Gil Klein - Tales from the National Press Club

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.com

Copyright 2020 by Gil Klein

All rights reserved

Front cover, bottom: Actor George Clooney shares a laugh with then senator Barack Obama during a Club press conference, April 27, 2006. Christy Bowe, NPC Archives.

First published 2020

E-book edition 2020

ISBN 978.1.4396.6980.8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019956033

Print Edition 978.1.4671.4317.2

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is dedicated to all of the past presidents of the National Press Club, the Womens National Press Club and the Washington Press Club, who volunteered their time, energy and talents to keep journalism vibrant in the nations capital.

This room really is the sanctum sanctorum of American journalism. Its the Westminster Hall, its Delphi, the Mecca, the Wailing Walleverybody in this country having anything to do with the news business, this is the only hallowed place I know of thats absolutely bursting with irreverence.

Eric Sevareid of CBS News, speaking in the National Press Club ballroom, November 16, 1977

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.
newspaper editor Maxwell Scott in the motion picture

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

The National Press Club is the stuff of legends, most of which have the added benefit of being true.

From its founding as a men-only social club in 1908 to its standing today as both a beacon for press freedom and a national treasure, here you will find insightful, inspiring, colorful, whimsical, thoughtful and thought-provoking stories of the Clubs proud (and not-so-proud) history.

As told by journalist, author and former Club president Gil Klein, with important contributions from scribes past, the history of the National Press Club comes to life in this volume. And what a life it is.

Through its doors over the past 112 years have passed the greatest journalists in history, from Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite to Helen Thomas, Katharine Graham and Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Also, many of the worlds most remarkable newsmakers, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, Nelson Mandela, Gloria Steinem, Indira Gandhi, Nikita Khrushchev, Fidel Castro and Muhammad Ali.

The Club has played host to a whos who of cultural icons such as Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Carol Channing, Jack Benny, Buffalo Bill Cody, Elizabeth Taylor, Will Rogers, John Lennon, Maya Angelou, Mr. Rogers, Grover from Sesame Street and Lauren Bacall, who famously sat atop a piano while listening to Harry Truman play just months before he succeeded Franklin Roosevelt as president of the United States.

In fact, every president from Theodore Roosevelt to Donald Trump has appeared at the National Press Club before, during or after his time in office.

And those stories are all here.

So are the stories of the Clubs painfully slow progress in opening its doors to all journalists. Racial integration arrived in 1955, and the fight to admit women as members was finally won in 1971. The first woman president took office in 1982 and the first African American in 2004.

Over the course of its history, the Club, which was once hailed by a newsreel commentator as the shrine of American newspaperdom, has witnessed the rise of radio, television and the internet. Over the decades, the Teletype has given way to the Tweet and live streams now offer global video access to events in real time.

Today, the National Press Club stands as a champion of freedom of the press and the protection of journalists worldwide, as well as ethics and excellence in the profession, workplace standards in our newsrooms, the education of the next generation of journalists and news literacy for the general public. And the Club is here to answer the basic question for American democracywhy journalism matters. As has been the case since 1908, journalists still gather at the Club in good fun and mutual respect, with a shared belief in the mission of our profession.

Here, Gil Klein captures the depth and breadth of the Clubs history, as well as its contemporary vibrancy and relevance. He deftly captures the evolution of the National Press Club, the history made within its hallowed halls and the role it continues to play in the course of history. It is truly the stuff of legends.

Michael Freedman

2020 President

The National Press Club

Executive Producer

The Kalb Report

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book would not have been possible without the work of National Press Club chroniclers of the past who recorded its colorful history for more than a century. Some of the stories here are passed down practically verbatim. A big salute to Jeff Schlosberg, the Clubs archivist, who quickly responded to my many emails seeking photographs and provided wise counsel.

Many thanks to Bill McCarren, the Clubs executive director, who asked me to update the Clubs history and provided the backing to make it happen. My comrades on the Clubs history and heritage committee cheered me along. Special thanks to Elizabeth Smith Brownstein, who prodded me to start doing weekly NPC in History features for the Clubs internet newsletter, The Wire, and to The Wire editors, who were my first copy editors.

Also, thanks to Maurine Beasley, one of the great historians of women journalists; Steve Usdin, whose knowledge of espionage in the National Press Building and of the end of Prohibition was invaluable; and Matt Schudel for his knowledge of jazz and his fact-checking ability. C-SPAN was essential to this book. I could find just about anything of importance that happened in the Club since 1982 in its gargantuan online archives.

Credit goes to all of the Clubs volunteer photographers who have taken thousands of photos documenting the past. The Library of Congress did the Club and me an immense service in picking out audio recordings of what it deemed the top twenty-five Club luncheons from its collectionof all of them from 1953 to 1991and making them available online along with photos and historical analyses. I relied heavily on Alan Gevinsons analytical work.

Thanks to Mike Freedman, my friend and colleague for more than twenty-five years in production of The Kalb Report. Finally, to Larry Lipman, my friend of many decades, going back to when we were competitors for news in Polk County, Florida, and a fellow former Club president, who edited this book.

PREFACE

The National Press Clubs motto is Where news happens.

Journalism, as former Washington Post publisher Philip Graham famously said, is the first rough draft of history.

This book combines those two concepts. For well over a century, news has been made at the National Press Club. Those events have shaped the history of the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries. World leaders have flocked to the podium. Every president from Theodore Roosevelt to Donald Trump has spoken here either before, during or after his presidency. Not to mention the thousands of presidential wannabes, congressional leaders and Cabinet members, governors and mayors, generals and admirals, titans of industry, award-winning journalists, best-selling authors, media executives, civil rights leaders, kings and queens, dukes and duchesses, movie and television stars, entertainers, sports heroes and explorers from the ocean depths to the arctic to the moon.