News Summary

• The White House Family Theater, which first came to be in 1942 when a cloakroom was converted into a screening room, was demolished this week.
• The theater provided entertainment and enjoyment to presidents and their families since the latter part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency.
• “Entertainment is always a national asset,” Roosevelt said in 1943 as the United States was engaged in WWII.
• 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”