Taft Hotel
It was renamed for President William Howard Taft in 1931 after being sold.
One of the hotel's most famous features was the Taft Grill.
The George Hall Orchestra (sometimes called the George Hall Taft Hotel Orchestra) performed from the hotel on Monday through Saturday at noon on CBS Radio, starring Dolly Dawn. The band's signature song was "Love Letters in the Sand".
Other big band performances were by Artie Shaw, Xavier Cugat, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, and Tony Pastor.
Vincent Lopez performed in residency for 20 years and broadcast a radio show from the hotel, with Gloria Parker, Shake the Maracas. Lopez later broadcast a TV show from the Taft on the DuMont network, Dinner Date, from January to July 1950.
On May 26, 1933, Jimmie Rodgers (The Father Of Country Music) died here at the age of 35 from a long battle with tuberculosis. This occurred just two days after completing what was his final recording session for Victor Records.
In 1955, Philip Loeb died from an overdose of sleeping pills at the hotel in the Hollywood blacklist scandal.
A scene from the 1967 film How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, in which Finch follows a rival executive to a football pep party, was shot at the hotel.
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Famous quotes containing the words taft and/or hotel:
“Taft, laughing, “What troubles [brother] Charles is, he is afraid Roosevelt will get the credit of making me President and not himself.” To Charles: “I will agree not to minimize the part you played in making me President if you will agree not to minimize the part Roosevelt played.””
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“Consider his life which was valueless
In terms of employment, hotel ledgers, news files.
Consider. One bullet in ten thousand kills a man.
Ask. Was so much expenditure justified
On the death of one so young and so silly
Lying under the olive tree, O world, O death?”
—Stephen Spender (1909–1995)