Hear the story of the Truman-Bacall photo at Club piano, then hear the piano played, Friday

The most famous photo taken at the National Press Club was snapped 80 years ago this month.

From a moment orchestrated by a Hollywood agent in a bygone era, came an indelible image that is easily conjured for current members of the Club when mingling in the Truman Lounge, named for the second-most famous person in the photo and home to the piano he was playing.

To mark the milestone, Club historian Gil Klein of the History and Heritage Team, will present a multimedia program focusing on Harry Truman and the Press Club on Friday, Feb. 28, at 4 p.m. in the Fourth Estate Room.

The event is free to members and their guests, but registration is required.

The program will cover how then-Vice President Harry Truman, an accomplished pianist, played the upright piano on the stage in the Club ballroom, where a World War II Canteen for service members was rollicking in February 1945. In the crowd of 800 soldiers, sailors and Marines, the rising silver screen star was a very familiar face, her role in the October 1944 release of “To Have and Have Not,” co-starring Humphrey Bogart, having launched her at age 19. Lauren Bacall's agent insisted she get up on top of the piano, and the press photographers took it from there.

Members and their guests attending the celebration can plan to stick around afterward and partake in Taco Night in the Club's Reliable Source restaurant, starting at 5:30 p.m.

As a special tribute to the occasion, the Reliable Source has arranged to have local pianist Paul Warthen play the Truman piano during Taco Night, 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Many members probably have never actually heard it played, so this will be another slice of life in the story of that upright piano. 

Using vintage photos, audio and video clips, and the music Truman loved to play, Klein will weave the story of this chapter of Club history. Truman's first appearance at the Club was just weeks before the famous canteen, and his last one was for his 80th birthday in 1964. Truman died in 1972.

An appreciation written upon the death of Bacall in August 2014 at the age of 89 that was published in the NPC Wire noted that obituaries appearing in several newspapers mentioned the iconic photo, and some also included a copy of it.