Above: Gossip columnist and radio show host Louella Parsons and actress Sophia Loren at a Newswomen's Club Front Page Ball. Parsons was president of the club in 1925. Below: Rosalind Massow, Woman's editor of Parade, and actress Bette Davis, at a Front Page Ball. Massow was president of the club in 1964 and 1965.Far right: a host of legendary reporters formed the reception committee at a Front Page Ball attended by Margaret Truman (far left) By the time the Front Page Awards were introduced in 1937, the annual dinner dance and fundraiser of the New York Newspaper Women’s Club was one of the social events of the year. Tickets were often limited to between 800 and 1,000, and it was held at the biggest, most fashionable hotels in town. The club took advantage of the popularity of the event to bring attention to the accomplishments of newswomen by incorporating the Front Page Awards into the dinner program.

The Front Page Awards are particularly meaningful because they are given on the basis of judgment of panels of ranking media professionals. Each year, the Newswomen’s Club calls for entries from women journalists and photographers in the New York area, and judges work through hundreds of entries to select winners.   A number of Front Page Award winners have changed the way news was and is covered. Emma Bugbee convinced Eleanor Roosevelt to hold press conferences for newswomen when she told her that women were excluded from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s press briefings. Marguerite Higgins wrote from the front lines of World War II. Judith Crist distinguished film criticism from Hollywood gossip.