How the White House Correspondents' Association dinner became a political, social showcase

Modern presidents live their lives on stage, their every word and gesture scrutinized at speeches, events and news conferences. They grow used to speaking before high-octane crowds. But the hardest audiences of the year might be dinner with the news media – such as the Gridiron Club and the White House Correspondents' Association gala this Saturday night.

That’s because on these nights, presidents are supposed to be funny. While sharing the dais with professional comedians like Jimmy Kimmel or Stephen Colbert.

No pressure.

White House Correspondents' dinner is a social event

The president’s appearances at these dinners began more simply in 1924, when Calvin Coolidge joined guests at a White House Correspondents’ Association banquet. After the president offered a long speech on the separation of powers, the association made the format more social, including singalongs of popular medleys, home movies and spoof newsreels, and a post-dinner show with vaudeville and movie stars.

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The association’s older, rowdier cousin, the Gridiron Dinner, has been drawing presidents since the 19th century. Its events feature “singe but don’t burn” song and dance numbers performed by costumed reporters and pundits. (A magazine showed Theodore Roosevelt in a chef’s hat, preparing for the 1906 Gridiron by grilling his contemporaries over a fireplace.) Social fun helped build relationships between Washington insiders and the press as they enjoyed a growing variety of entertainers – including opera singers, comedians, balloon acts, jugglers and a magician who took Franklin Roosevelt’s wallet.

But the events were white-only, and off limits to women. First lady Eleanor Roosevelt hosted Gridiron "widows" parties to recognize newspaper women, female public officials and Cabinet wives who were barred from attending. President Roosevelt invited a Black correspondent in 1944.

The speeches presidents gave

History took the stage at the association's 1941 dinner, with the United States divided over involvement in the war raging in Europe and China. After the jokes and songs, Roosevelt gave a stern speech broadcast to 100 million listeners across the country and around the world. He called for “the end of compromise with tyranny" and worked to build support for the controversial Lend-Lease program to help England.

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Entertainment returned to top billing in the postwar years, as presidents enjoyed evenings with A-listers such as Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington and Barbra Streisand.

And as pressure built on the dinners to loosen their membership rules, President John F. Kennedy helped persuade the association to open its doors after Helen Thomas – the first female White House bureau chief – threatened a boycott.  (A pre-Gridiron dinner memo tipped Kennedy off that Vice President Lyndon Johnson might sing “Tiptoeing Through the White House.”)

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The 1970s Gridiron dinners flushed out hidden talent at the White House, like first lady Betty Ford’s soft-shoe dance and a jitterbugging Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter. President Gerald Ford and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller made Gridiron Club history when they brought their wives to the banquet (Ford refused to attend unless it started admitting women members).

In the years that followed the 1980s, the correspondents' dinner began enlisting headliner comedians to roast the chief executive. (Recent picks have included Conan O'Brien, Trevor Noah and Wanda Sykes.)

For presidents, winning laughs while sharing the evening with a top standup comedian is never easy, especially when they’ve spent their careers speaking earnestly. Preparations can begin weeks in advance as jokes are tried out, rehearsed and revised right up until showtime. George W. Bush practiced his country music spoof with singers from the U.S. Marine Band.

A night of comedy and swag

Comedians are invited to send their ideas, but it’s not like exchanging recipes.

“Some stuff that would work really well for a president would work terribly for a late-night host,” warns former Obama speechwriter David Litt, “and some stuff that would work perfectly for a late-night host would be really just a total failure if a president said it.”

Even as they deliver a few of their own zingers, presidents get the most credit – and work to deflate criticism – when they’re willing to make fun of themselves. In the middle of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon said, “It is a privilege to be here at the White House correspondents’ dinner. I suppose I should say it is an executive privilege.”

Barack Obama once began his remarks promising to “speak from the heart” and “off the cuff” as teleprompters rose from the stage.

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The correspondents' dinner where President Joe Biden will speak Saturday night has grown from 50 guests in 1921 to 2,600 media members, senior government officials, celebrities and others. Money is raised for journalism scholarships.

C-SPAN will televise it nationally, and swag for sale includes tote bags, tumblers and T-shirts printed with the slogan, “America Needs Journalists.”

For the president and administration officials, spending an evening with the news media offers a reminder of the accountability of power in a democracy.

And for the journalists, watching the president take off the official mask helps dig below the speeches and the statements – to get a glimpse of the citizen beneath.

Stewart D. McLaurin, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, is president of the White House Historical Association, a private nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded by first lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1961.

More White House history:

White House history is Black history: This is some of that story

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How the White House Correspondents' dinner became so political