A Tribute to the White House Movie Theater, Now Demolished Along with the Rest of the East Wing

The history of movie screenings at the White House did not start off brightly.

On February 18, 1915, D. W. Griffith broadcast his three-hour “The Birth of a Nation” in the East Room of the White House to enthusiastic response. Then-president Woodrow Wilson was a defender of the Confederacy and “Lost Cause” propagandist, and he is quoted literally three times in the film; this included a statement praising the Ku Klux Klan.

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It is generally accepted that Wilson, after the screening, said of Griffith’s film, which was controversial upon its release, that it was “like making history with lightning.” If this choice as the first film shown at the White House is heartbreaking, take heart in knowing that in 1914 there was a screening of the first film of the Italian silent masterpiece “Cabiria” that was shown at full range outside on the lawn.

These screenings marked the beginning of a history of cinema at the White House that has continued ever since, culminating in 1942 with the conversion of a cloakroom in the East Wing into the White House Family Theater, an on-site movie theater.

This was a date that lasted until October 2025. The movie theater was razed this week as part of the Trump administration’s demolition of the entire East Wing to make way for a $300 million ballroom. A lot of history was lost this week, but cinema was part of it and that should not be forgotten.

The 42-seat White House Family Theater emerged at a time when Franklin Roosevelt’s administration was recognizing the unique power of public movies. This was a time when the average moviegoer went to the movies twice a week. Although national polls showed that the American public was deeply isolationist and Charles Lindbergh’s “America First” rhetoric had taken hold, as America neared entry into World War II, Roosevelt realized that closer ties with the American film industry might be in the government’s interest. When the USA finally entered the warRoosevelt said, “Amusement is always a national value. Invaluable in peacetime, indispensable in wartime.”

Roosevelt, who established a Motion Picture Bureau, also converted part of the East Wing of the White House to screen films as a way to gauge the national mood. Aspect White House Historical Association It states: “In 1942, Roosevelt ordered that the cloakroom on the East Terrace, called the ‘Hat Box,’ be converted into a movie theater. Here the president enjoyed watching news reels and took special interest in the wars being fought in Europe and Asia.”

Since then, films shown at the White House Family Theater have entered the public record. Washington DC rare book store Second Story Books There is a handwritten record of most of the films shown during the FDR, Truman and Eisenhower administrations, and the list is eclectic. FDR saw Paul Robeson in “Emperor Jones,” as well as many Marie Dressler comedies. Many Disney movies were shown for the younger members of the Roosevelt family. He even took films along the way, including the 1943 version of “The Phantom of the Opera” to that year’s Cairo Summit and Howard Hawks’ masterpiece “To Have and Have Not” to Yalta. The last film FDR watched before his death was the Charles Laughton noir “The Suspicious,” which was shown in March 1945 and was attended by Crown Princess Juliana of the Netherlands.

Decades before President Obama made the promotion of his favorite movies an annual event, a kind of White House-to-Oscar crossover began, starting with a White House screening of 1948 best picture winner “Hamlet.” A screening of “High Noon,” which Eisenhower later declared his personal favorite, established that this film was a go-to answer for presidents or presidential candidates when asked about their favorite movie.

The DC-Hollywood connection was later established for good during the Kennedy Administration. On November 20, 1963, two days before his assassination, JFK watched the last movie he ever saw, “From Russia with Love,” the second James Bond entry; He declared Fleming’s original novel as one of his 10 favorite books.

Subsequent administrations have gone so far as to keep official screening records of all films seen in the White House Family Theater in their presidential libraries (though University of Chicago Press has compiled all of Nixon’s appearances(featuring some contemporary titles but leaning more towards Old Hollywood throwbacks). There are online archives available to the public through these libraries; You can see exactly what happened here. POTUS screening conducted during the Reagan administration, Bill Clinton’sAnd George W. Bush.

Jimmy Carter watched nearly 480 movies at the White House During his four-year tenure, including a pre-Cannes screening of “Apocalypse Now” in May 1979 with Francis Ford Coppola in attendance. A screening of Ingmar Bergman’s “Autuma Sonata” was attended by 48 White House staffers beyond the capacity of the Family Theatre. Carter’s moviegoing extended to Camp David, where he arranged for Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat to see a screening of “Star Wars,” which they watched together before the historic summit that led to peace between Egypt and Israel. Paul Schrader’s “Hardcore”? It was shown at the White House.

It could be argued that moviegoing at the White House Family Theater reached an all-time high during the Reagan years; This is not surprising, considering that the occupant of the White House is himself a former Hollywood movie star. However, as recalled in his press secretary’s memoirs, Reagan went one step further than his predecessors by leaving mini reviews of the films he screened. Mark Weinberg’s article titled “Movie Nights with the Reagans.” Reagan’s tastes could be quite wide-ranging, and he was also a staunch anti-Communist. Reagan told Warren Beatty he wished for the movie “Reds” had a happy ending.

Gwyneth Paltrow then says: Bill Clinton fell asleep and snored loudly during a screening of “Emma” While Roland Emmerich remembers THR tells how Bill Clinton watched the White House be blown up for an “Independence Day” screening. George W. Bush took the White House Family Theater so seriously that he had the whole thing redecorated in movie theater red to look like an old movie palace. Barack Obama screened “La La Land,” and the first movie Donald Trump saw there was “Finding Dory.”

The White House Family Theater is no more.

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