Unlike Chicago, of "Front Page" fame and tough newspaper wars of days gone by, Milwaukee maintains a link with its rich journalistic history through its own vibrant, colorful press club.

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More Than Just Cheese
Booming Brady Street: North Side Neighborhood Bustles With Activity The Newsroom Pub, where members of the Milwaukee Press Club meet regularly, stands in the shadow of the city's unique City Hall in the central business district.

Walk into the Newsroom Pub off of Wells Street kitty-corner from City Hall or the back way through the dark and alluring spy-themed Safe House restaurant, and the Milwaukee Press Club at first glance looks like any other homey-type dining venue. But beyond the normal table and chair settings lies a fascinating introduction to history. Not just Milwaukee history, but American history.

Stretching from about head level toward the top of a 15-ft. high ceiling are dozens of actual signatures of some of America's greatest names of the last 120 years. The autographs, dating from about the time the Press Club was founded in 1885 to the present, include the names of politicians and leaders like William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, entertainers Cary Grant and Bob Hope, sports figures John L. Sullivan and Babe Ruth, and explorers such as Admiral Richard Byrd and Charles Lindbergh. Inscribed next to the names of the famous are the exact dates that they etched their signatures while visiting Milwaukee. It's a virtual Who's Who gallery of the greatest names in American history for nearly the last century and a quarter.

What adds to the signatures' uniqueness is that they are all on a rectangular section of blackboard slightly larger than the autograph itself. The chalked names are specially preserved to withstand nature's test of time.

One other "personality" on display at the Milwaukee Press Club is‹or was‹not human at all. It's Anubis, the revered mummified cat that has been the Press Club's sacred "mascot" for the last century. How Anubis, named after an Egyptian god with the head of a jackal, found his way to the Press Club remains somewhat of a mystery, doomed to be locked in Milwaukee's journalistic lore. What is certain, however, is that Anubis maintains a place of prominence on a wall near the club's bar. A fitting place where the town's most prominent scribes can discuss the news of the day, reminisce and sip on a libation or two.

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