It was easy to find the Stoddard, 49 years ago

In August of 1968, downtown La Crosse’s largest hotel, the Hotel Stoddard, put up a huge new rooftop sign that summer, spelling out the building’s name in big letters that would be lit at night with fluorescent lights…replacing a worn-out neon sign.  On the other side of 4th Street from the hotel, Montgomery Ward was trying to clear out its air conditioners as summer was ending.  Wards was selling the chillers for as low as 119 dollars.
 
Richard Nixon won the Republican nomination for president for the second time that summer, and chose Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew as his running mate.  A newspaper story described Agnew as 6-foot-2, a father of four, and an “immaculate dresser.”  Wisconsin’s delegates put Nixon over the top on the night of the convention roll call at Miami Beach. 
 
On Sunday nights that August, you could turn on the TV and watch “Mission: Impossible”…”Gentle Ben”…or a new variety show called the “Summer Brothers Smothers Show,” hosted by singer Glen Campbell.  The show lasted for four years on CBS, and was renamed “The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour.”  It started in 1968…Yesterday in La Crosse.