Movies That Presidents (Obama!) Like To Watch
by Nola Barackman
This past weekend, The White House hosted Pixar’s filmmakers for a Father’s Day screening of Monster’s University. The White House movie theater has been the cinema-in-chief to Presidents for the last 70 years. If those walls could talk.
Maybe they can. Paul Fischer, the White House projectionist from 1953-1986, was the first Netflix queue in American history. His meticulous records show every film the Presidents watched during their time in office. Eisenhower loved spaghetti westerns. Reagan once put off preparing a G7 summit because he was watching The Sound of Music. The last movie President Kennedy — a James Bond enthusiast — ever watched is believed to be From Russia With Love. President Johnson was no film fanatic, but he did have one favorite that he watched over and over: a 10 minute homage to himself, narrated by Gregory Peck. LBJ was his own favorite movie star.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt (a Mickey Mouse fan) converted an old cloak room into the theater, which holds 40 well-upholstered seats set behind a row of large armchairs. For decades it had a grandma-style floral design; today it is a vision in red. The makeover isn’t the only way the theater has evolved. The films themselves provide a lens into the America each president served. The first movie ever screened at the White House in 1915 was The Birth of a Nation, which portrays the Klu Klux Klan as American saviors. This year, president Obama used the theater to celebrate Black History Month.
To find out what else Obama has used the theater for, click here.
