This Week in National Press Club History: Nehru, Gandhi, Gandhi and Sing Along with FDR

March 26, 2002: Actor Tony Curtis celebrates the arts at a National Press Club luncheon.

March 29, 1933: Singers Morton Downey and John Charles Thomas perform at an evening event at the Club. Thomas sings an FDR favorite, “Home On The Range.” Roosevelt is the first president to speak at a Club luncheon.

March 29, 1966: Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi speaks at a Club luncheon, following a family tradition begun by her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, in 1956. Rajiv Gandhi, her son, speaks in 1985.

This Week In National Press Club History is brought to you by the History & Heritage Committee, which preserves and revitalizes the Club’s history through displays, panel discussions, events and its on-going oral history project, which now contains close to 200 interviews with club members and personnel.

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

Compiled by Elizabeth Smith Brownstein with resources from the Club’s archives, and Reliable Sources:100 Years at the National Press Club.