The PRESS CLUB OF CLEVELAND was originally organized on 1 Feb. 1887 as the Cleveland Press Club. Presided over by JOHN C. COVERT, editor of the CLEVELAND LEADER, the group apparently faded from view within a year. A second attempt to organize was made on 31 May 1895 in the TIPPECANOE CLUB, but this assemblage also seems to have been quickly disbanded. A third attempt to incorporate a press club was made on 25 Mar. 1947. Under the leadership of Milton J. Lapine and with the support of the CLEVELAND NEWSPAPER GUILD, it established palatial quarters in the Olmsted Hotel, where it became a meeting place for visiting celebrities and the host of the annual "Page One Ball." It also sponsored a local radio program patterned after "Meet the Press," called "The Press Club Presents." Unable to afford the upkeep on its Olmsted Hotel suite, the club entered a nomadic period of existence in the mid-1950s. It occupied various downtown quarters before straitened finances left it homeless in 1970. Revived in 1977, the group is currently headquartered at 30601 Ashton Lane in BAY VILLAGE and meets at the UNIV. CLUB. Open to anyone with a vested or casual interest in the media, the Press Club of Cleveland has maintained its strength at over 200 members. Activities of the club included seminars on media-related issues and the annual Northeastern Ohio "Excellence in Journalism" awards for outstanding work in newspaper, magazine, radio, and television journalism. In Nov. 1981 it inaugurated the CLEVELAND JOURNALISM HALL OF FAME; the membership included: PAUL BELLAMY, BRUCE CATTON, DAVID DIETZ, DOROTHY FULDHEIM, ROELIF LOVELAND, WM. F. MCDERMOTT, PHILLIP PORTER, JOHN W. RAPER, LOUIS B. SELTZER, MILTON WIDDER, and ARTEMUS WARD.
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