A look at the demolished White House movie theater’s cultural history : NPR

Sometimes presidents used it to rehearse important speeches, such as the State of the Union address; and sometimes as a place for visitors to shed their hats, bags and coats. But for more than 80 years, the White House Theater was primarily a place where the first family and their guests went to be entertained.

Demolition The White House Family Theater broke ground this week — along with the rest of the White House East Wing, which housed a cozy shoebox-shaped auditorium — to make way for a new $300 million ballroom. This marks the end of an era in the history of American movie theaters.

An excavator works to clear debris Thursday following the demolition of the East Wing of the White House in Washington, DC. The historic White House Family Theater was demolished as part of President Trump's efforts to make way for a new ballroom.

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Since Franklin Roosevelt's dressing room was converted in 1942, the private 40-seat theater has shown everything from newsreels and documentaries to Westerns and musicals. It has undergone several cosmetic updates, most recently ditching the cream and red floral curtains and beige walls and seating for everyone.cinema palace red“, adorned with gold moldings and dark wood trim following renovations by First Lady Laura Bush in 2004.

“The best thing about the White House is not Air Force One or Camp David or anything else, it's the wonderful movie theater that I go to here,” then-President Bill Clinton told film critic Roger Ebert in 1999. interview.

April 14, 1989: President George W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush host a film screening at the White House Theater. The First Lady shares the seat with her grandson Jebbie Bush.

George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum/NARA

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George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum/NARA

Jimmy Carter was also a big fan. In one term, the 39th president reviewed at least 400 films between this venue and Camp David, starting at All the President's Men — a film about the Watergate scandal — shortly after he was sworn in. Richard Nixon saw Pattonabout the controversial World War II general George S. Patton, repeatedly during the Vietnam War. Barack Obama's many theater shows ranged from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom And Selma To Julie and Julia And Star Wars: Rogue One. President Trump's choices included Finding Dory And Sunset Boulevard. John F. Kennedy, who loved James Bond films, saw From Russia with love the day before his assassination in 1963.

First Lady Melania Trump (right) and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos welcome students to a screening of the film “Miracle” at the White House Theater in 2018.

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Not all US presidents were movie buffs. According to 1997 data New York Times interview Along with Paul Fisher, who worked as a White House projectionist from the 1950s to the 1980s, Lyndon B. Johnson slept through most of the screenings. (Fisher carefully recorded all the films shown in the theater. You can see a clip from the years when Kennedy lived in the White House. Here.)

“It was a place where the president could watch what America was watching,” said Matt Lambros, author several books about historic movie theaters in an interview with NPR. “To destroy it would be to destroy a piece of American history.”

The White House did not respond to NPR's request for comment or confirm reports from other media about plans to build a new cinema as part of the reconstruction of the East Wing.

“We're just fulfilling their promise that the theater will be restored,” Lambros said. “I hope it does, and for the next hundred years, presidents can enjoy it.”