Press Blog

Years before the $20/$50 rules were established, members of the National Press Club gave a Model T Ford as a Christmas present to their good friend James D. Preston, the Superintendent of the Senate Press Gallery.  The photo above shows the presentation of the lavish gift, and is featured in shrdlu, which offers the following details:

In December, 1917, James D. Preston, Superintendent of the Senate Press Gallery, received a Christmas present of a new Ford Model T on the steps of the Capitol. Left to right: Jim Preston at the wheel, first derby Richard V. Oulahan, New York Times; Leo Sack, Scripps-Howard; Dan O'Connell, Washington Times; J. Bart Campbell, International News Service, and interested Senate pages. ^[1]

Preston was responsible for creating the role that served newspaper reporters so well from the U.S. Senate, as the official U.S. Senate government website reports:

As head doorkeeper, the sergeant at arms has responsibility for the Senate Press Gallery. The scope of this role expanded in 1897, when James D. Preston, a doorkeeper in the Senate Press Gallery under the sergeant at arms, started collecting legislative bills and other information for reporters and facilitating interviews with senators. Preston eventually assumed the title of superintendent of the Press Gallery. In the 1930s and 1940s, Superintendents headed new Press Galleries for radio and television, periodical press, and press photographers.^[2]

When Preston began his work with the press in the Senate Press Gallery, there were 150 newsmen covering the Senate "with one telephone and no typewriters" as Time Magazine reported.^[3]  He served for about 35 years, and when he left in 1931, there were 368 reporters. 

Preston went on to serve as a key advisor to Hollywood director Frank Capra in the making of the film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.  As Life Magazine reported in 1939:

Before work started Director Frank Capra visited Washington ... His quest for Capitol blueprints touched off a minor spy scare. To many of his questions, Washingtonians responded: "You'll have to ask Jim Preston about that." So persistent was this suggestion that Mr. Capra finally hunted up James D. Preston who for 33 years was superintendent of the Senate Press Gallery, is now assistant administrative secretary of the National Archives. An enthusiastic antiquarian, Mr. Preston proved himself such an astonishing mine of information that he was hired as technical advisor for the film. ... In Hollywood Jim Preston insisted that every detail of Washingtoniana be authentic. Busts of Vice Presidents in the Senate gallery were reproduced with plaster casts. Bills and printed forms used were actual Senate documents brought from Congress. He saw to it that the Senate clock was padlocked (to keep pages from shoving the hands forward) and that the desk of the Senator Jefferson Davis bore the gash made by the bayonet of a Union soldier during the civil War.^[4]

Preston's father was a correspondent for the New York Herald.  In 1909, Preston was part of the small group of dedicated volunteers who helped move the one-year-old National Press Club from its original quarters to its new location on March 20.  The valiant volunteers were accompanied by an escort of two Washington, DC police officers, and a marching band. ^[5]

^[1] shrdlu, Chapter 4, World War. Washington, DC: Colortone Press, 1958. http://www.pressblog.org/shrdluChapter4

^[2] United States Senate website, Sergeant At Arms. Washington, DC. 2011. http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/sergeant_at_arms.htm

^[3]Time Magazine, The Press: Gallery Man. December 7, 1931. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,930414,00.html

^[4] Life Magazine, Hollywood's Washington is an extraordinary likeness based on fine technical research. October 16, 1939.  Page 73. http://books.google.com/books?id=RUIEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA73&lpg=
PA73&dq=Hollywood's+Washington+is+an+extraordinary+likeness+based+on+fine+
technical+research&source=bl&ots=wOPRipZJae&sig=eLcxung1G8yjtmoNUHs0i7b_
of4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=96_0Trf9GIbn0gGU55CqAg&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage
&q=Hollywood's%20Washington%20is%20an%20extraordinary%20likeness%20
based%20on%20fine%20technical%20research&f=false

^[5] Twentieth Anniversary Yearbook, Marching On! To New Quarters. Washington, DC: National Press Club. 1928. http://pressblog.org/node/37