“He used to see it whenever he went to get his dad to tell him to come home for dinner,” Zane said.

This painting was commissioned by Ybor City's La Tropical Brewery, the state's first largescale beer manufacturer. The paintings doubled as advertisements and hung in bars.

This painting was commissioned by Ybor City's La Tropical Brewery, the state's first largescale beer manufacturer. The paintings doubled as advertisements and hung in bars. [ Paul Guzzo ]

Zane has a 1936 La Tropical calendar with nude women on it, too.

“These were made for bars,” Zane said. “The brewery workers would have it in their locker also.”

La Tropical was the first brewery in the state. The second was Jack Brewing Co. Signs from each adorn the same wall in Zane’s home.

Into James Bond? He has beer cans dedicated to that book series and movie franchise.

“So, in the late ‘60s, National Brewing Co. started making this can,” Zane said. “They had a brewery in Miami. They used Jacksonville as a test market for these cans. But they were only on the market for a short time because (James Bond author) Ian Fleming’s estate said they were going to sue because they didn’t get the copyright.”

Mike Zane, a Tampa area doctor, claims to own the largest private collections of Florida beer and cigar memorabilia. Two rooms in his house are dedicated to his collections that include these signs.

Mike Zane, a Tampa area doctor, claims to own the largest private collections of Florida beer and cigar memorabilia. Two rooms in his house are dedicated to his collections that include these signs. [ Paul Guzzo ]

How about holiday-themed beer memorabilia? Yep. In 1955, Southern Brewing Co. released a line of Silver Bar Ale cans that celebrated Christmas.

“Those are rare,” Zane said. “Hard to find and expensive.”

Cigar labels, which fill two dozen binders in his house, trickled to the public in a number of ways, he said: from the shuttered cigar factories, cigar box manufacturers and lithography firms that made the labels.

Mike Zane, a Tampa area doctor, claims to own the largest private collections of Florida beer and cigar memorabilia. Two rooms in his house are dedicated to his collections. This Tampa Sweethearts box is from 1919.

Mike Zane, a Tampa area doctor, claims to own the largest private collections of Florida beer and cigar memorabilia. Two rooms in his house are dedicated to his collections. This Tampa Sweethearts box is from 1919. [ Paul Guzzo ]

Zane has a favorite label, of course. Adorning a box of Tampa Sweethearts Cigars from 1919, it is a painting depicting a cigar-smoking man paddling a boat for his sweetheart wearing a pink dress.

“I love the name and the art,” he said.

Rarely does a day go by, Zane said, during which he doesn’t take some time to search online for new items to add to the collections.

“It’s a passion,” he said. “I love finding new and rare pieces, and I love learning the history behind them.”

Mike Zane, a Tampa area doctor, claims to own the largest private collections of Florida beer and cigar memorabilia. Two rooms in his house are dedicated to his collections. He estimates to own around 1,000 cigar labels like this one stored in a binder.

Mike Zane, a Tampa area doctor, claims to own the largest private collections of Florida beer and cigar memorabilia. Two rooms in his house are dedicated to his collections. He estimates to own around 1,000 cigar labels like this one stored in a binder. [ Paul Guzzo ]

He hopes to someday make the collections available to the public.

“I really want to donate them to a museum,” Zane said. “I’d rather do that than sell. It would be terrible to break them up because it’s been a lifetime of work and love.”

Source: https://www.tampabay.com/life-culture/history/2024/09/19/tampa-historic-breweries-beer-cigar-factories-collection/

 

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