Gridiron Club, 1929-1988

The Gridiron Club subseries includes a few general files concerning organization of the Club, but consists primarily of files documenting the annual Gridiron Dinners from 1929-1988. In 1933, Harold Brayman became a member of the Gridiron Club, a select group of Washington correspondents and newspapermen whose primary function since their organization in 1885 was to hold an annual dinner to roast politicians and the national political parties.

The Gridiron dinners had become a Washington institution by the time Brayman began attending them. By tradition, the President of the United States was invited to the dinner where he was roasted, toasted, and given the opportunity to address the Club members and their distinguished guests. In turn, a leading figure of the opposition party was invited to deliver a response. These speeches and the political satire of the Club's songs and skits were delivered in good humor. Yet the content of these speeches, songs, and skits -- many of which are preserved in this subseries -- reflect the political tensions and issues of each administration.

The Gridiron dinners also reflected relations existing between presidents and the media. For example, comments found in Brayman's post-dinner correspondence favor the good-humored John Kennedy, but reflect impatience with Lyndon Johnson, a president who kept Club members guessing and betting on whether he would appear at the dinners held during his administration.

Politics, social trends, and history are marked in the record of the Gridiron Club dinners. The annual spring dinners had been held without interruption until April 1945 when the event was cancelled following the death of President Roosevelt. The winter 1941 meeting was cancelled after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the December 1963 meeting was cancelled as the nation mourned the recent assassination of Kennedy. The dinners continued, however, in spite of "women's libbers" loudly protesting the male-only membership tradition of the Club in 1970, 1971, and 1972.

Brayman presided as president of the club in 1941 and attended nearly every dinner from 1929 until 1987 when illnesses prevented him from attending. In addition to attending the dinners held each year at the Statler Hilton in Washington, Brayman and a corps of friends known as the Drones hosted pre­ and post-dinner cocktail parties in the hotel's suites. Further, he attended rounds of parties hosted by other networks of associates. Foremost among Brayman's Gridiron friendships was his relationship with fellow Drone and frequent Gridiron roommate, Phelps Adams. Adams' career paralleled Brayman's: after a successful stint in journalism Adams became head of public relations at U.S. Steel Corporation.

The traditions of the Gridiron Club, the warm associations with his colleagues, and the high spirits of the political roasts were deeply important to Brayman as evidenced in the correspondence and other contents of this subseries.

The preliminary general files include "Officers," "Monthly meeting notices," and "Guest lists," files which succinctly reflect the membership, activities, and networks of the Club. Brayman's guest lists reflect his considered distribution of the coveted dinner invitations allotted to him. The dinner files consist of dinner programs, dinner schedule cards, menus, Club post-dinner press releases, newspaper clippings, song lyrics and skit scripts, and invitations and correspondence. The dinner programs contained a guest list and a detailed seating chart for the approximately 500 attenders of each dinner. The verso of the dinner menus were illustrated with political caricatures by cartoonists such as Clifford K. Berryman, James T. Berryman, and Herbert Block.