President Franklin Roosevelt - The Mayflower Renaissance - Washington, DC
My first stay at the Mayflower (1127 Connecticut Av., Washington, DC) was in mid-December 1941, during our high school senior class trip. It was a week after the Pearl Harbor attack, and my most vivid memory happened when we toured the city. On the rooftops of many of the government buildings we could see soldiers in World War I helmets manning machine guns. Just eight years earlier, President-elect Roosevelt stayed at the Mayflower before moving into the White House in January 1933. If you're traveling to Washington and want to stay in Room 776, where FDR worked on his inaugural speech, the price is from $279 a night.
Elvis Presley - Trade Winds Inn - Clinton, OK
The country boy didn't start out with the wealth of the Roosevelts, and in the days before Graceland, he stayed in more modest hotels. During the early 1960s, while performing in Nevada, he drove the nearly 1,600 miles from Memphis to Las Vegas and back. Several times he spent the night at the Trade Winds Inn (2128 W. Gary Bvd., Clinton, OK), about halfway through his journeys. It's at the junction of Highway I-40 and old Route 66.
According to local legend, Elvis occupied the motel's Room 215 at least once. The price to stay where the King of Rock'n'Roll slept is listed as $80, about double the rate for other rooms there. The hotel is also across the street from another interesting spot, the Route 66 Museum.
Marilyn Monroe - Ballantines Original Hotel - Palm Springs, CA
A small boutique hotel, Ballentines (1420 N. Indian Canyon Dr., Palm Springs, CA) still looks as it did in the late 1940s when starlet Norma Jean Baker stayed there, just before she became Marilyn Monroe and went on to stardom. Her room is now a sort of shrine, called the "Pretty in Pink Suite", and is decorated with photos and other memorabilia from her life and career. While other rooms go for about $165, travelers must pay $265 to experience a night where Marilyn rested so many years ago.
Babe Ruth - Cranmore Mountain Lodge - North Conway, NH
Babe Ruth golfed in New Hampshire in the summer of 1939, where he met the owner of the Cranmore Mountain Lodge (859 Kearsarge Rd., North Conway, NH), who became his son-in-law the next year. The retired Yankee star visited several times and always stayed in Room 2. Ever since, it has been offered to guests, complete with original furniture and many photos of the Babe on the walls. Now a bed and breakfast, room rates there start around $100 depending on the season.
Billie Holiday - Hotel Mark Twain - San Francisco, CA
The famed "Lady Sings The Blues" vocalist had many problems in her short lifetime. In 1949, she was arrested in the Hotel Mark Twain (345 Taylor St., San Francisco, CA) near Union Square for possession of opium, after being set-up by her then-boyfriend. She was later acquitted, and today her Room 203 is dedicated to Billie Holiday, complete with many pictures of her on the walls. Depending on the season, you can book it for from $99 to $199 a night.
Follow travel writer Ted Sherman on Twitter @travel4seniors and check out his blog, travel4seniors.com
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