About this episode

This episode explores the legend of President William Howard Taft getting stuck in a bathtub and the origins of this story.

We’ve all heard the story. President William Howard Taft got stuck in the White House bathtub! A bunch of dudes had to yank him out!! They replaced the old bathtub with a new one, BIG ENOUGH TO HOLD FOUR WORKING MEN!!! …except did he *actually* get stuck in the tub? In this episode, we do a deep dive into how this story got started and how it eventually got stuck in the bathtub of our collective imaginations. Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Kristin pulled from: “Popular Lore Claims That William Howard Taft Got Stuck in a Bathtub. New Research Sheds Light on the Legend’s Forgotten Origins” by Howard Dorre for Smithsonian “Taft bathtub is world’s largest,” The Altoona Times, Jan. 27, 1909 “President Taft’s giant, bathtub, Woodrow Wilson’s wife,” by Gwen Bagni and Paul Dubov for The San Francisco Examiner, Jan. 23, 1979 “Chief justice, not president, was William Howard Taft’s dream job,” by Erick Trickey for Smithsonian Magazine “William Howard Taft is still stuck in the tub,” Alexis Coe by The New York Times “50 years on the Ol’ Mississip’” by Lewis R. Freeman for American Illustrated Magazine, Volume 107, 1929 “Backstairs at the White…

People in this episode

Host: Kristin

Topics covered

• William Howard Taft
• bathtub story
• historical myths
• presidential history
• true crime
• comedy

Keywords

• William Howard Taft
• bathtub
• history
• myth
• president
• comedy
• true crime

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Smithsonian, The Altoona Times, The San Francisco Examiner, Smithsonian Magazine, The New York Times, American Illustrated Magazine, Movie Lovers, The Jeffersonian, New York Herald

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