In “The Big Cigar,” named after the fake movie the Hollywood producer Bert Schneider came up with as a cover to secret Newton to Cuba, had been a big financial supporter of the Black Panthers’ community-based programs that included free breakfasts for children and urban health clinics. Schneider gave the organization more than $250,000, “how can I put it? He’s my hero,” Schneider said of Newton, according to Time. What the series misses is just how deep a friendship the two men shared, enough for Newton to trust Schneider with his freedom and vice-versa.
Schneider and Newton’s friendship didn’t end when (spoiler) Newton safely made it to Cuba where he lived for three years before returning to California to face his charges, which prosecutors ended up dropping. Schneider visited him in Cuba and for years after the two men maintained their friendship. “They stayed in touch,” Joshuah Bearman, who wrote the 2012 Playboy article on which the series is based and who’s also an executive producer on the series, told Time. “They would see each other. It’s what you now would call a ‘bromance.'”
