Submitted by:
Georgia Tiffany

One could say the Davenport Hotel determined my birthplace and provided me with my own personal Santa Claus. My father, Robert Tiffany, studied

    Davenport menus at Cornell University. After receiving his degree in hotel administration, he and my mother, Gerry, came west to Billings, under a

    six-month contract to start up a restaurant for a Montana family. In the fall of 1939, the job completed, they headed toward California to visit my grandmother. My father insisted on going through Spokane so he could see the famous Davenport. The stop resulted in a visit with Mr. Davenport, who, on the spot, hired my father to manage the Apple Bower and the Delicacy Shop.

    He became the Davenport manager (the first manager, my mother believes) of the Early Birds Club. My parents’ friend, Max Carpenter, the Davenport’s assistant manager in the forties, suited up for four Christmases as my own personal Santa.

    * * *

    I, of course, remember Max, and the Davenport, and even performed, as a high school student, for the Early Birds. My partner, John C. Attle, went on to

    dance in, among others, Bye-bye Birdie in Chicago and Las Vegas, and was the lead dancer, I believe, in Fiddler on the Roof in New York. Our Lewis and

    Clark senior prom was held in the main lobby of the Davenport, with all our parents sitting on the balcony looking down.