This Week in National Press Club History

May 29, 1941: General George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, who would build and direct the largest army in history during World War II, gives his first address to the National Press Club. He would later become Secretary of State, then Secretary of Defense, and win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. Marshall had served as aide-de-camp to General John “Black Jack” Pershing during the First World War. Pershing later became an associate member of the National Press Club, and gave his name to the American Legion Post 20, formed at the Club by veterans of that war. It continues to this day.

Many distinguished members of the military establishment have spoken at the Club over the years, including General Omar C. Bradley, first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; General and future President Dwight D. Eisenhower; and General Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and future secretary of state.

General Ray Odierno, Army Chief of Staff, commanding general of U.S. forces in Iraq from 2008 to 2010, continues this tradition at a Club luncheon on June 4.

May 29, 2004: Actor Tony Curtis, a former Navy signalman who had enlisted when he was sixteen, stars at a recreation of the Club’s legendary World War II canteen for enlisted men only, at a continental breakfast. He receives a special citation of appreciation from the Club, and says that the GI Bill allowed him to study acting after the war, head to Hollywood and become a movie star.

This Week In National Press Club History is brought to you by the History & Heritage Committee, which preserves and revitalizes the Club’s century of history with lobby displays, events, panel discussions and its oral history project.

For more information on the Committee’s activities or to join the Committee, contact chair Gilbert Klein at [email protected].

And be sure to check the Club’s website for much more on its history at www.press.org/about/history.