the first professional actor ever elected to Congress, had never been east of Chicago prior to his election. In the Senate, Taylor, known as "The Singing Cowboy," acquired a reputation for eccentric behavior. Upon his arrival in Washington, D.C., Taylor rode his horse, Nugget, up the steps of the U.S. Capitol building. Nugget also accompanied Taylor during a 1947 tour of the country highlighting his antiwar activism and opposition to U.S. foreign policy of the time. When Taylor moved to Washington in preparation to be sworn in in January 1945, the housing shortage caused by World War II was still in full swing and so he and his family had a difficult time finding a place to live. In response, Taylor, a musician and songwriter, stood outside the US Capitol building and sang, "O give us a home, near the Capitol dome, with a yard for two children to play ..." to the tune of "Home on the Range". He and his family were offered several places to rent. Taylor was appointed to the Committee on Banking and Currency after telling Senator Robert F. Wagner of New York that he was qualified for the post because he had been a depositor with several banks. In October 1945, Taylor submitted a resolution to the Senate "favoring the creation of a world republic." In July 1946, at a convention of the National Lawyers Guild in Cleveland, Senator Taylor said: Success of monopolies in dealing with the present Congress is evident in the wrecking of price control, profit-guaranteeing tax rebates, blocking of power projects in the Columbia and Missouri Valleys, pigeonholing of the minimum wage bill and in the emasculation of the 1944 Kilgore Reconversion Bill and the 1945 Murray Full-Employment Bill. Monopolies have so influenced our foreign policy that it serves monopoly and monopolistic aims. On election night in 1946, Taylor made national headlines by allegedly breaking the jaw of local Republican leader Ray McKaig in a hotel lobby in Boise. Taylor claimed that McKaig had called him an obscene name, and struck him first with a punch that broke his nose, but McKaig denied those claims. McKaig, 66, claimed that while he was lying on the floor Taylor proceeded to kick him in the face, but Taylor denied that claim. Later, when Taylor lost his reelection bid in the 1950 primary, McKaig sent a telegram that said, "You may have broken