Trouble In The Kitchen At The Shoreham Hotel In Washington D.C. Back In 1977

 

 

The above pictures are from the movie THE SHINING. I put them on here to illustrate the story
below. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.


When I first went to work as a Security Officer at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington D.C. in 1977 the other Security Officer I was working with on the 3pm to 11pm shift  told me to "take your time if you are called to the kitchen".  We did not carry guns. Security Officers in hotels in DC didn't carry guns back then. They did in Miami and New York City but not DC. As one Security Chief told an eager young Security Officer who asked why we didnt carry guns, "Because I want you to use your brain not your gun".

I was new but I understood what the guy was telling me. The Shoreham Hotel has 4 sub basements. The  kitchen is down below and as you descend each level gets to look more and more like the lower depths. Broken glass covers the floors.

So I got a call to go to the kitchen that a fight was underway. And that one of the cooks was chasing another cook with a butcher knife.
I did not run to the basement where the kitchen is located. But neither did I hestitate to go. I walked calmly down not knowing what to expect. By the time I got there the two of them were separated. A big black cook was holding a butcher knife and a small Korean chef(who was his boss) told me they were cutting vegetables and that they had argued over how the work was to be done.
The little Korean chef showed me some marks on his neck which he said were from where the big black cook had choked him and lifted him up off the floor. And that the big guy had threatened to kill him.

In cases like this it was standard procedure to tell the offending party to leave and punch out and go home.
So I told the big black cook to leave and punch out and go home and come back in the morning and talk to the head chef. He did just that. They fired him the next day and I heard no more about it.


Another short story. There was an old rabbi who came to the hotel to make sure to food was prepared kosher for kosher events. He once slipped on a banana peel in a dark underground hallway and broke his glasses when he fell. I had to write a report on that.

One of the cooks told me that once a chef was tired of the rabbi hanging around and got a skillet burning  hot and put it down on the floor and told the rabbi, "Rabbi hand me that skillet". The rabbi picked it up not knowing it was hot. 

World Boxing Association Event 8-27-1976 At The Shoreham Hotel In Washington D.C. Howard Cosell Was The M.C. Every Living Heavyweight Champion Except George Foreman Came And I Got Autographs From Joe Frazier And Muhammad Ali

The Shoreham Hotel Washington D.C. 2500 Calvert Street N.W.

You can find the photo described below by clicking on the link below and clicking on Events.

http://www.miltonwilliamsphotography.com/captionsevents.html

Row 1. Box 3. I AM THE GREATEST!!! said Muhammad Ali at the WBA 55th Annual Convention at the Shoreham Americana Hotel in Washington D. C. as Howard Cossell looks on. Heavyweight Boxing Champion Muhammad Ali, 2/25/64 to 3/22/67 (stripped of his title by the WBA and others for refusing military service because of his religious beliefs) - 10/ 30/74 to 2/15/78 and 9/15/78 to retirement in 1979 - First heavyweight champion to hold title 3 times in boxing history. Photo by Milton Williams c. 8.27.1976.

The above photograph of Bob Dylan and Ali was taken in another place at another time.

Joe Frazier just died. He was 67 years old. I got his autograph when I worked at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington D.C. in August 1976.
   He was there for a big World Boxing Association Event. Howard Cosell was the M.C. More than a 1000 people came to the event held in the large Regency Ballroom. Every single living heavy weight champion was there except George Foreman. The ones who came that I remember were Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis,  Jersey Joe Walcott, Ken Norton and Floyd Patterson.
I saw all these champions lined up in the hallway outside of the Regency Ballroom waiting to go in.

Joe Frazier and Muhammed Ali in line waiting to go in the event. Click on these photos to enlarge them to view them better. Photo by Joe B. Stewart

The above photo is of a young Joe Frazier.
   I got Ali's autograph in the Lobby of the Shoreham Hotel the next day. He was standing in the Lobby all alone. No one else was around. I said, "Hi Champ. Can I have your autograph?" He signed his name on a small piece of paper which I handed to him. Then I said "I saw you had your picture taken with Bob Dylan." He nodded yes.

Above is the Muhammad Ali autograph that he gave me in the Lobby of the Shoreham Hotel in 1976.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_heavyweight_boxing_champions
The night of the event after it was over I saw Joe Frazier sitting with two pretty young women one on each side of him on a couch in the hallway off the lobby. I went up to him and said hello. I told him my daughter has asked me to get his autograph for her. I told him I had told her I was going to get Ali's autograph and my daughter said "Get Joe Frazier's autograph too". The two women both said "Yes". I got Joe 's autograph and gave it to my daughter.
   Howard Cosell was a great M.C. for the event. He joked and traded insults with Ali. Cosell told Ali "I knew you when you were a kid in Louisville,Ky. stealing bicycles".
 Two photos below taken after the event. Both are of Ken Norton. I look on.