A have a look at the demolished White Home movie show’s cultural historical past : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3500x2333+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F15%2F36%2F8aa0bb5644e59099d50ffb62a269%2Fgettyimages-86505206.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3500x2333+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F15%2F36%2F8aa0bb5644e59099d50ffb62a269%2Fgettyimages-86505206.jpg" class="img" alt="Former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama wear 3-D glasses during a Super Bowl party in the White House Family Theater in 2009." fetchpriority="high"/> Former President Barack Obama and first girl Michelle Obama put on 3-D glasses throughout a Tremendous Bowl celebration within the White Home Household Theater in 2009. The White Home/Getty Photographs disguise caption

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The White Home/Getty Photographs It was, every so often, utilized by presidents to rehearse vital speeches such because the State of the Union handle; and at different instances, as a spot for guests to dump their hats, luggage and coats. However for greater than 80 years, the White Home movie show was largely a spot the place the primary household and their friends went for leisure.

Demolition started this week of the White Home Household Theater — together with the remainder of the White Home's East Wing the place the comfortable, shoe-box-shaped auditorium was positioned — to make means for a brand new $300 million ballroom. It marks the top of an period in American movie show historical past.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x2667+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F21%2F3a%2F7f4b04f143ca9e235a78e2ef4b5c%2Fgettyimages-2242510344.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x2667+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F21%2F3a%2F7f4b04f143ca9e235a78e2ef4b5c%2Fgettyimages-2242510344.jpg" class="img" alt="An excavator works to clear rubble after the East Wing of the White House was demolished on October 23, 2025 in Washington, DC. The historic White House Family theater was destroyed as part of this effort to make way for a new ballroom." loading="lazy"/> An excavator works to clear rubble on Thursday after the East Wing of the White Home was demolished in Washington, D.C. The historic White Home Household Theater was destroyed as a part of President Trump's effort to make means for a brand new ballroom. Eric Lee/Getty Photographs disguise caption

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Eric Lee/Getty Photographs Since its conversion from a cloakroom by Franklin Roosevelt in 1942, the non-public, 40-ish-seat theater has screened the whole lot from newsreels and documentaries to westerns and musicals. It has been by means of a number of facelifts, most not too long ago ditching cream and crimson floral curtains, and beige partitions and seating for all-round "movie-palace crimson" ornamented with gold molding and darkish wooden trim following a renovation overseen by first girl Laura Bush in 2004.

"The very best perk of the White Home isn't Air Drive One or Camp David or the rest, it is the fantastic movie show I get right here," then-President Invoice Clinton informed movie critic Roger Ebert in a 1999 interview.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1040x697+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fc1%2F6c%2F571741164d84a21bc60f70f7a82d%2F6970.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/1040x697+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fc1%2F6c%2F571741164d84a21bc60f70f7a82d%2F6970.jpg" class="img" alt="April 14, 1989: President George Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush hosting a screening in the White House movie theater. Mrs. Bush is sharing a seat with her grandson Jebbie Bush." loading="lazy"/> April 14, 1989: President George Bush and first girl Barbara Bush host a screening within the White Home movie show. The primary girl is sharing a seat along with her grandson Jebbie Bush. George Bush Presidential Library and Museum/NARA disguise caption

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George Bush Presidential Library and Museum/NARA Jimmy Carter was additionally an enormous fan. In a single time period, the thirty ninth president screened not less than 400 movies between this venue and Camp David, beginning with All of the President's Males — a film concerning the Watergate scandal — quickly after he was sworn in. Richard Nixon noticed Patton, concerning the controversial World Battle II Gen. George S. Patton, a number of instances through the Vietnam Battle. Barack Obama's many screenings on the theater ranged from Mandela: Lengthy Stroll to Freedom and Selma to Julie & Julia and Star Wars Rogue One. President Trump's picks have included Discovering Dory and Sundown Boulevard. John F. Kennedy, who liked James Bond motion pictures, noticed From Russia With Love the day earlier than he was assassinated in 1963.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5342x3561+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fad%2F37%2Ffa78192048ce965ec89ed5b85034%2Fgettyimages-1058510766.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5342x3561+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fad%2F37%2Ffa78192048ce965ec89ed5b85034%2Fgettyimages-1058510766.jpg" class="img" alt="U.S. first lady Melania Trump (R) and for education secretary Betsy DeVos host students for a screening of the motion picture 'Wonder' in the White House movie theater in 2018." loading="lazy"/> U.S. first girl Melania Trump (R) and for schooling secretary Betsy DeVos host college students for a screening of the movement image 'Marvel' within the White Home movie show in 2018. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photographs disguise caption

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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photographs Not all U.S. presidents had been movie buffs. In accordance with a 1997 New York Occasions interview with Paul Fischer, who served because the White Home's projectionist from the Nineteen Fifties to the '80s, Lyndon B. Johnson slept by means of most screenings. (Fischer saved cautious logs of all the motion pictures proven on the theater. A pattern from Kennedy's White Home years may be seen right here.)

"It was a spot for the president to observe what America was watching," stated Matt Lambros, who authored a number of books about historic film theaters, in an interview with NPR. "To have it destroyed is bulldozing a chunk of American historical past."

The White Home didn't reply to NPR's request for remark, nor verify stories from different media retailers about plans to construct a brand new movie show as a part of the East Wing's redevelopment.

"We're simply going off of their phrase {that a} theater will likely be rebuilt," stated Lambros. "I hope that is the case, and the subsequent hundred years of presidents can take pleasure in it."