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CHAPTER XI

JUBILEE

THE INSCRIPTION, "What Is Past, Is Prologue," which appears on the National Archives Building in Washington, is both a forecast and an aspiration as NPC moves into the second half of the century dating from the year of its organization.

The Club has come a long way. It has expanded in every particular - membership, financially, breadth of vision and objective, and in the many intangibles which must be basic in any entity that is to survive.

In its first year, the Club operated on a budget of $6,000 plus "deficiency appropriations" measured by the willingness and patience of tradesmen. In 1958 the budget ran to $750,000. Parenthetically, the Federal Government's budget increased in this period of time from $621, 102,390 to $75,000,000,000. Today, the Club is out of debt and financially able to engineer the expansions and improvements which a swelling membership requires.

Journalistically, the Crossroads of the World today is the National Press Club. This circumstance was promoted in part by World War II which brought an influx of foreign correspondents to the United States, most of whom remained, or their replacements have. Visiting newsmen are welcomed to share the services of NPC on "Guest Cards"; domestically, a system of reciprocation has been entered into with established press clubs in a score of larger cities.

Since that epochal night in 1908 when the small band of newsmen pledged their meager resources and abundant spirit to the creation of what was to be a truly national press club, journalism has seen many changes. Perhaps nowhere more than in Washington has there been so rapid and sweeping a transition in development of news sources, methods and problems of coverage, and in transmission of copy. Radio and television were added to the media. Their reporters and correspondents were to take their proper places beside the pencil-and-paper scribes. Two world wars were to come and go; two generations of newspapermen were to be confronted with the necessity of developing methods or covering and evaluating an unprecedented flow of news. During the peacetime years, politics and government were to experience changes which would send reporters to tomes on political science and constitutional construction to translate official happenings into the language of the news column. The National Press Club luncheon series now is a "must" in Washington coverage. It is the launching pad for stories of global impact on peace and war, politics and national policy, and, in truth, the whole expanse of news itself.

STAR PEOPLE - Founding member John Russell Young telling President Horner about the "good old days" at the Jubilee Dinner. Mr. Young, retired White House reporter for the Star, spoke in behalf of the Charter Members, touching the high spots and the low spots of the Club's first fifty years.

In half a century, membership has grown from 192 to 4,673 of whom more than one-half are resident members and 3,703 are directly engaged in the newsgathering and transmitting professions.

When the Club was created, public information officer or press relations aide were virtually unknown terms; a correspondent covered the State, War and Navy Departments under a single roof; the White House had no press contact man. Today, Federal personnel devoted to these tasks is legion, and most essential to Washington reportage.

John V. Horner of the Washington Star was elected president for 1958 with the burden of leading the Club during the 50th anniversary year. The Jubilee Dinner was held in the Sheraton-Park Hotel on April 12, with almost a thousand members and guests in attendance. The especially honored guests at the high table were thirteen surviving Charter Members of the Club, a gallant baker's dozen who had seen the trembling birth of the organization that, in a half century, was to become the greatest press club in the world.

They were John Russell Young whose initial insistence upon a cash only fiscal policy preserved the Club; Fred Emery, an active newspaper man in his eighties; Michael W. Flynn, retired; Clarence Marshall, for years associated with David Lawrence and Willard Kiplinger; Charles K. Moser, retired after a long State Department career; Thomas Brahany, still active as an investment broker; Jerome Fanciulli, retired; Thomas Kirby, retired; Fred W. Steckman, retired; Robert W. Woolley, now retired after a notable political career; C. N. Odell and Ralph H. Burton of New York and W. H . Atkins, retired. Some were astonishingly vigorous; all were greying or wholly silver-haired. They received the homage of the members for whom they had prepared a place in the world!

SHERATON PARK'S HIGH TABLE ON THE NIGHT OF APRIL 12 - Former President Harry Truman explained he never "fussed" with reporters but directed his Presidential barbs at the editors and publishers. He couldn't resist adding, "I could always tell what editors and publishers were thinking about when you asked me questions."

Chief Justice Earl Warren, left, with early arriving Charter Members. Seated, Robert W. Wooley, left, and Fred W. Steckman; standing, Thomas W. Brahany, H. Ralph Burton, Clarence G. Marshall, Fred A. Emery, J. Russell Young, Michael W. Flynn and Thomas Kirby. Charter Members arriving after picture was taken was Jerome Fanciulli, D. H. MacAdam, C. N. Odell and Charles K. Moser.

Jubillee Committee Chairman John O'Brien escorts Harry S. Truman to head table. "Tony" Vaccaro, in the former President's shadow, Lew Shollenberger, extreme right.

Three Johns appear to be wild about Harry. NPC Treasurer John Cauley, left, Harry S. Truman, President Horner, Board Member John Cosgrove.

President Eisenhower had been invited to appear but he decided to go to Georgia to play golf over the week-end, returning to Washington the day after the dinner. His decision was a disappointment, for over the previous half century or most of it, Presidents of the United States had appeared on Club occasions of much lesser importance. Inevitably his absence created something of a vacuum. But this was dramatically filled. Harry S. Truman, a member, happened to be in Washington. Midway of the evening, the stage show was interrupted by President Horner. Then, suitably escorted, Mr. Truman entered the great hall and was paraded around it, arriving at the head table amidst a tremendous standing ovation. After a brief and gracious speech he departed the same processional way to the echo of cheers.

On April 13, a Sunday, the Club was the setting for a major portion of a live television presentation in the "Wide Wide World" series of the National Broadcasting Company, titled "Headline City," the story of Washington, D. C. as the news-gathering capital of the world. For a generation or more, much of the public had gained its impressions of newspapermen from such plays as "The Front Page" which portrayed a somewhat irresponsible individual as a typical reporter. This television presentation showed Washington correspondents at work gathering news, editing it and transmitting it to the ends of the earth. Aside from the Main Lounge of the Club where President Horner, Benjamin McKelway, Editor of the Washington Star and president or the Associated Press; Lawrence Richey, secretary to President Hoover; Bascom Timmons, Homer J. Dodge, Edward Folliard, Chalmers Roberts, James J. Butler, and other newspaper figures appeared, scenes were shown in the Washington office of the New York Daily News with John O'Donnell and his slat as the actors, and in the United Press where Lyle Wilson and Julius Frandsen took the leading roles. Such columnists as Arthur Krock and James Reston of the New York Times, Marquis Childs, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Frederick Othman of United Feature Syndicate, and Roscoe Drummond of the New York Herald Tribune, were revealed in the writing room of the Club.

Fulton Lewis, Jr., of MBS, tells how Press Galleries were opened to radio correspondents in 1939 during the National Broadcasting Company 90-minute nationwide telecast on April 13, 1958.

NPC has passed through the fiftieth year of its existence with constant awareness of the importance of the milestone but with characteristic acceptance of events, big and little.

It's all in a day's work. Or a year's.

The membership grows, services are expanded, the physical quarters are modernized, the luncheons and the social events follow a pattern now familiar but beyond the most ambitious dreams of the founding members. To newsmen there is no yesterday; only today, and tomorrow. The Club is half a century old, on the record; in attitude and projection, it is not ending an era. It is entering one.

ANOTHER CARD CARRYING PRESIDENT: The Jubilee year was brought to a fitting climax on January 14 with the attendance of President Dwight D. Eisenhower at a luncheon. Skipping the traditional formal talk, he went directly into a Q&A session, replying to written queries by a capacity house.

At the conclusion, the President was proclaimed a member of the Club. In accepting the membership card from President Horner, Mr. Eisenhower responded with grateful appreciation, and drew a roar of laughter with this observation: "I understand - possibly erroneously, but I hope it is true - that members of the press normally deal gently with their other members. So I hope possession of this card gives me certain immunity that, up to this moment, has not been mine."

Mr. Eisenhower set a precedent by permitting the first live radio and television coverage of a presidential news conference. It lasted 50 minutes, the longest he has held since moving into the White House. Pooled broadcast facilities fed the hour-long session live to CBS and NBC television and radio networks, and MBS and ABC radio networks. Three live and five film-tv cameras plus audio facilities gave world-wide coverage to the historic occasion.

FRONT DESK 1958: Mabel Cornett hands change to Homer Dodge. Ernie Ball, on the phone, is the front office manager, while Mildred Ryan is shown at the switchboar. Percy Jeter, worthy successor to the famous no-check-needed Hat Doctor, man's the cloakroom.

Archives Chairman Homer Dodge receives replica of Billiken from President Horner at second annual President's Black Tie Ball. The 1958 Billiken was made by President Horner's cousin, Julia Mahood of Lynchburg, Va.

Club Manager Jim Montfort briefs Charter Member Tom Kirby on the latest doings about the Club during one of his frequent noon-time visits.

1958 Committees

Every Club has its unsung stalwarts. In the Press Club the unsung faithful are the approximately 150 members of the standing committes who share this almost anonymous honor. Under the By-Laws, there are ten standing committees appointed annually by the president with the Board's approval. As we have seen, the NPC has grown far too large for 12 officers and governors to supervise its function in detail. The committees thus become the Board's operating agents. The Board makes policy and the committees execute the policy. Here are the minimum of '58 at their appointed tasks:

HOUSE from left: Cabell Phillips, Les Carpenter (standing), Chairman Donald R. Larrabee, Julius Frandsen, Daniel Harbour and Douglas Larsen.

FAMILY FROLIC Division of Entertainment Committee: Standing from left: Bryson Rash, Club Manager Montfort, John P. Cosgrove, Richard Borwick and Ben Grant. Seated from left: Stephen M. Walter, Jack Doherty, Pat Munroe, Daniel Boone, Chairman John Munhall III, Lucian Warren, Barney Capehart and James J. Butler.

SPEAKERS. Seated from left: John C. O'Brien, Paul Wooton, Vice Chairman Claude Mahoney and Ernest K. Lindley. Standing: John Herling, Peter Edson, Frank Holeman, Peter Lisagor and Lucian C. Warren. Absent from picture: Chairman Cecil Holland, Douglas Allen, William L. Beale, Jr., Richard Borwick, Nat S. Finney, Ben J. Grant, James M. Haswell, Theodore F. Koop, Sol Taishoff and Lyle C. Wilson.

FELLOWSHIP from left: Jack W. Hazard, James E. Warner, Paul Wooton, Chairman G. Douglas Stengel, Leo Farrel and Clarence G. Marshall. Absent from picture: Philip Dodd and Richard Seelye Jones.

MEMBERSHIP from left: Neil R. Regeimbal, Robert E. Lee, Herbert Foster, Vice Chairman Robert C. Young, Chairman Windsor Booth, Secretary Marion Limbach. Board member Kermit McFarland. Absent from picture: Julian Goodman, Carroll Kilpatrick, John St. Peter, Robert K. Walsh.

ENTERTAINMENT from left: Martin Dietz, Frederick Untiedt, Samuel E. Stavisky, John Koepf, Michael Marlow, John Munhall III, Carey Cronan, Board member John Cosgrove, Donald A. Young, Jack Foxe, Chairman Orville Crouch, Lee Poe Hart, Club Manager Montfort. Absent from picture: Alfred (Mike) Flynn.

GAMES from left: George R. Zielke, Robert J. Wentworth, Russell Graves, Chairman LeRoy Chittendon, Albert Fox and Lorenzo Martin. Absent from picture: Vice Chairman Jack Wilson and Orson Angell.

PROFESSIONAL RELATIONS Chairman Pat Munroe shows University of Maryland students around the Club. Pictured in Library from left: Alfred A. Crowell, head of Journalism Dept., Gary Phillips, John Blitz, Munroe, Jack Goldsmith, Board member Clark Mollenhoff and Jack Gertz.

GOLF Division of Entertainment Committee. Front row from left: Joe Gambatese, Chairman Fred Perkins, Ed Jamieson. Back row from left: Scott Rigby, Adolph Magidson, Philip Pearl, Joe Dwyer, Bill Boyle, Loy Baxter and Milt Frank.

PUBLICITY Subcommittee from left: Reginald P. Mitchell, Chairman Thomas D. Geoghegan, Frank Brunton, William M. Trevarrow. Absent from picture: Gordon Sessions and Charles J. Yarbrough.

LIBRARY AND ARTS from left: John Koepf, Earle Marckres, Chairman Luther Huston, Board member Ernest Barcella, Tait Trusell. Absent from picture: Jay Walz and Siert F. Riepma.

BAR from left: Robert O. Litchfield, Edward Jamieson, Col. William Drake, Edward Kernan, Vice Chairman Jerry Greene, Chairman Gen. Carl Spaatz and Senior Bartender Frank Matera. Absent from picture: Gene Cooper.

PUBLICATIONS from left: J. Frank Beatty, Donald Foxvog, Diosada M. Yap, Chairman Clair Johnson, James Donovan and David LeRoy.

BUDGET & FINANCE. Seated from left: Albert Clark, Albert F. Adams, Chairman George Bryant, Jack Hawley. Standing: Arthur Moore, Howard Anderson and Gilbert LaGorce.

1958 NPC Administrative Staff

These seventeen key staff members represent a total of 243 years service to the Club. They are:

FRONT ROW - Ada Cooke, Housekeeper; Marion Limbach, Secretary to the Board of Governors; Myrtle Puffenberger, Cost Accountant Clerk; Cherie Quisenberry, Stenographer; Betty Newman, Secretary to the General Manager; Christine Allen, Cashier; E. Mae Smith, Membership Manager. SECOND ROW - Alphonse Zappelloni, Restaurant Manager; James R. "Duffy" Eakle, Night Manager; Jack Madden, Bar Manager; Munroe Russell, Head Waiter; Ernest Ball, Front Office Manager; James B. Montfort, General Manager; Julian Maitret, Chef; S. C. Walker, Librarian; George Dandy, Head Porter; Wm. Lee Merchant, Purchasing Steward.

1958 Officers and Board Members

Standing from left: George Cullen, Bureau of National Affairs; John P. Cosgrove, Broadcasting Businessweekly; Lewis Shollenberger, CBS News; Joseph A. Dear, Financial Secretary, Dear Publications; Ernest Barcella, United Press International. Seated from left: Bryson Rash, Secretary, National Broadcasting Co.; John R. Cauley, Treasurer, Kansas City Star; William H. Lawrence, Vice President, New York Times; John V. Horner, President, Washington Star; Ed Edstrom, Chairman of Board of Governors, Hearst Newspapers; Clark Mollenhoff, Cowles Publications; Kermit McFarland, Vice Chairman, Scripps-Howard Newspapers.

NPC shrdlu | Previous: Chapter X - Bulge | Next: Chapter XII - Club Presidents