Celebrities Were His Daily Business

Jim Montfort '29, who retired this fall from a quarter-century of managing the Capital's National Press Club, has stored up easily enough anecdotes and name drops in that time to see him through another 25 years.

According to the NPC's "Record," Jim's most admired personage has been President Harry Truman. As the most impressive events in his administration, he places the Club's V-E and V-J Day celebrations and its greeting for General Eisenhower on his return from Europe.

The world celebrities Jim has greeted are legion, and once he even found himself doing the White House a favor at its own request in 1950. He had recorded a major policy speech which Secretary of State Dean Acheson made before newsmen at the Club, and afterward Jim was asked to play it back at the White House for President Truman and his Cabinet.

A career which NPC President David LeRoy terms "beyond measurement," started in 1928 at the William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh. From there, with the exception of two years in Denver, Jim held management positions with three prominent Washington hotels before becoming Press Club manager in 1943. Since then the Club membership has grown from 3400 to about 5200 and the annual business volume has risen from $300 thousand to $1 million.