Did taft get stuck in a bathtub

Topping the scales at over 350 pounds, William Howard Taft was a true political heavyweight. Although “Big Bill” was the only man to serve as both U.S. president and Supreme Court chief justice, what most remember about Taft is that he supposedly became stuck in the White House bathtub.

The story, however, apparently doesn’t hold water.

William howard taft accomplishments as president

No documentary evidence backs it up, and according to Brady Carlson, author of the bookDead Presidents: An American Adventure into the Strange Deaths and Surprising Afterlives of Our Nation’s Leaders, the story didn’t arise until two decades after Taft left the presidency.

Carlson says the sudsy tale first surfaced along with other presidential dirt in longtime White House usher Ike Hoover’s 1934 memoir, 42 Years in the White House.

“The funny part is that while Taft was president, the White House got a tub that was so big a president couldn’t possibly get stuck in it,” Carlson says.

Indeed, just weeks after Taft’s 1908 election, the captain o