Of all the people who have died in a hotel room, with a single newspaper clipping in their pockets, they really ought to think about closing that hotel. Or at least stop renting out that room. Jeez.
You okay, Fish? I mean, I get the joke, but it’s kind of a morbid topic to play with, and 'tis the season for joy for some but lots of people react differently to this time of year, and I don’t know you, but still…you okay?
Well, Nikola Tesla was mentioned in a GQ thread, and I started thinking wow, him too?
It got me to wondering: if they’d all got together in the same hotel room, they’d probably have a hell of a baseball team. Or they’d battle to the death over the last complimentary soap. 
Well, Anna Held died in a hotel room (the Savoy, on Fifth Avenue), but it was a very swank hotel and she was surrounded by family and friends, so it wasn’t exactly sordid.
But could she throw a slider?
Eve, you know who Anna Held was? I thought nobody knew Anna Held any more! I’d have bet the farm that even Patricia Ziegfeld, who’s still alive, had forgotten her father’s first wife’s name.
Know who Anna Held was? Hell, you might say I wrote the book on Anna Held!
Eve, can you finish this bit of doggerel without looking it up?
This is the trio of musical fame
Bolton and Wodehouse and Kern …
Just wanted to say, of the 74 people listed, I’ve only heard of about a third of them (26) – and of those 26, I’m not sure who some of them actually are, just that “I’ve heard that name.”
Sonia - You’re in the presence of Doper Greatness. Our very own Eve literally wrote the book on Anna Held.
StG
Nope. Not without looking it up. But now I have the “Byron and Shelley and Keats . . .” doggerel running through my head.
[blushes prettily]
Not to go too far afield in this thread hijack (too late?) I just now found out that here is my very favorite photo of myself! No, not Anna: click on the “back flap” link and scroll down to the author’s photo. Moi! Well, moi about dix years and vingt-cinq pounds ago . . .
Eve - Somehow I always picture you looking like Barbara Stanwyck. I was right! Although I sort of imagined blonde,.
StG
They missed Tennessee Williams:
(clipped from his wikipedia article, bolding mine):
Tennessee Williams died at the age of 71 after he choked on a pretzel in his room at the Hotel Elysee in New York. However, some (among them his brother, Dakin) believe he was murdered. Alternately, the police report from his death seems to indicate that drugs were involved; many prescription drugs were found in the room, and the lack of an adequate gag response that would have released the bottle cap from his throat is often due to drug and alcohol influence. (end of quote)
(OK - somebody was typing a TW article while wishfully thinking about a GWB article) but as I understood it, and as I used the story as a cautionary tale as a pharmacy technican, TW died shortly after the Tylenol Murders when more and more safety features were added to bottle caps. He impatiently tried to bite the cap off, which lodged in his throat. The catamite who was present seems to have been innocent of the heimlich manuver, and so fled and left TW to die. The old wisdom that you don’t pay hookers to come to you; you pay them to leave afterwards sometimes has its down side.
If “cheap, sad boarding house” counts as a “hotel,” then both Marie Prevost and Florence Lawrence count. Though those may cross the line from hotel to apartment . . .
Is there an similar list of people who alone with a pet dog or cat?
(Yes, that’s exactly what I’m thinking; and I’m still a cat-person, despite their tendency to mourn less and nibble sooner)
Eve, wow, I take my aigrette-bedecked cartwheel hat off to you! You truly did write the book on Anna Held! I thought you were using the phrase metaphorically but nope, you wrote the book on Anna Held! I’m going to order it today. I can’t wait to read it! I truly thought that Held was completely forgotten except by semi-aspies like me who love the musicals of the period. I’m excited to read the book and honored to be distantly acquainted with you.
No… the dog-owners were buried and could not be found, and the cat-owners were so covered with hungry cat nibbles that they could not be identified.
Eve, while we’re on the subject of FZ’s wives, a member over at another board where I hang out says that Billie Burke was a lesbian. Is this true?
Sonia - Did you check out Eve’s other books?
StG