The Man Who Ran The White House

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Posted by: Administrator

Just as we suspect the ballet industry held its breath when a film called Black Swan was announced at the end of 2009, so are we on tenterhooks to see what Hollywood can do with The Butler, which is currently in production and due out next year. It is based on the true story of a man called Eugene Allen, who was a member of the household staff at The White House for 34 years, serving under an astonishing eight presidents. Allen will be played by Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, who you may remember from his arresting performance as Idi Amin in The Last King Of Scotland. The newspapers have been bringing us regular updates on the rest of the cast, which includes Oprah Winfrey as Allen’s wife, John Cusack as Richard Nixon and Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan.

It will be interesting to see what kind of insight into the inner workings of the White House the film will give us, although there’s always the chance, of course, that Allen’s real story will be sidelined in favour of a more generic White House movie that uses him as a link from one President to the next. It would be a shame if that’s what director Lee Daniels did, as Allen’s story is a good one: he started as a pantry man in 1952 and steadily rose up through the household staff to become head butler. His 2010 obituary in The Independent summed him up as, “A discreet stage-hand who for three decades helped keep the show running in the most important political theatre of them all.”

Regardless of what they do with The Butler, it will hopefully be another gentle reminder that the calm, stoic nature of a first-rate butler can see him through just about anything. Allen’s professional existence depended, after all, on his continued ability to fit in with the new boss, no matter what the latest occupant of the Oval Office’s political stance or shortcomings were.