--- title: The True Story Behind The Big Cigar description: Huey P. Newton's flight to Cuba from the U.S. is dramatized in Apple TV+'s The Big Cigar. Here's the real history behind the series. canonical: https://time.com/6978887/the-big-cigar-true-story-apple-tv/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-05-17T13:10:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:09.163Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: The True Story Behind The Big Cigar og:description: Huey P. Newton's flight to Cuba from the U.S. is dramatized in Apple TV+'s The Big Cigar og:url: https://time.com/6978887/the-big-cigar-true-story-apple-tv/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2d21b5017070ea2/698a56e89d83e81a51b9a1b8/The_Big_Cigar_Photo_0102_e201b8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5068 og:image:height: 2851 og:image:alt: The_Big_Cigar_Photo_0102_e201b8 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The True Story Behind The Big Cigar twitter:description: Huey P. Newton's flight to Cuba from the U.S. is dramatized in Apple TV+'s The Big Cigar twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2d21b5017070ea2/698a56e89d83e81a51b9a1b8/The_Big_Cigar_Photo_0102_e201b8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The True Story Behind _The Big Cigar_ > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with Ally. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: The History You Didn't Learn: The Black Panthers' Health Programs [Watch (HLS stream): The History You Didn't Learn: The Black Panthers' Health Programs](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/28opNCMF.m3u8) (9:52)  _Published 2021-02-25. The History You Didn't Learn is a series that sheds light on past events that may have been omitted, misleading, or just downright wrong in our history education in school._  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 17, 2024 1:10 PM UTC  André Holland as Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton in "The Big Cigar," premiering May 17, 2024, on Apple TV+. André Holland as Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton in "The Big Cigar," premiering May 17, 2024, on Apple TV+. Apple TV+  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 17, 2024 1:10 PM UTC Fifty years ago, talks began for a movie inspired by real Hollywood bigwigs who helped a leader of the [Black Panthers](https://time.com/5527603/don-cox-black-panther-party/) flee America. It never got made…until now. [_The Big Cigar_](https://time.com/6978370/the-big-cigar-review-apple/)_,_ a series debuting on Apple TV+ on May 17, is based on Hollywood producer Bert Schneider’s effort to get the [black power](https://time.com/6257292/black-power-movement-love-story/) group’s co-founder Huey Newton to Cuba, running the operation like a fake Hollywood movie production he called _The Big Cigar._ The six-episode series follows Newton (André Holland) as he tests Schneider (Alessandro Nivola) to make sure he can be trusted before trusting him with his life. Below is a look at the real history that inspired the show. ## **Who are the Black Panthers?** Huey P. Newton and [Bobby Seale](https://time.com/4493853/bobby-seale-obama-trump/) founded the political organization known as the [Black Panther Party](https://time.com/5938058/black-panthers-activism/) in Oakland, California, in 1966\. The organization began as an effort to combat police brutality, putting its members on patrol on the streets where minority communities lived, as a type of self-defense. It also served those communities through free breakfast programs and free medical clinics offering preventative care in 13 cities nationwide. Dramatizations of these [programs](https://time.com/5446342/black-panthers-stacey-abrams-bobby-seale/) can be seen throughout _The Big Cigar._ At the height of the Cold War, many free services were seen as supporting communist ideals. The Black Panthers faced extra scrutiny for this, and for their overall appearance: Members dressed in all black, while some were armed to protect their fellow community members, and the visibility of the guns sparked fears that they would become violent. The Black Panthers also faced constant FBI surveillance. ## **Huey P. Newton’s great escape** After co-founding the [Black Panther Party](https://time.com/4489428/stephen-shames-blank-panther-photos/), the organization made international headlines when Newton was involved with a shootout with Oakland police that left one officer dead, and Newton was charged with murder and sent to prison—sparking “Free Huey” rallies worldwide. By the time he met Hollywood producer Bert Schneider in September 1970, Newton had been released on bail. Schneider, riding high on the success of his film _Easy Rider_ (1969) and TV series _The Monkees_ (1966-1968), had been backing a bunch of various left-wing political causes, and began bankrolling the Black Panthers. “He realized the power that culture played in shaping ideas,” Joshuah Bearman, an executive producer of _The Big Cigar,_ wrote in the 2012 _Playboy_ magazine article that inspired the series. “Hollywood figures were helping to raise money for the Panthers.” Sporting a [Black Panther](https://time.com/6282004/afeni-shakur-black-women-liberation-legacy/) ring and proudly displaying a photo of him and Newton behind his desk in his office, Schneider (who also had a reputation for a serious cocaine addiction) wouldn’t hesitate to write checks to the organization for $10,000\. The money went towards community programs and a penthouse in Oakland that served as a headquarters for the group. In fact, he once wrote a check for $250,000 to fund Black Community Survival conferences. As Bert described his fascination with Newton, “How can I put it? He’s my hero.” But paranoia about the Black Panthers’ activities reached an all-time high on July 30, 1974, when Newton was arrested after a run-in with two police officers at a bar in Oakland. Six days later, Newton knew he had to get out of the U.S. somehow, when he was falsely accused of killing a 17-year-old prostitute. He sought refuge in the Bel Air home of Schneider’s friend Steve Blauner. Referring to themselves as the Beverly Hills 7, Schneider and a group of his Hollywood chums plotted to get Newton to Cuba where he could seek political asylum. As Bearman wrote in _Playboy_: --- > ““Bert and Steve and a trusted core of their Hollywood cohorts would throw together an underground railroad and smuggle Huey to Cuba. It would turn into a big production but with real-life stakes. Like their films, this project had a title. Bert called it ‘The Big Cigar.’”” ---  André Holland and Alessandro Nivola in "The Big Cigar," premiering May 17, 2024, on Apple TV+. Apple TV+ “The Big Cigar” stood for Cuba. Schneider nicknamed Newton “the Star” and dubbed Artie Ross, a recent college graduate who worked for him, “the babysitter” because he had a boat that was supposed to take Newton to Cuba. One of the most helpful sources for Bearman was Newton’s account of the plot, which he found at Stanford University. First, Newton needed to get Mexico. Blauner, who liked to gamble, called his bookkeeper to place some bets so it looked like he was just spending the day gambling, and then drove Newton to the U.S.-Mexico border. “I did everything I had ever seen in those movies,” recalls Blauner, in Peter Biskind’s _Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood._ “This was the first thing that I could think of that I had ever done under conditions of life and death…for only one reason, the love of another human being.” **Read More:** [_Black Panthers Meet New Hollywood in the Bold, Thrilling Series_ The Big Cigar](https://time.com/6978370/the-big-cigar-review-apple/) Ross was supposed to sail through the Panama Canal, pick up Newton in Mexico and then continue on to Cuba. Despite new radar and sonar equipment purchased by Schneider for the journey, the boat ran aground after hitting an underwater statue of Jesus in the Florida Keys that’s a popular snorkeling destination. The boat was in no condition to transport Newton all the way to Cuba, so Ross hitchhiked to Miami eventually made his way to Newton in Jalapa, a hideaway on the west coast of Mexico that Bert and a few other big kahunas bought in 1968 in case they wanted to flee when Nixon became President. A captain nicknamed “Pirate” was tracked down, chosen because he had a lot of experience going back and forth between Colombia and Mexico. Schneider agreed to make the captain whole for the boat if it got confiscated. The journey to Cuba was smooth sailing until the dinghy that Newton and his wife Gwen Fontaine needed to get to shore capsized. Fontaine saved Newton’s life by dragging him ashore. ## **What happened to the** **_Big Cigar_** **characters**? At some point in late 1974 or early 1975, Ross recounted the wild story in a script, titled _The Big Cigar_. Newton liked it and gave Schneider the green light to shop it around. Though Warner Brothers and Richard Dreyfuss expressed interest in being involved, the film never got made. In 1975, Ross died from an overdose after inhaling too much laughing gas. Schneider built a shrine to Ross and threw a wake for him in the sauna room of his house that was attended by stars like [Jack Nicholson](https://time.com/3673020/jack-nicholson-early-photos/), [Warren Beatty](https://time.com/vault/issue/1978-07-03/page/1/), and Roman Polanski, according to a 2011 Los Angeles times obit for Schneider. In 1975, Schneider appeared onstage to accept an Academy Award for his documentary _Hearts and Minds_ about the Vietnam War, which he saw as vindication that political topics could be moneymakers. But he struggled the rest of his life with addiction and died in 2011\. Newton spent three years in exile in Cuba—cutting sugarcane and repairing trucks. Schneider visited him there, along with Hollywood stars Candice Bergen and Francis Ford Coppola. When Newton finally returned to the U.S., in 1977, he was acquitted of charges of assault and murder. About a decade later, in 1989, he was fatally shot by an Oakland drug dealer. As for Newton and Schneider’s friendship, it remained close until Newton’s death. As Bearman put it to TIME in a recent phone conversation, “They stayed in touch. They would see each other. It's what you now would call a ‘bromance.’” ## Transcript I've been going around and talking to Young students, from fourth grade all the way through two phds. And usually, the questions that people ask me was where you guys keep your gun. Why didn't you like white people? I think still in schools are still recognized as a black nationalist, paid movement and there was never hate is better Fact. One of the things that Drew me to Black Panther pray that they love the people so much. Is that in order to do that kind of work in order to be that Focus, you had a really love the people The Black Panthers are one of the most misunderstood civil rights groups in American history. Started in 1966 by Huey. P Newton and Bobby seale as a way to protect black communities against police brutality. The Panthers are often depicted as a violent organization, but many of their contributions to the communities, they serve, especially in terms of healthcare, I left out of History textbooks. I think the dominant message from from almost every textbook I seen is putting the Panthers in what civil rights dollars have called it a quenching narrative, which is basically this idea that, you know, once the Black Power movement starts on but really after King's death in 1968, the Civil Rights Movement to Clines and you get these black radicals, we're just demanding too much, and nonsensically, turning to Violent tactics. I don't Think I seen a single text book that mentions the hundred or so social programs that the Black Panthers ran and they work with all four people. In fact they saw themselves as a single mother to Kingsport even forgetting King was assassinated. He was leading what he called, the Poor People's campaign King advocated as a Democratic Socialist against the, what he called, the Expo, dependents of materialism and capitalism Men show that they weren't static that they didn't have to be that way, but that there were ways in which to make those changes that were necessary in particular. Free Quality Healthcare was one of the key elements of the program of the Black Panther Party came to the South Bronx in the sixties as a healthcare volunteer and later joined the Harlem branch of the Black Panthers. Now, you know, the South Bronx is the congressional district in the united states with the lowest income per capita. It was then and continues to be today. So the conditions in the South Bronx or something that I had never seen before. Hospital was known for its horrendous treatment of it's predominantly black and brown patients. In fact conditions were so bad. That a 1970, silver star part in a protest for Community activist, including the Panthers, occupy the hospital for one day in hospital. Known as The Butcher. Shop conditions were really horrible. People were waiting for 72 hours to get Sting. There's no heat in the emergency room is really bad stories about Lincoln Hospital in and what could happen to you. If you had to go to Lincoln Hospital when we talked about the impact of racism and the Healthcare System, I mean there is a long history of medical discrimination. You know, we can think of the history that involves blackbody. He's being used as guinea pigs, black women and women of color going to the doctors and getting illegally sterilize it. So this is cost a lot of mistrust and didn't you VIP code matters, black communities that are in disenfranchising area. We have a history of not being protected and so Part of the history of medical discrimination is what the Panthers or tries to fight everything. From first aid, they had a free ambulance program, they had sickle cell anemia test, they had gynecological exam, Optometry Services, I mean, physical exam, there are tons of services that the Black Panther Party offered. When we talk about Health Care Program to go door-to-door and really test for diseases, like tuberculosis anemia diabetes. These are preventable diseases. We go in and we dirty an elderly person and in some apartment who really needed to see a doctor, but they were afraid to go to the doctor. And that's how we would be be able to refer them to a place where, where they would be seen to be held before the illness, whatever illness they have, not too difficult for them, they was in the community. Educating offering tools to matically empower the black community in much of that understanding of the Black Panther Party, has been written out of the public perceptions of the organization, it has a lot to do with the FBI and corns. Help cointelpro, which stands for counterintelligence program, was the FBI's illegal surveillance scheme. They looked at the Panthers at the threat and so they did everything. You can think of from infiltrating the organization to pushing lies in the media. The Panthers were actually about restorative care. They were actually about healing the community mind body and soul, and MF place in the margins of the history of the party disbanded in 1982. But the legacy of the Black Panthers continues to this day, it was stop and stare at them before long. But you need to take some over the community runs them. So you can point to community clinics health clinics pool program food banks, free bus in the prison programs list goes on there. Still alive. And well, today as its tensions in between waking a program to the party started. There are many kids that go to my high school, that get their Healthcare from the Carolyn Downs Clinic that was started by the Black Panther Party and they don't know the history of where it came from. And it's really sad because if students knew where their Healthcare was coming from, they would gain lessons about how to organize and struggle against those barriers today. Panthers work, Drew attention to Health Care disparities that covid-19 has made even more apparent today and their legacy of Community Care is carried on by activists like dr. Ala Stanford, who founded the black doctors covid-19 Consortium in Philadelphia. April 3rd, America's before being diagnosed and dying from coronavirus at reach greater than every other group in our city. We now know that's pervasive throughout the nation and was like the first time I sat in medical school naive excited. I was realizing my dream 22 and listening to a teacher say yeah. There's a social determinants of health and black people have poor health outcomes. They have a shorter life expectancy they do worse with cancer hypertension, diabetes surgery. And so when I heard it on April 3rd, It was like dang I've been here before only. It was 23 freaking years ago that I heard this same story and I said no, not this time. I'm not going to sit and listen. I'm not going to internalize that pain and just accepted as truth. I want to change the narrative. The black doctor is covid-19 Consortium. Brought covid, testing and Medical Aid into black neighborhoods that typically have reduced access to healthcare. They've tested more than 26,000 people for covid-19 and of provide a basic health services like flu shots. Now, the Consortium is holding code vaccination clinics for highly impacted communities. Just like racism is baked in every other aspect of of capitalism in this country. It's baked into the healthcare system. And I think because of that, that free and Equitable access to healthcare has always been a part of the black Freedom struggle, especially during the Civil Rights. Then I think if we're ever to get change the healthcare system in this country we have to learn from the civil rights movement and and and the folks who who fought for free and Equitable access. Carolina Panthers. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6978887/the-big-cigar-true-story-apple-tv/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6978887/the-big-cigar-true-story-apple-tv/"},"headline":"The True Story Behind The Big Cigar","datePublished":"2024-05-17T13:10:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:02:09.163Z","description":"Huey P. Newton's flight to Cuba from the U.S. is dramatized in Apple TV+'s The Big Cigar. 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