. Yet Biden's greatest break with tradition here was to attend a public cinema – the Atlantic Theatres Movies – rather than see the film in the more traditional setting of the White House's very own screening room. None other than called the in-house cinema the greatest perk of being president, calling it 'the wonderful movie theatre I get here'. While other cynics might imagine that Clinton enjoyed other perks that came with the Oval Office equally, his successors and predecessors alike have all filed into the 42-seater venue, which comes equipped with all the mod cons that viewers might expect; plush red velvet seats, ottomans in the front row and state-of-the-air picture and sound systems. It took on its current location after being converted by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt from a cloakroom in the East Wing of the White House known as the Hat Box, and has offered the beleaguered POTUS and his family and staff a chance to catch up on the latest films ever since. But what does the choice of the various presidents really say about them as people? When does escapism turn into political commentary? And which leader of the free world could only ask, after he had watched one of the year's most lauded and discussed films, 'What was all that about?' President from 1913 to 1921, Woodrow Wilson's time in office is more closely associated with switching America's perspective on the First World War from neutrality to his country joining the Allied powers, and for suffering a debilitating stroke while in office. Yet it was also his bad fortune to organise the very first recorded screening at the White House, of DW Griffith's notorious){kind=link}
JFK grooved to Cliff Richard; GW Bush was inspired by Black Hawk Down; Carter went X-rated. What else has POTUS watched at the White House?
Man of the people that he is, Joe Biden recently saw Christopher Nolan’s new box office hit Oppenheimer while holidaying in Midway, Reheboth Beach, Delaware. He enjoyed it, although his single-word verdict – “Compelling” – is unlikely to set him up for a post-presidential career in movie criticism (we are yet to hear his thoughts on Barbie).
Yet Biden’s greatest break with tradition here was to attend a public cinema – the Atlantic Theatres Movies – rather than see the film in the more traditional setting of the White House’s very own screening room.
None other than Bill Clinton called the in-house cinema the greatest perk of being president, calling it “the wonderful movie theatre I get here”. While other cynics might imagine that Clinton enjoyed other perks that came with the Oval Office equally, his successors and predecessors alike have all filed into the 42-seater venue, which comes equipped with all the mod cons that viewers might expect; plush red velvet seats, ottomans in the front row and state-of-the-air picture and sound systems.
It took on its current location after being converted by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt from a cloakroom in the East Wing of the White House known as the Hat Box, and has offered the beleaguered POTUS and his family and staff a chance to catch up on the latest films ever since.