One of the stars of the White House is no more.
The White House Family Theater, the movie theater which first came to be in 1942 when a cloakroom was converted into a screening room, was demolished this week as part of the destruction of the East Wing to make room for President Donald Trump’s planned $300 million ballroom.
From sporting events to film screenings, the theater provided entertainment and enjoyment to presidents and their families since the latter part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency.
According to The White House Historical Association, Roosevelt enjoyed watching World War II-era news reels in the former cloakroom in the East Terrace at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, “and took special interest in the battles fought in Europe and Asia.”
The 32nd US president demonstrated an understanding of the importance of pop culture, including movies.
“Entertainment is always a national asset,” Roosevelt said in 1943 as the United States was engaged in WWII. “Invaluable in time of peace, it is indispensable in wartime.”
Not that there weren’t movies shown in the White House before that.
Well before the installation of the White House Family Theater, then-President Woodrow Wilson screened 1915’s “The Birth of a Nation,” with the film projected onto the walls of the East Room.
Later presidents greatly enjoyed showing movies in the theater, and the George W. Bush Library detailed that film screenings would run the gamut from official events with members of the public invited as guests to “private events and intended for the enjoyment of the President, his family, and his close friends and staff.”
“The best perk out in the White House is not Air Force One or Camp David or anything else,” said former President Bill Clinton. “It’s the wonderful movie theatre I get here, because people send me these movies all the time.”
The 42-seat theater had different looks over the years. Business Insider reported that “it went from green chairs and mustard curtains to white chairs and floral drapes” before donning its most recent “all-red design.”
Sometimes referred to as the “first movie theatre,” it hosted a variety of genres of film.
In January 1977, then-President Jimmy Carter let it be known that only “family friendly” films should be shown, which was short-lived when, the following Christmas, he unwittingly screened an X-rated picture at the White House – John Schlesinger’s Oscar-winning “Midnight Cowboy,” which tells the story of a male prostitute in the underbelly of 1960s-era in New York City.
In 2011, Steven Spielberg talked about screening his hit 1982 film “E.T.” for then-President Ronald Reagan.
The famed director said those present were “the President, the First Lady and all of their guests, which included Sandra Day O’Connor in her first week of as a Justice of the Supreme Court, and it included some astronauts… I think Neil Armstrong was there, I’m not 100% certain, but it was an amazing, amazing evening.”
“(Reagan) just stood up and he looked around the room, almost like he was doing a headcount, and he said, ‘I wanted to thank you for bringing “E.T.” to the White House. We really enjoyed your movie,’ and then he looked around the room and said, ‘And there are a number of people in this room who know that everything on that screen is absolutely true,’” Spielberg recalled. “And he said it without smiling! But he said that and everybody laughed, by the way. The whole room laughed because he presented it like a joke, but he wasn’t smiling as he said it.”
The only complaint Reagan had about the film, Spielberg added, was that the closing credits were too long.
The White House Family Theater is one of several historically significant East Wing features that have been destroyed to make way for Trump’s ballroom.
The wing traditionally served as the office of the First Lady, and previously housed a portico as well as a colonnade that led to the Executive Residence.
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