According to Ray Henderson with the William Howard Taft National
Historic Site in Cincinnati, the story comes from Ike Hoover,
the chief White House usher during the Taft presidency. Hoover
wrote a book, titled "42 Years in the White House," which
published in 1932 and made mention of Taft getting stuck in the
White House tub. Other than that, Henderson said, he has "never
found anything definitive that he actually got stuck in a
bathtub. I've been here for 25 years and that is the only
written (primary source) documentation that I have seen of
William Howard Taft being stuck in a bathtub." That is not to
say, however, that the questions don't come up. In fact, they
come up so frequently that Henderson has kept a file on all the
questions he has received. Henderson also said the story about
Taft getting stuck in a bathtub builds upon common anecdotes and
jokes from his presidency. "There were stories of Taft getting
stuck in chairs," Henderson said. "The common theme was that
Taft's size caused problems." The