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Seymour Weiss (September 13, 1896 – September 17, 1969) was a prominent New Orleans hotel executive and civic leader who was a close confidante of the legendary Huey Pierce Long, Jr. Ironically, Weiss, the most loyal of Louisiana Longites, bore the same last name as Carl Weiss, M.D., the apparent assassin of U.S. Senator Huey Long. Weiss, who was Jewish, was born in Bunkie in Avoyelles Parish to Samuel Weiss, a merchant, and the former Gisella Elias. He was educated in public schools in Bunkie and Abbeville, the seat of Vermilion Parish. For a time he was a clerk in Alexandria, the seat of Rapides Parish and the largest city in central Louisiana, in an uncle's department store. He moved to New Orleans in 1916 to clerk in a shoe store. After the United States' entry into World War I, Weiss attended officers' training at Camp Gordon, Georgia, but the conflict ended before Weiss finished his training. Thereafter, he returned to New Orleans to resume work as a shoe clerk. ==The Roosevelt Hotel== In 1923, Weiss became the manager of a barbershop at the Grunewald Hotel in New Orleans. In 1924, he became the assistant hotel manager, and in 1928, he was promoted to hotel manager. First built in 1893, and known as the "Grunewald" (for its original owner, Louis Grunewald), the Grunewald opened what has been called the first nightclub in the United States, a basement room decorated with fake stalactites called "The Cave", where one could watch dancing chorus girls and listen to Dixieland jazz that would easily drown out the soothing indoor waterfalls. In 1923, a consortium of local investors purchased the hotel and renamed it "The Roosevelt" in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt, who had died four years earlier. In 1931, Weiss was named president of the New Orleans Roosevelt Corp. From 1931–1965, he was the principal owner and managing director of the Roosevelt. The Cave was closed in favor of a larger venue a floor above called "The Blue Room" which became a nationally prominent music venue. Weiss sold the Roosevelt in 1965. It became the Fairmont Hotel until closing following Hurricane Katrina. In August 2007, Dimension Development Company, Inc, a Natchitoches, Louisiana-based hotel development and management company purchased the property, and is currently restoring the building with a scheduled opening date of June 25, 2009. Dimension Development Company Inc, entered into an agreement with the Hilton Corporation to brand the hotel under Hilton's premier Waldorf Astoria collection. The hotel has been rechristened The Roosevelt Hotel by Waldorf Astoria. A grand opening is set for October, 2009. Businessman Sam Friedman of Natchitoches is heavily involved in the reopening. He is the son of the late Louisiana State Senator Sylvan Friedman. Although he had no children, he was uncle to Seymour II and S.J. Weiss. His wife and sister-in-law died in a car accident, leaving behind two widowers, and two motherless children, one thirteen and one three. The father, his brother, took the thirteen-year-old, S.J., and the grandparents and Seymour took Seymour II. Seymour, his parents, and "Little Seymour" lived in the hotel. Little Seymour married Sally McNulty and fathered Richard, David, and John Weiss. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Seymour Weiss」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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