Glen H. Taylor

Glen H. Taylor
United States Senator from Idaho
In office January 3, 1945 – January 3, 1951
Preceded by	D. Worth Clark
Succeeded by	Herman Welker
Personal details
Born	Glen Hearst Taylor (1904-04-12)April 12, 1904 Portland, Oregon
Died	April 28, 1984(1984-04-28) (aged 80) Burlingame, California
Resting place	Skylawn Memorial Park San Mateo, California
Political party	Democratic
Other political affiliations	Progressive (1948)
Spouse(s)	Dora Marie Pike Taylor (1903–1997) (aged 93) (m. 1930–1984, his death)
Children	3 sons
Parents	Pleasant John Taylor (1856–1938) Olive Higgins Taylor (1867–1939)
Profession	actor, musician, entrepreneur

Glen Hearst Taylor (April 12, 1904 – April 28, 1984) was an American politician, entertainer, businessman, and United States Senator from Idaho.^[1][2][3]

He was the vice presidential candidate on the Progressive Party ticket in the 1948 election.^[2] Taylor was otherwise a member of the Democratic Party. By one measure Taylor was the second most liberal member of the U.S. Senate (trailing only Wayne Morse of Oregon), and the fourth most liberal member of Congress overall between 1937 and 2002.^[4]

Early life

Born in a boarding house in Portland, Oregon, Taylor was the twelfth of thirteen children of Pleasant John Taylor and Olive Higgins Taylor.^[5] His father was a retired Texas ranger and wandering preacher,^[6] and the family was with him in Portland for a protracted soul-saving meeting. The family homesteaded in north central Idaho near Kooskia, and Taylor attended the public schools. In 1919, after completing the eighth grade, he joined his older brother's stock theater company,^[1][2] and between 1926 and 1944, he became the owner and manager of various entertainment enterprises. Taylor was also a country-western singer; his older sister, Lena, became famous as a jazz singer under the name Lee Morse in the 1920s.^[7]

Taylor was inspired to run for political office by King Camp Gillette's book The People's Corporation^[7] and Stuart Chase's 1932 book A New Deal. In 1935 Taylor unsuccessfully attempted to organize a Farmer–Labor Party in Nevada and Montana.^[8]

Political career

By the late 1930s, Taylor had settled in eastern Idaho at Pocatello. His first political campaign was in 1938 for an open seat in the U.S. House from the second district, but he finished a distant fourth in the Democratic primary.^[7]

Taylor first ran for the U.S. Senate in 1940 in a special election to fill the remaining term of the late William Borah, but lost to appointee John W. Thomas, with 47.1 to 52.9 percent. Despite being labeled as "semi-socialistic" and "communistic," he ran again in 1942 against Thomas and lost a closer race, 48.5 to 51.5 percent. Taylor lost both elections to Thomas because of stiff opposition from state Democratic Party leaders.^[8] Between elections Taylor supported himself as a painter's assistant and sheet metal worker in California.^[6]

In a third try for the U.S. Senate, Taylor ran for the other Idaho seat in 1944, defeating incumbent D. Worth Clark in the Democratic primary, and Governor C. A. Bottolfsen in the general election. Taylor, the first professional actor ever elected to the United States Congress, had never been east of Chicago prior to his election.^[6]

In the Senate, Taylor, known as "The Singing Cowboy," acquired a reputation for eccentric behavior. Upon his arrival in Washington D.C., Taylor rode his horse, Nugget, up the steps of the U.S. Capitol building.^[9] Nugget also accompanied Taylor during a 1947 tour of the country highlighting his anti-war activism and opposition to the U.S. foreign policy of the time.^{[10][11][12][13]}

When Taylor moved to Washington in preparation to be sworn in in January 1945, the housing shortage caused by World War II continued to be in full swing and he and his family had a difficult time finding a place to live. In response, Taylor  – a musician and songwriter  – stood outside the U.S. Capitol building and sang, "O give us a home, near the Capitol dome, with a yard for two children to play..." to the tune of Home on the Range.^[14] He and his family were offered several places to rent. Taylor was appointed to the Committee on Banking and Currency after telling Senator Robert F. Wagner of New York that he was qualified for the post because he had been a depositor with several banks. In October 1945, Taylor submitted a resolution to the Senate "favoring the creation of a world republic."^[6]

On election night in 1946, Taylor made national headlines by allegedly breaking the jaw of local Republican leader Ray McKaig in a hotel lobby in Boise.^[15] Taylor claimed that McKaig had called him an obscene name, and struck him first with a punch that broke his nose,^[16][17] but McKaig denied those claims.^[18] McKaig, 66, claimed that while he was lying on the floor Taylor proceeded to kick him in the face,^[19] but Taylor denied that claim.^[17][20] Later, when Taylor lost his reelection bid in the 1950 primary, McKaig sent a telegram that said, "You may have broken my jaw, but I just broke your back!!!"

Taylor also feuded with other Idaho Democrats, often making critical remarks about Charles Gossett, who resigned as governor in November 1945 to have his successor appoint him to the vacant U.S. Senate seat. During the 1946 Democratic primary in June, Taylor openly supported Gossett's opponent, George Donart, calling the appointed incumbent Gossett a "conservative" who "hobnobbed" with Republicans in Congress.^[21]

In the Senate, Taylor became noted for lengthy speeches which were often critical of President Harry S. Truman's policies, particularly in foreign affairs. He was particularly critical of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, both of which he believed brought the United States closer to war with the Soviet Union.^[22] Taylor was decidedly less critical of the Soviet Union than most of his Senate colleagues, once noting that there was no need to criticize Soviet policy when there were 90 other Senators willing to do it every day.^[8]

Civil rights activism

Taylor was an early proponent of the civil rights movement and as a United States Senator openly opposed segregationist policies and supporters. In January 1947 Taylor requested that the Senate delay the swearing in of Mississippi Sen. Theodore G. Bilbo, who had been reelected in 1946, pending investigation of charges against Bilbo for corruption and civil rights violations. As a result, Bilbo – well known for his segregationist, racially charged rhetoric – was never formally seated for his final Senate term. The impasse was not completely resolved until Bilbo's death in August 1947.^[23]

Taylor was arrested on May 1, 1948, in Birmingham, Alabama, by police commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor, for attempting to use a door reserved for African Americans, rather than the whites-only door, while attempting to attend a meeting of the Southern Negro Youth Congress. He was subsequently convicted of disorderly conduct.^[24]

Roswell connection

In July 1947, Taylor was asked by a United Press reporter what he thought about reports that remnants of a UFO had been found by the Air Force near Roswell, New Mexico. Taylor replied that he almost hoped flying saucers would turn out to be spaceships from another planet. "They could end our petty arguments on earth." He went on to say that no matter what the UFOs turned out to be, they "can't be laughed off."

"Even if it is only a psychological phenomenon, it is a sign of what the world is coming to," Taylor explained. "If we don't ease the tensions, the whole world will be full of psychological cases and eventually turn into a global nuthouse."

1948 vice presidential nomination

In 1948 Taylor was chosen as the vice presidential candidate on the Progressive ticket headed by former Vice President Henry A. Wallace of Iowa.^[1] The unabashedly leftist Wallace/Taylor ticket failed to carry any states and won only 2.4 percent of the nationwide popular vote. The nomination prompted an effort by conservatives within the Idaho Democratic Party to expel him from its ranks, but was defeated.^[25]

1950 reelection run

In 1950, former Senator David Worth Clark sought to regain his Senate seat from Taylor. Taylor's run on the Progressive ticket earned him a reputation as an "incorrigible leftist" in Idaho and contributed to his defeat in his reelection campaign in 1950.^[26] Taylor was defeated in the Democratic primary by Clark, who in turn lost in the general election to conservative Republican Herman Welker.

Election results

Source:^[27]

• 1940 was a special election (November) to complete the final two years of the term vacated by the death of William Borah on January 19, 1940.
  Thomas, a former U.S. Senator (1928–1933), was appointed to the seat by Governor C. A. Bottolfsen on January 27.

Later life

Taylor served as president of Coryell Construction Company from 1950 to 1952, but was forced to resign after being labeled a "security risk," jeopardizing a government contract. Afterwards he was often forced to work manual labor construction jobs.^[7] He ran again for the Senate in 1954 but was decisively beaten by Republican incumbent Henry Dworshak, winning only 37.2 percent of the vote. His sixth and final Senate attempt came in 1956; he narrowly lost the Democratic primary to 32-year-old lawyer Frank Church,^{[28][29][30][31]} and then got 5.1 percent of the vote in the general election as a write-in candidate.^[32] In March 1958, Taylor proposed that Church take a lie detector test about fraud in the 1956 primary.^[33]

In 1958, Taylor and his wife Dora moved to Millbrae, California, and began making hairpieces by hand based on a hairpiece Taylor made for himself in the early 1940s.^[1][2] By 1960 Taylor Topper Inc. had become the major manufacturer of hair replacements in the United States. Taylor told the Washington Post in 1978 that it was something he was very familiar with. "I was 18, a juvenile leading man in a traveling show, and my hair had begun to fall out. There isn't much demand for bald juvenile leading men, and I tried everything – sheep dip, what have you – and that just made it fall out faster."

Taylor explained that he had run for public office without the hairpiece and found that voters "didn't have much use for bald politicians", but "I ran the fourth time with it and won." His original toupée was made from a tin pie plate, which he lined with pink felt and swatches of human hair. In 1958, he was granted a patent (#2,850,023) for his innovative product.^[34][35] Glen and Dora Taylor were successful manufacturing hair pieces, and Taylor Toppers became famous. The company, now known as Taylormade Hair Replacement, is still active in Millbrae.^[36]

Glen and Dora Taylor had three sons between 1935 and 1942, Glen Arod – Dora spelled backward, followed by Paul Jon and Greg.^[1]

Taylor died at age 80 in April 1984 due to complications from Alzheimer's disease;^[1][7] Dora Taylor remained in the San Mateo County area until her death at age 93 in 1997.^[36] They are interred at Skylawn Memorial Park in San Mateo.

References

Further reading

Senator Glen H. Taylor, The Way It Was With Me (memoir), Lyle Stuart, Secaucus, New Jersey, 1979 ISBN 0-8184-0288-1

External links

• United States Congress. "Glen H. Taylor (id: T000079)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. 
• Taylormade (hair): History
• Glen H. Taylor at Find a Grave

United States Senators from Idaho
Class 2	Shoup Dubois Borah Thomas Gossett Dworshak Miller Dworshak Jordan McClure Craig Risch
Class 3	McConnell Dubois Heitfeld Heyburn Perky Brady Nugent Gooding Thomas Pope Clark Taylor Welker Church Symms Kempthorne Crapo